Ghana

Ghana is amazing! the people are very kind, fun loving, and interesting.

Being here for Unite for sight was great. Im going to have to post more specifics later, but they will come. We saw hundreds and hundreds of patients this week, at outreach camps set up in villages. many patients were referred to the crystal eye clinic in accra for surgery, and we got to observe dozens of surgeries this week, for cataracts and pterygium. they dont have phaco here, so the surgeries are all small incision cataract surgeries (but still use no sutures). Its interesting to compare the surgical techniques and practices of the different sites ive seen, everything from the number of assistants, to the sterility and such, and the operating style, techniques and system.

We went to the canopy walk (a suspended bridge system above a national park (rain forest like) and to a former castle where slaves were held in cape coast. that was pretty interesting.

We also got to see and experience alot of ghana on outreaches. some where as many as 3 hours away and most where above 2 hours driving time each way. pretty amazing to hear so many languages and see a little peice. in culture from village to village.

Anyway, I'm going to morroco tonight until the 16, then i have a day layover in london until i return to the us on the 17.

Final Europe and travel to Ghana

Sorry! The internet is very spotty in Ghana. I"ll finish up Europe and then talk about Ghana because I'm leaving tonight!

From Vienna I went to:

Salzburg
where I hiked and listened to amazing classical music in the street.

Munich
went to the english gardens, other gardens and some halls, dachau, city tour

Innsbruk
hiked. hard.

Vienna
again to get my flight to Accra via cairo, egypt

The flight from cairo to accra was beautiful- the sun setting over africa was so amazing. it was extended for hours as we flew southwest towards it. as it faded, you could see fires on the ground lighting up (a dark red orange color, not like the lights of the city). Then, when we flew through the clouds as we travelled, the stars emerged, covering the deep blue sky in a wave of shimmering light. stars at 20 000 feet above rural africa are a different experience than stars anywhere else in the world.