A Day in the Life of a Global Health Intern

The start to most days here in Ghana is exercise. Shelby and I will wake up usually around 6:30am and run for a half hour. This has proven helpful on many occasions to explore whatever area we are in. Culturally, people do not exercise. Especially women. Ghanaian lifestyle is already very active and it’s just not something you would see on the streets, so to have two white girls running around in the morning is a funny sight for lots of people.
The van comes by at 7:30 every morning to head to work (though this is Ghana so it’s usually late). We drive anywhere between 20 minutes and 2 hours to reach our outreach site. 9 times out of 10 we set up our clinic in a church of some type; whether it be Presbyterian, Catholic, or Pentecostal. Patients come, register, have their eyes tested for visual acuity, see the doctor, and then purchase either eye glasses or medicine or whatever the doctor recommend. As volunteers, our group takes over the registration, visual acuity, and eyeglass/medicine dispensing aspect of the clinic. Those in charge of registering also On average we see about 120 people, but that varies greatly on the community in which we are in. For example, one day we saw 16 people but another day we saw 230.
Clinic stations for Unite For Sight volunteers:
1. Registration

2. Visual Acuity

3. Dispensing

It depends on how many people show up at the outreaches to what time we end work. Sometimes well be back at the hotel at 3:00pm, others it won’t be until 8:00 or 9:00pm. No matter what time we end the first thing on our agenda is to find food. In Kumasi, there are street vendors all over and so we walk only 10 minutes down the road to “chop” (how Ghanaians say eat). We try to be as adventurous as possible (because youre only in Ghana once) and eat only traditional food. Mainly Shelby and I share a plate of fried rice (because its not spicy) and 2 pieces of fried chicken.
Fufu-- a traditional dish here

The rest of the day is spent exploring, finding fruit stand ladies to eat mangos with and chat. Or playing football with the kids that live on our street. We try to be inside by the time it’s dark to avoid anything sketchy. Not that it’s extremely unsafe, it’s just better to be safe than sorry. With the few of us in the hotel, we spend the nights playing cards and other games, washing laundry by hand (which takes forever), and talking.
It’s off to bed around 10:00pm and then the day begins anew the next morning. Everyday has a slight variations and new surprises. I wouldn’t trade any day here for anything/being anywhere else.


Word Count: 521

In Order to be Ghanaian You Must Look Like One

In order to become completely Ghanaian I had to make a few changes... 

First thing I need to dress as they dress here. When packing I was focused on bringing the most lightweight, inexpensive clothing possible. This is mainly because I knew we would be dying in the heat and working in the slums. And for these reasons I feel super grungy looking all the time. And in comparison to the fun bright dresses that Ghanaians wear, I probably am under dressed. I had bought cloth in the markets in Accra and had the opportunity to tailor them into dresses! There are sewing shops everywhere which was very convenient and cheap.

Part 2 of looking like a Ghanaian is having your hair done like one. I threw caution to the wind and decided to get box braids! It was an insane process. I had to go buy 3 bags of super long rapunzel hair and sit patiently for 2 hours as 4 Ghanaians proceeded to braid it all into my head. I don't think I've ever felt cooler though. Most people were fascinated by my normal blonde hair, but now they can't get over the fact that my hair is like theirs. They love it, I love it, not sure if I can show up to the MTC like this but oh well.

Pictures:
1. I woke up super early to watch the sunrise from an abandoned skyscraper...highly recommended
2. Before the braids
3. After!
4. The lady who owned the shop
5. Shelby and I rocking our dresses

Eye Surgery!

Monday was our first day inside the Charity Eye Clinic. Everyday we usually travel to remote areas in the Kumasi area to help people that don't have access to transportation to get to the clinic. At our outreaches we dispense medication and eye glasses, but that won't fix all conditions. A lot of people still require surgery whether it be for Pterygium, Cataract, or Presbyopia.   Medication and glasses come at a small price but through funding Unite For Sight can completely subsidizes all surgeries. It helps so many people that couldn't afford an expensive surgery in the first place. A few years ago Unite For Sight was able to subsidize about 200 surgeries a month per clinic (in Ghana they are partnered with 4 Eye Clinics). However, after the Ebola outbreak (which never even entered Ghana in the first place!!) volunteers and funding dried up. Now, Unite For Sight is only able to pay for only 40 surgeries every month. It's harder too because after only a week we could get that same amount of surgery referrals, so it forces us to pick and choose people.

ANYWAYS....

Monday instead of going out to an outreach we went to the Charity Eye Clinic because it was surgery day. There were a little more than 40 surgeries scheduled. Unfortunately because of the start of Ramadan, only 4 people showed up. Even with the small number we were still able to watch Dr. Twumasi perform 2 Cataract and 2 Pterygium surgeries. Everyone else in our group had prior experience watching surgery or something similar, except me. It was very hard to watch. Dr. Twumasi put a camera right up close to the operating eye so every detail was in high definition. Maybe I felt so queasy because the eye is such a tender part of the body. Plus the person being operated on would see everything which is really weird. For the cataract surgery we watched as he cut the side of the eye take out a foggy lens and insert a clear one. And with the Pterygium surgery he scrapped off all extra growth on the eye and then stitch it back up. I didn't even know you could put stitches on an eye! As cool as it was, I think I confirmed my desire to never be a doctor-- way too intense.

Pictures:
1. Before surgery!!
2. Dr. Twumasi and our BYU group... I swear he was happy it's just no one smiles in pictures!