Today was our first outreach in Kumasi- a region in central Ghana. I was shocked when I came to this city at first. On the way to the outreach, we picked up one of the clinic members’ sons and dropped him off to school that was on the way. As we continued our drive, I noticed a huge amount of girls in school in uniforms walking to school. (There were also many boys walking to school, but I was surprised to see as many girls as I did). We also drove past, I saw parents dropping off their kids to school in Mercedes Benz's and other luxury cars. It was so interesting to see the shift in priority (and availability of schools) form other areas I have been to. It was also super surprising to see how much pride they took in their city. There were signs discouraging littering and emphasizing efforts to keep the city clean.
When I have been in other villages, I have had children take garbage out of my backpack and throw it on the ground, because that is what they do with trash. But in Kumasi, there were many women in business attire; I saw a number of men with babies and there seemed to be a shift in gender roles or at least efforts towards more equal gender roles. The energy felt different. It was really hard for me to wrap my mind around.
(These are pictures of where we did the eye screenings, a pediatric eye chart and a street view featuring a woman carrying an insane amount of village goods on her head.)
At this “outreach” it functioned more like a pop up clinic. We were stationed next to the police station, we set up our tents and signs, and people walking down the street came by to get their eyes screened. It was extremely rewarding to see people walk off the street (on their way home from work?) get their eyes checked, get the eye drops and the glasses they needed, and continue on their way in less than 10 minutes. It was really amazing. One of my other favorite things to see is when people get their new prescriptions and can read clearly. It is so beautiful to see the way their faces light up and how excited they get. It was also interesting to see how much certain people cared about the style of their frames on their glasses. I guess I assumed in coming here, that since we were offering a service almost for free, people should okay with any of the available frames without complaint. But I soon realized that that this way of thinking took the humanity — and autonomy— out of the entire process. If I am here to connect with and love people, why wouldn't I want to make it easy for them to make decisions about their eyeglasses? I then made a special effort to make sure each patient could take time and choose their frames and this seemed to make a big difference.