A Pre-Med Life

I had a great conversation with Dr. Seth over dinner.  Seth is one of the 95 or so ophthalmologists in Ghana . has been our gracious host as we have been working with his team in Kumasi and surrounding regions. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts, the other volunteers and I haven’t been able to have much time working with him. But over dinner we talked a little about the accessibility of eye care in Ghana. Of the total ophthalmologist in Ghana about have practices in Ghana, about 50 of them work in and around Accra, the capital city. Of the remaining about 25 or so live in and around Kumasi, the second largest city in Ghana. The rest, a number somewhere around 25 or so are scattered across the rest of Ghana. This lack of skilled personal according to Dr. Seth leave many regions without access to modern eye care. These first couple of days in Kumasi have been pretty slow. Most of the areas we are seeing have been seen in recent months by other eye cl

Out of the regions we’ve visited this week from the streets of downtown Kumasi to the rural dirt roads of Aboabo, downtown Kumasi seems to have the most need. However, I have seen not very many patients with mature cataract cases come and visit. This I believe is due to the roughly 25 ophthalmologists that work in and around Kumasi.   Most of the patients are in the late 40’s to early 70’s and have presbyopia. Presbyopia is caused by the passage time. As explained to me by Josiah, presbyopia is the slow loss of the eyes ability to focus on objects up close, such as words on your smartphone or bible. This condition is usually corrected by using a + prescription such as +2.00,+1.75 etc. It has been amazing learn how Josiah diagnoses people and how satisfied his patients are as they walk away smiling with a new pair of glasses for the price of ten cedis which comes to approximately 2 US dollars. He explained to me how he diagnosis presbyopia in the field outside of the clinic.

I’ve been writing this post on the road from a small hotel in the south central region of Ghana called the Yan Memorial Lodge to various car rides to and from outreach. On Tuesday, we drove for three hours up to the central costal region. We arrived in a small seaside village called Elmina.  Elmina’s name dates back to the first Portuguese colonists who upon arrival traded for so much gold that they called it “the mine” or in Portuguese “el mina”.  On the coast beautiful rolling waves of light teal crashed against ebony colored rocks and light sand. Just across the road were trash heaps and homes of those struggling for a better life. The drive highlighted such stark contrast in the condition and lives of the people. It is sad to me that such natural beauty can be contrasted by such poverty. With these thoughts rolling through my mind as we pulled into the clinic to start the day’s work. Dallin and I screened visual acuity before the patients went to see Dr.

I'm writing this about fifteen minutes after I got up. I'm sitting here in bed listening to the roosters crow and watching the room grow just a little lighter by the minute. The Telecenter that I am staying at in Accra has pretty slow WiFi but, it runs best in the early morning so I thought I'd get a jump on the day and write a little post. I'm writing this blog to document my travels abroad and as a personal therapy. This trip to Ghana is the first time that I have every gone abroad for longer than a couple days so I hope to show my changes, my emotions and my experiences. I also hope to be authentic in the way that I share stories and capture the daily lives of normal people in the countries that I visit. I hope that these stories and experiences will be inspiring and uplifting! So let's dive right in... The week leading up to the start of the trip here was crazy! I wrapped up my fourth semester back from my mission for The Church of Jesus Christ o