Los Lentes para Leer
One of the main things I helped with during last year's mission was the distribution of reading glasses. I'm not talking about prescription eyeglasses - I'm talking about the cheap plastic kind of things you find on the rack near the cash register at Walgreens.
Because these are simple reading glasses, they really only benefit older folks (usually age 35+) whose eyes have started to get "tired". They are basically just magnifying glasses in frames.
We packed one large suitcase full of them, in both women's and men's designs. We had over 800 pairs in total, and they were completely gone by the last day of clinic.
Although none of us were optometrists, testing for the correct strength of reading glasses is an easy operation, and we would walk each patient through an eye chart without the glasses, then try progressively stronger pairs until the optimum strength had been reached.
One of the unexpected challenges occurred early on, when I realized that many of the people around age 60 and above couldn't read, which made deciphering the eye chart a little difficult. Luckily, there were numbers and random symbols on the chart as well, so we made it through all right.
We had translators helping us, but the procedure was so routine that, in the common case, I was able to muddle my way through it alone, even with my limited Spanish. Yeah, OK, I was a little too proud of myself for that one..
This was one of the more gratifying places to work in the clinic, because the benefit to the patient was immediate. I think we all felt like miracle workers, watching those smiling grannies and gramps walking away with their new specs, finally able to read again, or do small tasks up close.
Most of our patients were pretty excited about their new look. We told them not to wear the glasses for walking around, but who could resist?
Unexpectedly (to me, at least), there was also a strong need for sunglasses. Working out in those sun-drenched fields your whole life can really take a toll, and it showed. We ran out of these "lentes de sol" or "oscurritos" very quickly. Here's one of our amazing translators manning the sunglass booth.
I'm looking forward to spending time at the vision station again this year! We've procured even more pairs. I think I heard 1,000 or more.
Stay tuned for more updates...
If you're interested in helping out financially, head over to the GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/el-salvador-medical-mission-trip-2019), and make sure you share the link with anyone else who might be interested!
Because these are simple reading glasses, they really only benefit older folks (usually age 35+) whose eyes have started to get "tired". They are basically just magnifying glasses in frames.
We packed one large suitcase full of them, in both women's and men's designs. We had over 800 pairs in total, and they were completely gone by the last day of clinic.
Although none of us were optometrists, testing for the correct strength of reading glasses is an easy operation, and we would walk each patient through an eye chart without the glasses, then try progressively stronger pairs until the optimum strength had been reached.
One of the unexpected challenges occurred early on, when I realized that many of the people around age 60 and above couldn't read, which made deciphering the eye chart a little difficult. Luckily, there were numbers and random symbols on the chart as well, so we made it through all right.
We had translators helping us, but the procedure was so routine that, in the common case, I was able to muddle my way through it alone, even with my limited Spanish. Yeah, OK, I was a little too proud of myself for that one..
This was one of the more gratifying places to work in the clinic, because the benefit to the patient was immediate. I think we all felt like miracle workers, watching those smiling grannies and gramps walking away with their new specs, finally able to read again, or do small tasks up close.
Most of our patients were pretty excited about their new look. We told them not to wear the glasses for walking around, but who could resist?
Unexpectedly (to me, at least), there was also a strong need for sunglasses. Working out in those sun-drenched fields your whole life can really take a toll, and it showed. We ran out of these "lentes de sol" or "oscurritos" very quickly. Here's one of our amazing translators manning the sunglass booth.
I'm looking forward to spending time at the vision station again this year! We've procured even more pairs. I think I heard 1,000 or more.
Stay tuned for more updates...
If you're interested in helping out financially, head over to the GoFundMe page (https://www.gofundme.com/el-salvador-medical-mission-trip-2019), and make sure you share the link with anyone else who might be interested!
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