Last Day of Clinic

Today was the last day of our clinic here in Jodhpur. The weather today was extremely hot and dry, we were all exhausted and tired, but kept a smile on our face. At the end of the day we packed the equipment, loaded the boxes onto the truck, and said goodbye to people who unknowingly will change our lives forever. I know each and every one of us had mixed emotions, it seems like it was forever ago that we all converged on the hotel in Delhi, meeting our team for the first time, and yet in the back of our mind we miss the comfort of our own homes and the smile of our loved ones. We leave the country of India with so many memories and experiences that it is hard to remember them all, thank goodness we have the photos and the journals to remind ourselves of this life changing experience. After all that was said and done, we helped 9,503 much deserving people in the surrounding villages of Jodhpur to the gift of sight. Everyone on this clinic has become family, and we will always have this common bond to unite our hearts and souls together, we are all brothers and sisters serving for one common goal. Tonight we had a dinner hosted by the employees of the Water Habitat Retreat where we are staying, we had traditonal Indian food and song and dance, the staff here have been trully a class act in making us fee right at home. Tomorrow we load the bus up and head to the small airfield in Jodhpur for our flight to Delhi, we have an 8-hour layover before heading to our respective homes. We are looking forward to some duty free shopping in Delhi and we are supposed to have an Italian feast at a restaurant in Delhi before the 15-hour flight back to the U.S.

And in closing, I would like to quote our Clinic Leader Leona Dockery, “May you sleep with angels” Take it as you will, it has great meaning. We can’t wait to see our loved ones in person, and the people of India in our dreams

Why we do what we do!

One last post for the evening, this picture is of a reading from an auto refractor, this is the piece of equipment that helps the doctors to determine what the patient’s base line prescription is. For those of you who are unfamiliar with optics, the prescription on the screen was from a young 19 year old man who had never had glasses before. With this type of prescription you can only see to about the tip of your nose. Now can you imagine going through 19 years of your life only seeing that far? Neither can we, that is why we are so passionate about what we do with Onesight! Fortunately we were able to help this young man, and gave him glasses that will definitely show him his future.

Pinning Ceremony

Tonight we had our pinning ceremony. For those of you at home the pinning ceremony is a tradition with Onesight. What we do is we pull a name out of a hat of one of our team members, and we get a chance to show our gratitude and their contribution to the team and present them with a pin that that says Onesight India 2010. As you can imagine it is an emotional roller coaster, we laugh and we cry, but at the end we all feel like one big family. Dr. Michael Antoine got the privilege of pinning our Clinic Director Leona Dockery, Dr. Antoine gave his opening gratitude speech to the team in Italian, Spanish, German, Japanese, and Hindi, oh and I can’t forget he gave a shout out to the Canadians! Another highlight of the evening was when Dr. Pete Babcock got pinned by Dr. James Williams, just ask your friend or family member what that looked like when they got home, It was hysterical!

Day three of the second week of clinic

Today started out breakfast at 6:30 then group photos at 7:30. It is starting to sink in that we are in the home stretch of our mission. Clinic today ran extremely smooth, and by the end we saw 1200 people, It’s really hard to put into words the sheer desperation and poverty of these people, as we ride our bus from our retreat to the clinic site it has become almost normal to see people living in cardboard boxes along the road, people bathing from pitchers along the route, small children roaming alone looking for handouts, we know it is not normal, but that it is heartbreaking, yet somehow we stay focused hoping, praying that what we do with Onesight will somehow break the cycle and allow there to be a glimmer of hope in our recipients lives. When your friends and family members get home, listen to their stories, try to understand what they saw, because you could never ever imagine these experiences unless you have seen what they have seen through their eyes. It has been a journey that none of us will forget! We can go home with warmth in our hearts knowing that this team made a difference in so many lives.

New outlook on life

Today Sally Thomasson from Atlanta Georgia, was working in dispense when she came across an older gentleman who required a –12.00 distance pair of glasses, as she fit his glasses, we got that same thankful expression of a smile from ear to ear as he could see clearly in the distance. It is sometimes hard for us not to take for granted the things that come to us so easily in the western world, but when you see people living in sheer poverty the need really hits home that these people truly are in need of the basics, and what is more wonderful than the gift of sight?

