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Travel Report from trip with |
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Minus twenty four. Plus seventeen. It could be the temperatures of a northern Swedish city compared to a village in Eastern Africa the same day in October. But it isn’t. It’s the extreme values of eyeglasses, handed out during an eye glass trip to Kenya and Uganda two weeks in October and November this year. The eyeglass-trip was done in cooperation between Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan which is an organization for adult studying, and Vision for all. Studieförbundet Vuxenskolan has been working for more than 15 years with educational issues in Kenya and Uganda in the form of local, village, libraries. A number of villages have been given libraries that have been updated almost every year. The books cover essential issues such as basic hygiene, food and nutrition, building techniques, maintenance for tractor engines, different methods to grow crops etc. With the libraries as a base, the books as tools and study circles as methods villagers can absorb the information and make themselves a better life. Helping them to help themselves, basically. A couple of years ago the insight grew strong that not everybody could delve deep into the knowledge in the books. Even though the literacy rate is rather high the villagers lacked the possibilities to read because they couldn’t – they didn’t have any glasses. At this stage SV sought contact with VFA. Vision for all is a politically free organization offering eye exams and handing out good yet second hand glasses to the poorest people. Thereby they improve the possibilities for education and work. Since the organizations founding in 1995 VFA have organized and conducted trips at an average of four per year to countries such as Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, Bolivia, Kenya and Uganda. So far more than 45 000 people have been examined and gotten glasses. So, in the end of October eleven of us, six from VFA and of those six four were optometrists, and five from SV, all of us assistants. From VFA participated John Godoy, Thomas Persson, Margareta Barreby and Jörgen Gustafsson, optometrists and Maja Persson and Maria Stenman who participated as assistants. From SV Västra Götaland participated Inga-Britt Karlbom, Anna Gunlycke and Stefan Landberg and from SV Gävle-Dalarna Christina Pennlöv and Arne Andreasson. The works during the two weeks we are away are mostly tough and intense. We leave at six thirty after breakfast, if we’ve gotten any, and travel for a couple of hours. Once we get to the villages we need to organize those waiting, start up the eye exams after having briefed our interpreters and local assistants and then organize the boxes with glasses to make the work for the assistants smooth, so that they can try out glasses with and without interpreters and without too many onlookers. At the same time we have to keep an eye on the sky. In Kenya and Uganda the rainy season is on, although the so called short rains. This means basically daily but briefly although sometimes very hard, showers. If you’re back at the hotel it’s kind of cozy to sit on the patio, under the roof with a gin and tonic and talk about the day with the colleagues, check up the statistics and look at the horizon. Soon you’ll hear the thunder in the distance, the sky darkens, the sun disappears and then – the rain. After half an hour or so the rain disappears and the show of lightning move on. To be out on the roads, the red earthy roads are now to be recommended, as they go soapy and really slippery. That’s why you have to keep an eye on the sky… There are other sides to the business as well. Hakuna matata, or no problem, is an attitude that not only Kenyans and Ugandans have but also something that we as visitors need to have. For instance after the discovery that the driver of the second car didn’t have his passport with him when we were suppose to go through customs between Kenya and Uganda. Everything worked out anyway and we moved on through. Until a truck cut a corner and the rear end of the trailer cut into our car and took the right hand back window with it. The glass sprayed all over us. Luckily no one got hurt, but in the aftermath many people were very mad with us, because we blocked the border for about an hour… Talk about cultural impact… Mostly we work so hard that we don’t have time for, nor consider, eating lunch. Maybe in between patients we take a biscuit or four and some water. Mostly the will to help is so big that we don’t really feel hunger. And mostly we succeed with helping. Sunglasses and strong glasses to an albino or some strong reading glasses for a mama in her nineties or some nice glasses in a fashionable model for distance for a boy or girl in their lower teens are only some examples of what we’ve accomplished. But we’ve also been tourists. At least for a little while. We stayed for a night in Jinja in Uganda, a city by Lake Victoria, which also is the starting point for the river Nile. From Jinja it flows four thousand six hundred kilometers to the Mediterranean Sea. But we’ve also seen baboons and leopards in one of the parks outside Nakuru, in Kenya. Despite sunburn, diarrhea, lack of service and sometimes recipients with a lack of enthusiasm for the model they were just handed there is another side to the trips. All the generous and benevolent givers in Sweden, optometrists and assistants that during their spare time clean and measure glasses, people from SV that buy lottery tickets at meetings and gatherings and thereby supporting the trips, Lion-clubs that pay for the freights of the glasses, drivers and last but not least all the friendly people of Kenya and Uganda that beam of happiness for a new pair of glasses. One woman was so happy that she danced, sang and spat – at me and all those around me. Another kind of showing happiness than what we are used to… This is truly solidarity and aid in practice and not only theory. Kenya We examined 522 women and 509 men. More than half (610) were presbyopes. Of the 897 pair of eyeglasses distributed, 779 were positive powers. Only 118 pair for correction of myopia or cataract induced myopia. About roughly 80% of the men and women could read and write. Uganda: We examined 182 women and 280 men. Much more than half (409) were presbyopes. Of the 518 pair of eyeglasses distributed, 476 were positive powers. Only 42 pair for correction of myopia or cataract induced myopia. About roughly 80% of the men and women could read and write. Stefan
Landberg |