11-04-2011

The last two weeks I’ve gotten to participate in one of the highlight projects of my stint in Africa.

One Sight is a philanthropy that travels throughout the globe, providing free optometric eye care to those who need it but may be unable to afford it or access it. Working with partner organizations in their host country, they run the entire process – from the Snellen Chart (remember elementary school eye charts? ), autorefraction for accurate prescriptions , full optometric exams (cataracts, glaucoma, pterygium, diabetic retinopathy,etc) and at the end, glasses at the closest possible prescriptions. And even if you don’t need glasses: sunglasses! The sunglasses were a big deal, by the way. Kids were coming back through three or four times, complaining about how their glasses didn’t work and they needed extra sunglasses. They got stickers instead…oh well.

The process for a patient is a whirlwind. For those who had never had an eye exam before – which was the majority of the people who came – it was the equivalent of an alien abduction. Have you ever had your eyes dilated? It sucks on a normal day. Imagine being led to a room with thirty other people, listening to a stranger speak a language you don’t understand, right before they start dousing your eyes with burning medicine. Not a lot of surprise when I heard the rumor about the strange white folk coming to blind people in the villages. Oddly enough it took a few days to figure out that the person explaining the temporary effects of dilation might want to do it in Zulu.

You could say my main job was making the experience as comfortable as possible for the gogos. Most of the two weeks, I was working with the doctors doing the eye exams, as a translator. According to the optometrists, the pathology was interesting…different than what they had expected. Most likely they were referring to the man with the mole – complete with hair – growing out of his eye.

Over the course of two weeks, 6000 people passed through. Taking into account the weather (bad) and the site locations (quite rural) that’s an impressive number. The One Sight crew and the Mpilonhle NGO were awesome people. Working with South African physicians and optometrists on site to schedule follow up care for those who required it was possibly the most important part of the whole process, in a manner of speaking. In the face of the HIV epidemic, routine optometric care is a luxury at best – and, at least in my health district (serving upwards of 100000) completely absent. I met with people I know from my village there; people who had traveled nearly three hours to another village for treatment. Bringing to light the resources already available in South Africa, among people who may have previously just resolved to live with a worsening health condition, might improve the quality of life of many for years to come.

Best thing from the two weeks: an older man who had worked for several years in Joburg had a flawed cataract surgery, rendering him essentially blind. After putting on his glasses with an insane prescription, he started jumping for joy and calling out (in Zulu) all of the random objects outside he could see. The display drew some attention, and out of nowhere he was surrounded by about forty digital cameras snapping photos. After basking in his fame for about 30 minutes, he leans over and starts complaining about how we were wasting his time. I asked why, said that I didn’t understand. His response: “Cama manje! Cama manje!” Translates as: “Pee now! Pee now!” The man was, literally, going to piss himself if he was not released. Made my day.