Day two at new clinic sight

Day two of clinic was like a fine tuned machine, we got our groove going and set the pace for the next two days. The weather today was warm and sunny, but not as hot as the previous days, but still very dry. By the end of the day we saw another 1064 people! It is amazing how our young volunteers from the local village learn to help us so quickly. They know very little english to none at all, but by observing what we show them to do they do the work very eagerly!

The Auction

Last night we had a fund raising event that we do on every clinic. It consists of a silent auction, a live auction, and a raffle. What a blast! Dr. James Williams played the part of the auctioneer and Dr. Pete Babcock was his caller. What a comedy team, they had us laughing so hard, that the majority of us could not catch our breath, and we had tears from laughing so hard. By the end of the auction our team raised an additional 3600.00 dollars! If anyone wants to donate to our clinic please go to the Onesight.org website and follow the prompts to our donation page, by doing so you will be able to help us, help others to the gift of sight.

Truly in need

I thought I would share my special story with everyone. Hi, I'm Michael Landis from San Diego California, I am the communications manager for this clinic, and I am the one blogging to you from northern India! It has been a special privilege for me to be able to share with everyone back home our stories and successes. Today I was working in I.M.S., I was entering a prescription for a woman in her early 50's, I noticed the prescription called for a -9.00 diopter in both eyes, I keyed it into the computer and found the perfect pair for her, being busy I handed the prescription off to one of our young volunteers to go pull the product for dispense, after a minute or two, my curiosity got the best of me, I asked it I could run over to dispense to see who these glasses were for. I made it just in time to see my teammate Kari Rogers put a pair of glasses on a very beautiful Indian woman, she had never had a pair of glasses before in her life, and as she gazed around to a world she had never seen before, her smile stretched from ear to ear! It brought tears to my eyes, This is the reason for me that makes Onesight so near and dear to my heart!

Special guest

Wow, what an awesome first day of clinic! To top things off we had a very special guest travel all the way out to the small village we are in, We were graced by the Maharaja of Rajasthan, How incredible to have a dignitary from this country come and visit our clinic and see how operations are handled. The Maharaja toured each station, as he toured, he asked questions and was truly impressed by the clinic. He actually stopped by the I.M.S. station, which means the inventory management station, that is where after the doctor writes the prescription, we key it into a computer to pull the closest match to the prescription from the glasses that are donated. Elmira "Ellie" Reitmeyer asked the Maharaja to have a seat and try the system out, which he did! How great was that, goes to show you even a Maharaja can work in I.M.S.! LOL

Second week team cheer

Thanks to Michelle Demoss-Phillips, we have a new cheer for the first week of our new clinic, here is how it goes!

2 4 6 8
Today's clinic will be great,
with many stories to be told,
of our patients young and old,
four more days to help Jodhpur,
before we close the clinics door,
so let's make today one of the best,
to set the pace for the rest.

Second Week of Clinic

Today was the first day of our second week of clinic, we moved from the village of Rohicha Kalla to the village of Kalyanpur. It was a very successful day. Usually the first day of a new setup can be a challenge, but things moved quickly and efficiently, the team here in India is truly one big family and works together as one. The weather today was extremely hot and sunny to start out with, high in the mid 80's I would dare to guess, as the day moved on the wind picked up and the clouds rolled in, we had a rare thunderstorm for this desert region, but it cooled things down and made it very pleasant! By the end of the day we saw a total of 1,084 people in desperate need of eyeglasses, what a great feeling to end our first day!

NAN!

Today was our free day, so I will tell you a little about it in a minute. You are probably wondering what Nan is? Nan is food of the gods, LOL, Nan is actually an Indian flat bread that we have before and throughout dinner, for those of us that are a little on the finicky side it is something that everyone enjoys. It tastes similar to a flour tortilla but thicker and fried, try it sometime, you will love it.
We started our day by going to the Mehrangarh Fort that over looks the city of Jodhpur. It was simply amazing! When your friend or family member gets home, ask them all about it, there was just too much to even blog about. From there we went to the heart of the city to do some shopping downtown by the clock tower. It was sensory overload, people and cows, the sight, the smells, oh and did I forget to tell you about the amazing bargains? There are going to be some very happy campers getting gifts when we get home! Well off to bed, up and at 'em at 5:30, we start our first day at the new clinic sight tomorrow, stay tuned for updates, Namaste!

