This past week the clinic changed it's agenda in welcoming medical students from Virginia. They came to join the eye clinic with a general medical clinic to diagnose common diseases dealt with by Ghanaians. One major issue that they are dealing with is Malaria, for the obvious reasons. Yesterday was our first day with the med students and began a bit chaotic getting ourselves adjusted. The med students have chosen five villages to visit with the clinic, targeting specific health issues with certain areas. As untrained volunteers, we couldn't get into the hardcore medical stuff but we were able to observe on the outside, working with medication and the eye exams. It was really interesting to see what they have prepared and how they have been interacting with the Ghanaians. They spend two days at each village, one day educating the village on the health issues/how to keep themselves safe and another day doing the actual clinic by treating the Ghanaians for their respective ailments. It was pretty complicated. It was great seeing so many people getting treated.
When we were done with the day we had a meeting with the elders of the village we were at. It was really awesome to see the village leaders and hear them talk about their gratitude for our work. I felt very satisfied with the work we did that day.
Then today I went to the town Saviefe Deme, where Ghana ACT both teaches and does community building. After transporting bricks to the building site for a long time with a large group of the community, we were out of work because our supplies for the next step weren't coming till the next week. While waiting for the volunteers who were teaching to finish, some of the school and town employees gave us a tour of the cocoa trees and some of the town. The cocoa trees were located in a beautiful little street and there were hundreds of the trees. The cocoa beans come in pods and you can suck on the seeds to taste the fruit on the outside. It's really sweet (tastes nothing like chocolate) and is delicious. After that we met up with a Peace Corps volunteer from the next town over named Mike. I hadn't met him before so I was able to get to hear his experience in Ghana as a part of the Peace Corps. It was really nice to see how successful he has been in his year here. It motivated me to possibly apply for the Peace Corps in the future!
The past two days have gotten me really thinking about what to do with my future, learning from the medical students and Peace Corps workers. It's really overwhelming yet exciting. I definitely will use my experiences here to help me with those big decisions in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment