A Grand Entrance to Panama!

Welcome back to our blog, Everyone! We all arrived safely and late Sunday night and met up with the crew who was already here setting up the clinic. The restaurant stayed open late for us for dinner and off to bed. Bright and early we began our journey to the clinic. A multi-level journey starting in Panama City much like a large metropolitan city in the U.S. We crossed the Bridges of the Americas across the Panama Canal and continued into the rural villages toward La Chorrera. As we pulled into the clinic, there was a crowd anxiously awaiting our arrival, making us feel like heros. We were motivated with a quick OneSight cheer and hurried off to our assigned stations to learn new skills and work with new partners. In a true team effort with no barriers by title, age or experience, our Team Panama joined with the Lions Club members and Leos/student volunteers/translators to set up our clinic stations. The people streamed in with the hopes they would be able to see better when they left, improving their lives. We did our best to make sure that happened, and in the end saw 982 Panamanian people. With local ophthalmologist support, we had over 100 referrals requiring additional services needed to address glaucoma, cataracts, etc.

There were special heartfelt stories at the end of the day. One particularly touching story came from leader Mona, who described a man who came in with old broken glasses and a very high prescription. His old glasses were held together with tape, but he was so proud of those glasses. He had received those glasses at our clinic in 2006 and had been showing them off ever since. Mona and others were trying to find glasses to fill his high prescription, and he kept telling stories of the time he visited the U.S. last year to play drums in a band. He especially liked Key West and hopes to go back there to visit his girlfriend. While he was in America, he had shown off his glasses and told everyone who would listen that the kind people of The Gift of Sight had given him the glasses and that is how he was able to play the drums. When Mona was able to find him a pair of glasses that were nearly perfect, he was ecstatic! In fact, Mona gave him TWO pairs of glasses in case one happened to break before we could come back and give him another pair! I am sure there will be many more stories from others similar to this to warm our hearts!

From what we have seen of the country during our bus rides, it is a beautiful, lush, warm and humid place. We can´t wait to explore more of the sights and get to know the people. Please come back and enjoy the ride with us!