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| VOSH-FL/FIRST
LUTHERAN GAINESVILLE MISSION TO LEON, NICARAGUA Ed. Note: VOSH-Florida
recently “partnered up” with the First Lutheran Church
of Gainesville, Florida to do a primary vision care mission in Leon,
Nicaragua. It was Gainesville’s first sight mission and a
fantastic success. Dateline: Leon, Nicaragua May 2nd-9th, 2004
The people of Nicaragua quickly captured our hearts. They are quite beautiful and age very gracefully. It was not unusual to find out the woman sitting in the chair who looked 40 was actually 62. Some of the people in Leon had experienced glasses before, but many did not or were too poor to afford them. This was the city so we had many teachers come through along with housewives, children, and the unemployed. We took pictures with children who were wearing glasses for the first time and received many “thank you’s”, “God bless you’s”, and the occasional hug or handshake. We finished the first day of clinic around 5pm, having seen just over 150 people. At the end of the second day and another 150 patients, we were exhausted and, in the dispensary, were starting to fret. Apparently, where you live in the world can determine how good or bad your eyesight is. Glasses that would be rare or unusual in the United States were flying out of our boxes in Nicaragua. We had run completely out of one popular prescription for reading and only had a few pair left of the next strength down. How were we ever going to fulfill the needs of the people in Las Marias the next two days if we didn’t have the glasses we needed? We knew the people of Las Marias were very poor people living off the land in the valleys of the volcanoes and few of them had ever seen the city. Miraculously, the next day, one of our members was in the church in Leon and amazingly ran across a cupboard containing four boxes of glasses. We discovered the glasses were from a previous shipment of donated items from the States and these glasses were exactly what we needed.
This time our seasoned crew set up our operation in less than 15 minutes. The first two lady patients appeared to be in their eighties and both were frail and hunched over and could not see much of anything. They had large cataracts and had not seen in a long time. What a challenge to start off the day. They needed such strong glasses we were sure we had nothing of the sort. However, in the ‘specials’ box, we found some coke-bottles that matched their script. When the ladies put on their glasses, huge smiles came across their face and they started shouting praises. They looked at each other and we knew they had not seen each other for years. They showered us with hugs, kisses, many thanks, and scuffled out the door, walking down the steps without any help. It was as if we had shaved 20 years off of their life. It was going to be a good day. The people in Las Marias were so appreciative of what we were doing for them and hugs, kisses, and good words continued throughout the day.
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Many
of us want to help others, but are too scared to take that plunge.
I, myself, had second thoughts, a nervous stomach, and questioned
myself over and over as to why I was getting on a plane to a third-world
country. I said a lot of prayers asking that God take care of our
tem and those we wanted to help. Well, he must have heard those
frantic prayer requests because I am back, didn’t want to
leave, and can’t wait for the next trip! ……………..
After
a day of rest and touring, we gathered for breakfast Thursday at
6:30am. We soon realized this part of the mission was going to be
completely different from the city. When we left Leon, we turned
on to a dirt trail that is actually a dried up riverbed. After an
hour on the riverbed, we arrived at what looked like a poor excuse
for a school let alone a village. Many people were standing waiting
for our arrival. As we walked up to the school, I felt like an astronaut
walking off of the shuttle after a space mission. Everyone stood
and stared in awe of us, afraid to say anything, but yet so curious.
The front of the school was lined with horses and burros tied to
the trees, waiting for their masters. It was hard to tell if the
animals or the people were starving more. You could see the ribs
defined in every animal and the people were very skinny. 
Before
lunchtime, our poster child, five year old Eduardo, came through
the door. He was carried by his mother. As he walked poorly since
he had no sense of balance. When I first looked at him, he reminded
me of Stevie Wonder. His eyes constantly fluttered, never stopping,
never still. One of his beautiful green eyes eye was almost glazed
over. He was constantly searching, searching, searching with his
eyes, but never focusing on anything. His world was sightless and
communicating with Eduardo was more than the average challenge.
His attention span was limited because he was always trying to see
and focus and he didn’t know his numbers, colors, shapes,
or letters. We found some flashcards from the school with simplistic
pictures of a cat, apple, dog, and letters. I found a pair of glasses
that looked like they might be a match for his strong prescription.
Luckily, these glasses weren’t big and bulky but actually
attractive for a cute little boy. We put them on Eduardo’s
face as he sat in his mother’s lap. Immediately he started
looking, looking, looking and trying to see, trying to focus. Our
translator, Lester, asked Eduardo “Eduardo, can you see your
mom?” Eduardo, ever so carefully, turned around in his mother’s
lap and looked at her smiling face. With great enthusiasm he said,
“My MOM-my!!” I started to tear up. His mother could
not stop smiling. Lester and I looked at each other. Could it be
he could see? All on his own, for the first time, Eduardo started
to crawl down from his mother’s lap and stood in the middle
of the room on his own. He started to slowly turn around and then
he said something twice in a row. Lester said, “He just said
I can SEE, I can SEE!” I started to cry. This beautiful boy
with the biggest deepest dimples and the most beautiful smile was
seeing for the first time. He had a sense of balance, and he now
knew the face that went with the voice that nurtured him all of
his days. We soon found out Eduardo and his mother had walked 3
hours to come see us. That is what the whole trip was all about
and it all became worth it in that moment.