The holiday is over !

Well we are pleased to say that the box of optical equipment which we had shipped from the UK, has now arrived at the Bishop Ackon Memorial Eye Centre where Vicky is working. Sometimes things are not quite as straight forward as we hope (!) but thanks to the persistence of the staff at the Eye Centre the box eventually cleared customs and survived the journey (over all the speed bumps) from Accra to Cape Coast.

The Auto-edger (machine which cuts spectacle lenses to shape) which was the main piece of equipment in the shipment, is now set up and in use in the optical workshop, and the technicians are quickly picking up how to use it.

Whilst Steve’s placement was still being set up for him, he spent last week in the optical workshop setting up the machine, working with the technicians, and learning more about glazing spectacles.

Vicky has now finished her second week at work at the Eye Centre. She is generally ‘refracting’ (doing the glasses part of the eye-test) as the resident Ophthamologist does the eye-health examination for all the patients attending the clinic.

Surgery, however, is carried out by visiting Ophthalmologists at regular (ish) intervals.

It’s a different system here for Opticians, as they are generally workshop technicians trained to refract, but aren’t involved with assessing patients eye health.

Last week a visiting Ophthalmologist spent three days at the eye centre carrying out cataract surgery. We were invited to go into the operating theatre to watch. Steve thought it was a unique opportunity and jumped at the chance. Vicky, however, decided that it was perhaps better to stay conscious ready for the afternoons testing (!) and regrettably had to decline the offer.

Having watched the first operation from a safe distance, Steve decided his legs could hold him and got a good close up view for the second operation and even had the chance to look through the surgeon’s microscope at the finished ‘work’.

This week Steve has started his placement at Cape Coast Technical Institute (pictures to follow) where he will be involved in teaching the Architectural Draughtsmanship and Design-and- Making courses. The college runs very hands on vocational courses and also has Automotive workshops, Carpentry workshops, Metal Workshops and Electrical Workshops and a construction yard (for practicing building skills).

We have been to another Sunday service at the Anglican Cathedral and last Sunday we attended a service at the Methodist Cathedral. It was a much shorter service (a mere two and a half hours) but started at 7 am ! The service was easier to follow as it was nearly all in English (our Fante language hasn’t progressed to the point where we can understand full sermons yet !) and we really enjoyed it.

The church was packed (despite the early start !) ; there must have been over 400 people there (a similar number to at the Anglican cathedral) and again there was a huge choir singing amazing choruses.

People really dress up to go to church here, it’s amazing to see the ladies’ amazing co-ordinated outfits.

We are having Fante language classes three times a week, which sounds a lot but still isn’t enough ! We are learning new sounds as well as new words which just adds to the difficulty. We’re sure it wasn’t so hard to learn when we were at school and had younger brains !

It was Dorothy’s Birthday (the wife of our host Kofi, who organised our placements) on Wednesday and we were invited to her birthday party at their house with some friends of theirs. It was another opportunity to enjoy some different tasty Ghanaian food (and delicious birthday cake). It was kind of them to include us in their celebrations.

So our initial tourist status has ended (!) and we will try to keep you up to date on our placements …….