Clinic Day 4 - Chinandega

Wow, what a ride today.   I knew that the clinic in the city of Chinandega would be busy and we were not disappointed.  Our clinic location for today and tomorrow is the Nicaraguan Red Cross Headquarters for the Chinandega area.  When we arrived the street was cordoned off by the police and was filled with people desperate for eye glasses.  Hundreds of people filled the narrow street.  And house of the Chinandega Chief of Police was right in the middle of all the excitement.  Perhaps that explained the police presence?

Many of the people in the street had never seen an eye doctor before and will potentially never see one for the rest of their lives.  So needless to say there was a motivation to be registered for admission.  To give this situation a Canadian perspective, walk into a street crowded with hundreds of people and start handing out cheques for $100,000.00 and ask them to please form a single line and to wait their turn to receive the money.  That may cause a slight commotion; as it did today.  The cost of a quality pair of glasses in Canada could be about $300.00 which is the equivalent of 2 years salary for many in this area.  So if we were to use the same ratio in Canada a free pair of glasses would be worth $100,000.00.   Scary huh?

Today we saw almost 700 patients with over 500 of those receiving at least one pair of glasses.  Many received a pair to aid their near vision and a second pair to help with their distance vision.   I have been on several projects before but I have never seen the reactions as I did today.  Over 20 people came up to my wife Sue to give her hugs and kisses.  These are people she has never seen before in her life and they cannot contain their feeling of gratitude.  I was standing next to Rae, another team member when a small boy jumped up to give her a kiss.  I had to grab a camera to capture the moment and he had no problem to keep giving her kisses every time another camera came out to capture the moment.

Many more people were elevated from legal blindness to near normal vision.   Just another day for a TWECS project.  The one story I will elaborate on tonight is that of a young boy Christopher.  This little guy was amazing.  He was about 7 years old and the youngest of 5 children.  He received glasses that took him from a complete inability to function in his community to near normal vision.  He was given his life changing specs and couldn't have been happier.  Derrick also gave him a second pair of glasses as a backup incase the unthinkable happened and his glasses were broken.  Also, a third pair of glasses were dispensed to Christopher with a prescription that would work for him in about 2-3 years from now.  Very cool, but what really touched me was what happened when he left the clinic.  I walked Christopher and his Mother out of the hospital and on their way back home.   Christopher stopped and pulled his mothers ear close.  He said something in Spanish that I did not understand.  Mom spoke to me in very broken english and said that Christopher wanted permission to go back through the crowds and re-enter the clinic.  He needed to personally thank as many team members as he could.   How could anyone say no?  I held his hand and walked him to as many of the doctors and volunteers as we could find.  He had smiles, hugs and many "Mucho Gracias's" for all.  This was obviously a boy who knew how fortunate he was to regain his vision, despite his young age.  Not a bad day.

Christopher and Derrick

Tomorrow is the last day of clinic in Nicaragua.   It will be an awesome day.  Those who were unable to get in today will certainly be lining up very early.  Also the word has spread that free glasses are available to those who show up tomorrow in a town of 140,000.   I anticipate pandemonium tomorrow at registration.  Our host Gerry summarized the day in a few words…  "It will be a machine gun day tomorrow" meaning the police will have to supervise the massive crowds.  I will keep you posted, but don't expect an early blog update as we are heading straight to a celebratory dinner and thank you ceremony to all that have helped make this trip a success.  

Talk to you soon.

- David




**Sorry for the delay in the following post.  It was a late night setting up the clinic.  Better one day late than never**

Today the entire crew worked at the El Viejo Hospital.  Our day started at 7am and we finished at 3:30 pm.  We saw about 730 patients. I worked all day inside a 10m x 10m tent taking visual acuity's.  Doing this gave an excellent opportunity to talk with the patients.  I asked them quite a few questions.  Obviously they did understand me, since in most instances I did get very elaborate answers.  I do believe that I am starting to understand some spanish.  I had a great day and I am looking forward to tomorrow.

- Jacques Gagne