Opatoro

We wakened at around 5:30 on Monday morning, bags loaded for a foretold three-day-two-night brigada (outreach), and trundled over to the safari-mobile (a decked-out Toyota Land Cruiser) to begin our journey to the mountainous regions near Marcala, La Paz. The crew included Lindsey, Max, Bozho, and myself. We made the routine stop for breakfast at a little market/restaurant about an hour and a half outside of Tegus, and then off to our first stop in the small town of San Pedro, La Paz.

[The road to La Paz]

We arrived shortly after 10 am at a modest but well-cared-for church, to a line of 30 people accumulating outside the threshold. The line nearly doubled after our Land Cruiser trundled to a stop and we began the process of setting up clinic.


<-------[The line outside the church in San Pedro]

A quick note on the way most brigada clinics function:

First, patients cycle through visual acuity, standing on a line about ten feet from the chart and answering for us, "Adonde puntan las tres patitas?" (Where do the three little legs point). We use a chart appropriate for the illiterate: An "E" rotated with the legs facing one of 4 directions. All types of patients are possible, there are those who watch the people before them, and are able to step up to the line, cover their left eye, and indicated where the legs point - all without a single word of instruction. They are every volunteers dream.

Then there are the patients who either don't hear you, don't see you, or don't understand you, no matter how simple and specific the instructions. After explaining the concept of three legs pointing in one direction at a time, walking them through the process of verbal or physical indication of the direction of the lines, and confirming their understanding, you attempt to carry on:
"So, can you see this letter?" You ask.
"Sí, sí!" They answer.
"Good, now where do the three legs point?"
"Sí! Sí!"
"No, por favor, these three legs - where do they point? Up? Down? To a Side? To which side?"
"Ehhh"
"Tell me where the legs are pointing"
"Aca!" (there!) They will answer without the slightest real indication.
"Where? Where do they point?? Show me with your hand! Where do they point?"
Some will get it, others will take 5 more minutes and the help of their fellow patients, but all are endearing, particularly the smaller children and older adults.



After visual acuity, patients then follow up with the auto-refractor (pictured) and Victor (The Optometrist), or if all they need are reading glasses, they skip ahead to be fitted with the most appropriate (+) script.

<------ [Lindsey at the Auto-refractor in Opatoro]





ON THE ROAD AGAIN

Several hours later, after about 117 patients and a delicious home-made lunch, we packed up shop and hit the road for our night's destination: Opatoro. Unfortunately, we hit the road a little too hard, and after about an hour of bouncing through the Honduran back roads, surrounded by nothing but rain, mud, and the dark night, we were faced with the significant problem of a very flat tire, and lugnuts that refused to budge.

At this point in the story I have to pause and go to bed, so I will leave you in suspense, but I promise it ended well. I'm on brigada again until Tuesday, and will finish this post at that time.