Appreciation

Dianne Swindle, from Houston Texas shares a memorable moment. I was working in dispense at the clinic and the first person I waited on was a 70 year old man, who looked to be in his 90's. I fitted him with a pair of bifocals and checked to see if he could read and see at a distance, his face lit up with a big smile and he started patting my knees then bowing and touching my feet to thank and bless me. He was so grateful. I asked the interpreter to ask the man if he would allow me to hug him, he said yes, we embraced and kept patting each others backs for what seemed like 10 minutes!

Basic Hindi

Kari Rogers, from Knoxville Tennessee shares her favorite story so far, Today I was in Auto Refract, Shyam, my young Indian volunteer is convinced I will be able to speak some basic Hindi by the time the day is done. He teaches me words like Bahar=Outside, Chikitsak=Doctor, Ho-gaya= Done, Namaste=Hello and Goodbye. The patients come and go and by the time the day is done we've seen almost 2,000 people. One set of eyes that stands out to me was a woman who had cataract surgery the old way, there were 6 distinct slits in here eye that were permanent scars on her cornea making her blind in one eye. It hits home how important it is to make sure that she can see out of her one good eye. Throughout the day I keep that in mind as I see several other patients, It really makes me realize how very important this gift is that we have been chosen to deliver, the gift of sight through the Onesight Organization.

Call and Response Cheer

I do believe when you ask each and every one of us what was our least favorite thing about the clinic, and you will get a unanimous reply, DUST! Just ask anyone of us and we will tell you why. We started the day with breakfast at 6:30 then on the bus by 7:30, you never want to be late for the bus, for fear you will have to sing the rest of them, LOL, and by the looks of the lot, the dogs would start to howl if anyone of us has to sing! However we came up with a "Call and Response Cheer" for our team, here's how it goes.

Team India February 2010
Call and Response Cheer,

I got sand in every shoe
I like the bus ride, it’s like a zoo
We eat the curry every day
We hope our tummies will not pay
I’ve seen a monkey – how ‘bout you?
We end each day with a brew
Our leadership team is the best
But we won’t let them get any rest
This onesight team is outta sight
We’re off tomorrow, so let’s go out tonight!

Clinic today was incredible, over the last 4 days we saw 5,084 people! Absolutely amazing, It was extremely hot and dry, but everyone helped out, and kept a smile on their face. When we ended seeing the last person today, we packed up and moved to the next village, it too is about an hour and 15 minutes away from where we are staying, but at least this one will be housed indoors, giving us some relief from the blistering sun and wind blown sand. Breaking down a clinic sight is alot of hard work, we have to ship all the equipment and glasses with us, so it took alot of team work to get this task done. We didn't finally get done and back to our rooms roughly 12 hours later, we are exhausted! Tomorrow we get to sleep in and then off to the new clinic sight for setup, but with the crew that we have I am sure we can bust it out in a couple hours. We are extremely excited for tomorrow night and Sunday because the are our free time, I promise I will let you all know what we get to do! Tomorrow I will be posting some of our favorite patient stories from the team members, I would do it tonight, but everyone has gone to bed already and I told them I will get them from them tomorrow! Stay tuned..............

The Clinic continued

Over the past three days we have been able to give quality exams and eye wear to match the needs of the people of the Marwar, we have seen over 2500 people, ranging in age from 4 years old all the way up to 90 plus, we have seen prescriptions ranging all the way up to + 12.00 diopters to -14.00 diopters. Young and old have walked from miles and miles away to have their vision checked and receive much needed eye wear, over the next few posts we will be telling of individual experiences that we have encountered along the way, they have brought tears to our eyes and warmth to our hearts, stayed tuned, you won't want to miss a single post! Ellie sends a shout out to her nephew Jacob! And the whole team has become huge fans of the local brew of Kingfisher! Good night for now, 5:30 am comes much too quickly in the morning for us, that is when our day begins!

The Clinic

Leona Dockery, who is the clinic manager for our team has been on over 4o clinics world wide, on the first night that we arrived she was explaining to us that this has been her most challenging clinic to date, the reason being is that it is held outside in a school yard, the building are made of concrete and block. The power that is needed to run our equipment is being run by a fuel driven generator, and that the people in the area are in desperate need of eye care. We knew she was visibly moved by the conditions that these people have been living under by the tears that welled in her eyes, by seeing the emotions from a veteran of so many clinics, it drove home how honored we were to be part of this clinic, and how rewarding our experience was about to become. Elmira Reitmeyer and Darla All, both clinic leaders followed suite with stories of the clinic setup, of how eager the children were to help with the setup, taking only a few hours to setup instead of a full day! Imagine how excited and anxious all of us team members must have felt waiting for the next morning for the clinic to begin.........

