OneSight: An Amazing Journey - Part One

On May 13th, Mothers Day, I left for The Gambia, West Africa, to join with a group of people I had never met (and who mostly hadn't met each other either), to train a group of students on eye care (of which I had no experience), and to help almost 1,000 people with free eye care services (again, no eye care experience).

First morning meeting

The first night I met briefly with the other OneSight volunteers between airport layovers and a cramped 40 minute ride to the hotel after 10pm - not something you look forward to after 30 hours of travel. Early the next morning we met most of the team (a small group was 6 hours inland at Basse working with the students the first week) and although I have no eye care experience and do not work for Luxottica (99% of volunteers do), I was made leader of 'Visual Acuities' the first station of the clinic.

Our first patients - day one

But I was excited, and as it didn't require years of experience, I figured I could do it. The VA area is where a person 'reads' an eye chart. But in cases where people have a different language or may not be literate, they have one letter - 'E' - facing in different directions and the patient has to cover one eye and show which way the symbol is pointing.

Working in Visual Acuity - Matar and Lisa

Our clinic was in Brikama, a city about 40 minutes away from our hotel. We were working with an established health clinic and an international organization, Sight Savers, who had a local presence. I had one OneSight volunteer, Bettina with me, and three local clinic volunteers who were with us especially to translate, Rumana, Tidah, and Matar.

I learned quickly that even though most people new English and spoke English (The Gambia was a former British Colony), most people didn't know the English words for what we were doing and as it was a bit different for them - many were confused, some concerned, and others a little frightened. Matar was an excellent translator (even though he was from Senegal where they speak different languages than they do in The Gambia - like French!). He told me many people were part of the largest local tribe, The Mandinka, and so began my adventure into learning a tribal language.

Helping a child understand the Visual Acuity chart

Just pronouncing people's names was a challenge as they way they were spelled was not the way they would be pronounced in English. If a name ended in 'R' it didn't sound like an 'R' but there was a slight sound. And word ending in 'K' had a slight 'A' sound after it. Also, many names that ended in 'U' sounded like an 'A' - for instance Babuku sounds like 'Babuka' to me.

Well - at the end of the day I was thrilled. Thrilled that I had helped so many people, communicated with them on some level. And I was thrilled with the OneSight volunteers who were all so positive, energetic, and patient. And the local volunteers were very helpful and so interesting. I learned a lot from them that first day...a lot of personality, and not necessarily easy to translate to what we in the States would appreciate right away.

I couldn't have asked for a better first day - it was like I had been doing this, with these people, for many years. It just felt right.

Senegal Coucal who visited with me the first day

To make a great day even better, I had a moment to sit under a tree back at the hotel - The Kairaba - and watch birds that are not found on my continent. It was thrilling from start to finish. And that was just the beginning!

Check back for the next story - Part Two - soon.

Alexandra Gnoske is a nature lover, writer, photographer, and adventurer!

OneSight Alumni

I returned from The Gambia and the OneSight sustainability clinic earlier this week. Now I am a proud full fledged OneSight Alumni and understand what a global clinic is all about. There is so much to say I will write several blogs I am sure - and I have many many pictures to share.

Put simply - my life has changed. To help someone in need is to be alive. I will definitely shoot for another clinic and I will be doing all I can in the mean time to work with OneSight to gather more frames, sunglasses, and anything else they need to continue their mission to help provide free eye care for those in need.

In the mean time, if you feel like donating an old pair of frames or sunglasses, just stop by your nearest LensCrafters, Oakley store, Sunglass Hut, Sears Optical or Target Optical.

I will soon have some places set up around Chicagoland to collect donations as well.

E bet yata "it's good" in Mandinka.
Alix

 Alexandra Gnoske is a writer, photographer, nature lover and now a OneSight clinic junkie.