Obruni in Ghana

Once upon a time… I bought glasses that I really liked and have had them ever since, that is for about 5 years now. Somehow, on one of the planes, I managed to lose one of the little rubber things that make your glasses fit on your nose. I noticed that only when I got to my new home and when I realized why it is that my glasses don’t really fit, I thought – well, that will be easy to get it fixed… Right, it would be, if I were back home.
First – looking for an optician’s was a challenge. I was asking people on the street and nobody knew. Then I decided to ask people on the street who wear glasses, but there aren’t really that many of them. Then I mentioned it at work… And the girl who comes to clean the office offered to go with me to get them fixed. Great, I thought! Well, not really… So we walked to a market place and before I knew it, this random guy repairing watches on the street was holding my glasses in his oil-covered hands trying to, well, fix them…? Ok, so he “fixed” them by putting their the part I needed from glasses someone probably lost on the street. My attempts to explain that they need to be the same and – please, please, can you stop using force to “fix” my glasses – were useless. I walked back to the office with my glasses as dirty as never before and not fitting my nose.
A couple of days later, I discovered an Eye Clinique close to my work place. Yay, I thought. Well, don’t praise the day before the evening, as we say. Pretty much the same thing happened, but this time, this guy had clean hands (which didn’t really leave my glasses clean, but at least not so dirty). How come it is so difficult to explain to supposed professionals (opticians) what needs to be done? I basically gave up… but then on Saturday we were in a mall with another optician’s, so I just walked in, to ask and see. Yea, right – no, they couldn’t fix it, too difficult. And it turns out that all they do is selling glasses, they can’t fix anything. Awesome. So two more months with my glasses not fitting my nose! But I came to peace with that, it doesn’t annoy me that much anymore, I just take them off as much as I can.