| The Gift of Sight |
by Al Magnuson
To those of us who possess all of our senses — sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch (feel) — the ability to utilize these senses is more or less taken for granted. Many who do not possess those senses or who, for one reason or another are unable to utilize them, are able to visit their nearest doctor or otherwise correct any deficiency through various channels.
In Mexico this is not always the case. This fact was never more evident to me than recently when my wife and I, four of our friends and five doctors — all of us from the United States — conducted an eye clinic in the small town of Pantla, a little village of roughly 8,000 residents some 20 minutes or so north of Ixtapa just off highway 200.
About a year ago, my wife (Rose) and I were approached by Jose Aguedo Valencia, owner of El Pirata restaurant and hotel on Playa La Ropa and a former president of the Club de Leones de Zihuatanejo — The Lions Club of Zihuatanejo — and asked to participate with the local Lions Club in providing eyeglasses to some underprivileged residents in the area. By way of explanation, I have been a member of my own Lions Club in Las Vegas, Nevada for nearly 33 years. For the past 18 years, Rose and I have visited our favorite town of Zihuatanejo. We stay for three months and visit the local Lions club on a regular basis. A major focus of Lions clubs, of course, is the blind and those who are sight impaired. Thus, our two clubs had a built-in common bond and, because we had already built up a relationship with the members of the Zihua club, working together on this project was a natural fit for both of us. A couple of years earlier we had agreed to become “sister” clubs, sharing ideas and working together for the betterment of all.
Putting the project together was not a simple task, but with the help of the members of the Zihuatanejo Lions club and their spouses and friends we were able to set up in the community center in Pantla on September 7 and 8 of this year. From our end in Las Vegas and working through Lions In Sight in Napa, California, we contacted various optometrists in California and Nevada about the clinic. Within a short time we had five volunteer doctors ready to make the trip, giving up their practices for the two travel days and the two-day clinic.
What an experience! From the moment we arrived in Pantla, crowds of people were gathered in from of the little community center waiting for their free eye exams and free glasses. Fortunately for some of them, no adjustments to their eyes was necessary. For others, referrals to qualified local ophthalmologists were made for further testing and/or surgery. But for the majority - 585 in all - we were able to fit them with proper eyeglasses prescribed by the volunteer doctors. The glasses were from an inventory we had shipped to Zihuatanejo in advance of the clinic.
Our patients ranged in age from about 8 years to a “young man” of 95. For some of them it was their first opportunity to be able to read, or to sew or knit, or to see objects in the distance. Several of them, upon being fitted for their glasses, marveled at being to see the wrinkles in their skin for the first time, or at being able to see their children clearly.
The people of Pantla were extremely grateful to us, the Lions of Las Vegas, to the Lions Club of Zihuatanejo and especially to the doctors. As we closed the clinic at the end of the final day, the smiles and thank you’s that met us were too much for us to handle. The gift of sight is one of the greatest bestowed by God. But being able to assist in that gift is truly an experience none of us will ever forget.
Al Magnuson is a long time visitor to Zihuatanejo and can be reached at horizon120@msn.com.
January 2002
Contents | Previous | Next |
|
|
|
