I was very fortunate to have both Friday and Saturday off from Unite For Sight. On Friday, the Crystal Eye Clinic, the staff of which has been leading our outreaches, had a meeting with local community volunteers and then I was not scheduled for a Saturday outreach.
On Friday, the Nicoles & I went to the Accra Mall. It is an extremely nice mall and it really felt like I was temporarily transported back to the U.S. We didn’t buy too much except a few groceries, but we did eat at the food court. The pizza and ice cream were both extremely satisfying. We also saw a movie (The Lorax) at the mall’s movie theater. The theater was equally as plush as the rest of the mall. On our way out, I got one of my biggest surprises in Ghana so far – running into someone I know! I saw Clementine, a friend from the University of Michigan, who is in Accra for the summer, working on her MPH internship with the University of Ghana Medical School. I knew Clementine was in Accra and had actually made tentative plans to meet up with her on Saturday, but it was still extremely coincidental to see her at the mall! Friday night was the last night with our original core group of volunteers, so we went out to an Italian restaurant. Nicole, Matt and I tried ordering on of the “specials”, gnocchi, which turned out to just be small shell-shaped pasta in a boring marinara sauce…what a waste of 20 cedi!
On Saturday, Matt & Laura were departing for Kumasi for outreaches and the rest of the volunteers were scheduled to go on an outreach with the Northwestern Eye Clinic, but I had the day off, so I planned to meet with a couple friends who are also in Ghana for the summer. Clementine, who I had run into the day before, brought 4 other volunteers with her program and Jen, a friend from Yale School of Public Health, also brought another volunteer from her internship program in Kasoa (about 45 minutes outside of Accra). We met at the Labadi Beach Hotel, which was a really fancy hotel, even by U.S. standards. I devoured the bacon cheeseburger and fries (below) that I ordered, knowing full well that I may never see another one while I am in Ghana. It was great meeting many other volunteers and hearing about their summer projects. After lunch Clementine, Jen, and Jen’s friend, Amanda (I think her name was Amanda?) and I trekked to the National Museum, excited to see their exhibit on malaria. Unfortunately, the museum closed right as we arrived, so we just headed toward the Circle and walked around. The Circle is a stop for tro-tros (vans that drives around/between cities and has routes similar to a city bus), but it was pretty hard to get around the area because heavy rain and wind earlier that day had knocked over many trees, signs, and billboards. After walking for about an hour, we parted ways. I went back to the Telecentre, met a few Unite For Sight volunteers who had arrived back in Accra from a couple weeks in Kumasi and our group went to a chop bar to watch soccer projected on a huge screen. I have never seen the chop bar so crowded! Bayern was playing Chelsea for the World Club Championship (I think…?). Casey, one of the volunteers who had come from Kumasi that day, is an avid Chelsea fan and helped clue in the rest of us on how the season had gone so far. Regular game time ended with 1-1, so extra time was played and eventually the game came down to penalty kicks. Chelsea ended up winning and the whole street went insane. People were running around, singing, dancing, tearing off their shirts, jumping on cars, taking pictures with us, waving flags…just a ridiculous scene! It was really fun to experience the night!
Sunday morning I got up bright and early to go to church. I went with a couple that lives next door to the Telecentre. The husband is a teacher and the wife works at a bank. They were both extremely nice and we drove to church at 6:30 AM (with their 11-month old son). Mass was surprisingly similar to the U.S. The church was extremely beautiful with many stained glass windows. Mass was all in English and I felt very comfortable participating in nearly all aspects. A few things were slightly different. Offertory took place by each member walking up to the altar and placing money in a collection bin…and there were also two offertories, one at the time I expected and another at the end of mass. Mass also “ends” with a lecture-type presentation by the priest. This Sunday, the priest talked for about an hour on the different kinds of prayer and had time for questions from parishioners at the end. All in all, the service took about 2.5 hours, but we were done at 9 AM because it started so early!
Later on Sunday, we met two new volunteers, Lindsay and Matt. Jamison and I took them around Achimota to the ATM and to get phone cards. It’s incredible to think that 10 days ago, someone had to show me around! Later that afternoon, Lindsay, Matt, Jamison, Casey and I packed our bags and headed to the Takoradi in the Western Region, where we’ll be spending 5 days doing outreaches in this area.
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