Hi everyone! Sorry for the late update, I wasn't able to get good internet access for the rest of my time in Ghana :( I arrived home safely yesterday afternoon after about 24 hours of flying and layovers. Now that I have internet access again!, I'll be posting some more about my time in Ghana over the next couple of days. Ten days really does go by quickly; I felt like I was just getting accustomed to the culture and life in Ghana, and suddenly, it was time to leave. Despite my short stay, ten days in Ghana was still an unforgettable experience!    

I'll be posting some pictures here along with my entries, but you can also check out my entire trip album on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.442926582384733.104255.100000021857554&type=1&l=d97c6cfbde

Here are some photos to go along with my first blog entry:

         
     

Here's a map that shows where Ghana is in relation to other countries in Africa.

Here are the different regions in Ghana. We spent most of our time in Greater Accra, and that's where our local outreaches were. Each of Unite For Sight's five partner clinics in Ghana covers different regions on their outreaches. I was with North Western Eye Centre the first week, and for our overnight outreach, we drove 3-4 hours out to the Central and Western regions and spent several days in those areas.

My flight from Washington, D.C. was delayed 8 hours, so I was stuck there for the night. Luckily, the airline provided us with nice rooms at the nearby Holiday Inn. 



Telecentre Bed and Breakfast

Our mosquito nets in the hotel room

The van we rode in to travel to the clinic outreach sites

We were in a town on the outskirts of Accra called Medie on our first day of outreach. The place we had the outreach at used to be a train station. It's out of use now, but part of the train is still on the old railroad track. While we were waiting for the other North Western Eye Centre workers to arrive, we saw a bunch of goats (although, our driver says they're sheep?...) wandering around. In Ghana, there seem to be more stray goats than stray dogs wandering around.

Visual acuity testing. Instead of using the standard 20/20 measure, we used 6/6 instead, which means the patient was reading the eye chart six meters away (essentially the same as 20 feet away when using 20/20). The biggest letter/first line was 6/60, and each following line was 6/36, 6/24, 6/18, 6/12, 6/9, 6/6, and 6/5. After the patient's vision was measured, the patient could then see the optometrist at the consulting table. The optometrist uses a retinoscope to measure the patient's eye refractive error and an ophthalmoscope to see interior surface of the eye. 

For patients who couldn't speak English well enough to tell us letters or numbers on the eye chart, we had them use the chart on the right. They would use their hands to motion whether the E was pointing left, right, up, or down. Some patients couldn't see the numbers or letters on the eye chart from 6 meters away, so we had them count how many fingers we were holding up at varying meters. If someone could see how many fingers we were holding up at, say, 3 meters, their prescription would be CF@3m (for counting fingers at 3 meters). Some patients who had cataracts or other obstructions to vision couldn't see well enough to count fingers, so we would test to see if they could see us waving our hands in front of them. If they could, we would write HM for hand motion on their diagnosis sheet. If not, we would then use a flashlight to see if they had any perception of light at all and write PL for perception of light and NPL for no perception of light.

Pouring rain at the end of our first day