Tarikpaa

Thursday, June 17th, 2010
Tamale, Ghana- UFS Volunteer House

Today’s outreach was to the village of Tarikpaa. But due to the rain, one of the roads got washed out right as we were about to get to the town, so we had to essentially backtrack the entire way and go in the opposite loop through town to get to the village. So by the time we got there, it was probably around 11 AM already. Most of the adults had stopped waiting for us and went to work (usually the farms). So only the individuals with very serious eye problems stayed behind, making our work essentially quite fast. We probably finished screening and examming the bulk of the individuals around 1 AM. But Ali had other plans for us: going to the Tarikpaa school to screen all the students. Five of us (including me) went off to the school to screen these students. There was definitely a difference between the elementary school students’ behavior and the junior high students’ behavior. The elementary students, although they started off in a nice five lines, they eventually crowded into a mob and were quite loud with each other. But the junior high people kept form the entire time, and were absolutely silent. I think all of us appreciated their silence, as the screening went blazing fast with that group.

After finishing screening the students, we headed back to the village to prepare to leave. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, this would be my last village that I would serve here in Ghana. So maybe subconsciously I knew, because I started playing with the little kids that always crowd around us, throwing them in the air as they screamed in joy. After a couple pictures with the kids, we headed off. As I looked back at the kids, I still couldn’t quite comprehend the idea that this 5-year old boy had to take care of his 1.5 year old boy, both which had no shoes, ripped clothing, and sad-looking expressions on their face (until you smile at them).

Only one more day here…