The first 3 days continued

The village that our first of two clinics that are being held over the next two weeks is an hour and a half each way from where we are staying at the Water Habitat Retreat in Jodhpur. On the bus ride we have been able to identify over 11 different species of wildlife. On day one we were crossing a bridge and a monkey was just sitting on the wall! The further we drove the more we saw, from wild boars to peacocks, to the most popular of everyone on the bus giraffes!!!

Getting caught up, first 3 days of clinic

Wow, can we even begin to tell you of how in need the people of northwest India are! The region in India which we are in is called the Marwar, which is derived fro the Sanskrit word of "Maruwat" which means "Land of Death" this region is the most densley populated desert in the world, while most deserts have 3 to 4 inhabitants per square kilometer, Marwar has 84 to 90. Most villages in the area do not have a single source of safe drinking water within a radius of 1.6 kilometers, which means that 64% of the people in the area do not have acess to safe drinking water. Women in the area spend 1/4 of every day fetching water and walk an average fo 4 kilometers to fetch just 20 liters of water.

Ariving in India

First off, Sorry for the delay on the Blog, we had a couple problems with the air card for the computer due to the remoteness of the area of India we are in, we finally got all the issues resolved, So on with our Clinic! 19 members of our Team from the U.S. and Canada converged on Newark New Jersey to proceed on a 14 hour flight in to Delhi India on Saturday February the 13th we stayed overnight in Delhi, and once we landed we were met by 5 more International members from Japan, Germany, Spain and Italy. The next morning we boarded a bus for the airport to take the last leg of our flight into Jodhpur India, funny thing happened after about 40 minutes into our bus trip we received a call from the hotel that we had boarded the wrong bus and had to turn back, so we could get on the right bus, fortunately our team leaders had given us a 4 hour window to make our flight, which we used almost the entire amount of time! All in all it was quite the travel experience, and we made our conncecting flight!

Hello,
Well if you're interested in virtual participation in our upcoming OneSight Clinic to India, you've landed on the right blog! Our team of 31 volunteers and doctors from India, Spain, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States will spend two weeks in Jodhpur India providing complete eye exams and recycled glasses to thousands of Indians who could not otherwise afford to see the world clearly.

About the area:
In this area of India, there is a tremendous need for our services. The average yearly income for a person living here is approximately $450 per year. With over a quarter of the world's poor concentrated in India, poverty is the government's biggest priority. Great inequality in the distribution of wealth: the richest tenth of households hold 33% of wealth, while the poorest tenth only hold 3%, 29% of the population lives below the poverty line; 70% of these people reside in rural areas, 86% of the population lives under $2 per day; 44% lives under $1 per day, 25% of the population does not have enough money to eat adequately. Because of the high levels of poverty in the countryside, huge numbers of migrants are flocking to the cities in search of a job and a better life. The cities cannot support this swelling much longer, meaning that rural living must be improved to retain people.

Each day, right here on this very page, we will be posting highlights from our vision care clinic including stories of our recipients, the team experience, a little about India itself. We land in India on February 15th and will be posting messages and photographs through February 27th. Be sure to log on every day so you don't miss a minute of the excitement! And, if you're interested, our team is also raising money to help fund our Clinic. Here is a link to our fundraising page http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fonesight.donordrive.com%2Findex.cfm%3Ffuseaction%3DdonorDrive.team%26eventID%3D502%26teamID%3D5004&h=fdc8db3a74cb5d00eb24023c53389f6e

Here's a little background about OneSight and our Global Clinics: OneSight is a family of charitable programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education . Sponsored by Luxottica Group , OneSight programs have helped more that 7 million people over it's 20-year history.

Each year, OneSight conducts two-week clinics, in developing countries where our doctors and trained volunteers provide free eye exams and recycled eye wear to thousands of people in need. To date, we've run 155 clinics in 31 different developing countries. This year we have planned 20 clinics in developing countries around the world. For a complete list of clinic locations , visit www.onesight.org