Two weeks with the Best!

Skirt day! Planned by Mercy.

        We just finished the first two weeks! I spent both weeks with the St. Thomas Eye Clinic and it was incredible! Thursday we went to the clinic and watched surgeries again which was incredible. The surgeries this time were a lot more intense. I was able to see some incredible transformations though. It's amazing to see someone come in and their eye be completely white or destroyed and then to leave surgery with an eye that looks completely normal. One lady came in and Doctor Raymond looked at her eye and then turned off the light, turned away, and prayed for like 5 minutes. He would pray, look at her eye more, and then continue praying. During the surgery, he hummed a gospel song. The surgery turned out great! I love the faith of everyone here. It definitely brought the spirit into the room and I am grateful I was able to experience that moment.

Dr. Raymond praying

        We were also able to get to know the staff that we worked with everyday pretty well. They are like family now. After spending time with them, I decided to write a little bit about them so you can know who we spend our time with!

*take pic and show her*
"That picture is nice. I like it"

Meet the lovely Mercy!
        She is hilarious. She is super sassy and fierce but also so loving. She told us what days to wear skirts so that she can match with all of us. She loves shoes. She buys new shoes just about everyday. She must be really good at talking prices down when it comes to her shoes, or else she will soon be broke. At the visual acuity testing station, she gets things done. She knows what she needs to do and powers through it. However, you can often find her napping in the room where the doctor works, away from everyone else. When she is awake and not working visual acuity then she is chatting with the doctor or with Seth, which slows things down a lot, but she is hilarious and super nice. She buys us things while on the road, such as donuts or sweet bread, sugar cane, tiger nuts, and other fun stuff. Often times we can find her jammin' to her music or singing. She made us lunch a few times and is a really good cook. She talks about her daughter a lot, and is a mom of two. She claims that she makes the best fried chicken and said she will make it for us sometime. She loves us all and is super fun. We love Mercy.

He loved learning about sunscreen.

Meet Immanuel! (Doctor Imma)
        He is the optometrist for the St. Thomas Eye Clinic. His "best food" is rice but he talks about Fufu more than anything, and talks to just about every patient about it. He tries to eat all our snacks, and usually succeeds unless we remember to hide them from him haha. Yesterday he ate all my beef jerky, all my trail mix, took three balls for his kids, and ate a sucker haha. We love him though, he is very giving as well and always wants us to try new things and see new places. His favorite phrase has to be "are you sure?" because he asks that about everything. He loves candy, which he calls toffee, just as everyone does here. When he sees us looking for something he asks "are you searching for toffee?" He is definitely laid back and loves to chat. Most of the time we are backed up because he is in the room chatting with patients about who knows what, or talking to someone else completely while the patient he is with just waits patiently. He is always trying to learn what we do. Sometimes we keep our backpacks in the room he does examinations in white one of us sits in with him to watch. Whenever I go in there to get something, without fail he asks what it is before I leave. Yesterday I went to get sunscreen, when I was leaving he asked what it was. He had never heard of it or seen it before so we tried to explain how it protects us from the sun and without it our skin turns red and hurts. He looked at the bottle, read it, smelt it, and then said "we don't need this. We are ball black." Now when he sees us put sunscreen on, he laughs at our white skin. At the end of everyday he tells us that we are going to go to cape coast after work. He also tells us jokingly each night to be ready at 5am for work the next day, when really it's at 7 or 8. Overall though, We love Immanuel. He always tells us he doesn't want us to leave. He is super nice, cool and knowledgeable at all he does.

This just explains him.

This is Seth!!
        Seth is a St. Thomas Eye Clinic worker. He picks us up and drops us off everyday. He is a crazy driver. Pretty much you can describe our car experiences by thinking of Indiana Jones rides, in real life. Sometimes we go off roading to get to where we need to go. If you aren't paying attention, you will hit your head a thousand times, and get whiplashed. Seth is also super chill. He is silently hilarious. He laughs at us constantly and tries to teach us new words in Twi. He chills so hard while distributing medications with us. You can find him laid back in his chair with his hand out, waiting for us to put the stuff into his hands. He won't reach for it and it's hilarious haha. He often buys us things such as corn, pineapple, water, or other things to try off the streets. When we get confused he laughs at us. When we ask him for change, he stares at us. He takes phone calls even when he is helping a patient. One time I gave him a ball to give to his little girl and he didn't realize I was giving it to him to keep so he said "wow! Can I own this for my daughter?" He is super awesome and helpful. We love Seth!

Pretty much they are all great and I am so grateful I have been able to get to know them!!