Recharging the batteries!

We do not hold our clinic over the weekend, and our first free day was an incredible Guatemala cultural experience, thanks to the generosity of the local Lions Club. We gathered by the Cathedral in the town square and posed for pictures while we waited for our vans to arrive. Our European team members were one of the popular subjects, with cameras flashing all around. In this picture you’ll see from Europe: Emily (U.K.), Xavier (Spain), Cristina, Lorenzo, Massimo, and Fabio (all from Italy).

We traveled in 3 microbuses from Santa Cruz del Quiche into the surrounding mountains where we visited some small, historic Quiche villages called Najxit and Panajxit. We also visited some Mayan ruins at Q’uma’rkaj. The view of the mountains and valleys was breath taking.

Many of the indigenous Mayan people who we are helping at the clinic live in these villages. We felt very fortunate to get a close look at how they live and work, and we could see for ourselves how they will put their glasses to good use every day.

The Panajxit area is known for producing the beautiful woven Guatemalan textiles that are used for the colorful traditional traje outfits worn by the Quiche women and girls, and used for carrying slings, headcovers, wraps and much more. These are the outfits and accessories we see on the people coming to the clinic every day. We visited a small textile house that is connected to the home of the vice mayor of the area, and saw how they die the yarn, spin it and weave the colors together into patterns. Xiomara, our team member from Miami, FL, was lucky enough to get to try on a Quiche women’s traditional outfit, called a traje. She had a great time striking a pose in her lovely outfit.

We visited a couple of sacred ceremonial sites that are far off the tourist paths, and were treated to a visit with one of the most important spiritual guides of the Najxit area. At a visit to some Mayan ruins, many of our team members walked deep into some catacombs that were part of the ruins. It was a challenging team building exercise as we held onto each other to find our way through the narrow and dark passages. The only light came from a few scattered ceremonial candles. Just outside of the cave, we were very lucky to witness a few Quiche people holding a traditional ritual around a fire with red, white and blue candles. It was celebrating a very important day on the Mayan calendar, the first day of the Mayan new year.

On our way back to Santa Cruz, everyone in our group couldn’t stop talking about how this day was incredible and how lucky we all were to experience it together. We look forward to seeing more of these people in our OneSight clinic next week and will have an even deeper appreciation for how they live and how we are helping them.

Life-Changing Sight

Today our team rallied, despite a bit of exhaustion and sickness, to finish our first week at clinic very strong. We saw the greatest number of patients today of any day this week. We continued to work together as a team and were able to share in many joyous moments together!

Most of our patients today came from Santa Cruz del Quiche, the town that we have called home for the last week. One woman came in with a 2 year-old girl named Irma. We learned that both of Irma's parents had died and the woman who brought her was her aunt. One of our team members, Carol from Illinios noticed that her eyes were both turned in. After examination by Dr. Kirk, Dr. Carol and Dr. Nasim, it was determined that she was very hyperopic and desperately need vision correction. We were able to make her a pair of custom Chabellas and when we fit them on her, her eyes straightened out completely. Because of our OneSight Clinic, Irma's vision was saved. Intervention at the age of 2 can be the difference between corrected vision or low vision for life. Because the Chabellas are too large for her face, Carol plans to make a pair of infant frames with cable temples and a pair of prescription sunglasses donated by our photographer, Mark. What a great collaboration of our team!

Near the end of the day, a young man came in with his father to our clinic. Emilio was 22 years old and showed symptoms of palsey. After examination, Dr. Dave and Dr. Kirk determined that he had very poor sight. One of Dr. Dave's patient's had donated a pair of glasses that were a perfect match for Emilio. Prior to receiving the glasses, Emilio had a very flat affect. As soon as the glasses were placed on his face, a giant smile broke on this face and he began laughing with joy! He could see for the first time in his entire life! For someone who has little ability to control his movements, difficulty seeing creates even more struggles. As he was leaving the clinic, Emilo stopped and started pointing to the writing on the opposite wall. He and his dad were overjoyed that he could now see! Through this experience, we were onge again reminded what a blessing it is to participate in a OneSight Clinic. Below is Dr. Dave with Emilio in his new glasses. Words cannot express the emotion brought forth today in the clinic!

We look forward to a fresh start at the clinic on Monday after a weekend of some R&R. Buenas noches from Guatemala.

Time For Some "Mission Magic"

Day 3 at our clinic really exciting. We had some great experiences and got to interact with our patients on a truly personal level. As always, the day began with a cheer, this time led by our European team members. Emily from the UK, Cristina, Lorenzo, Massimo and Fabio from Italy, and Xavier from Spain let us in a chant that said "Aicrare la gente la nostra mission non importia nazione ne preofessione OneSight!" which translates to "Help the people is our mission - doesn't matter what nation or profession - OneSight!". What a great way to start the day.



The clinic doors opened and we had a steady stream coming through right away. We cranked up the music and rocked our stations. The first great personal experience was between Dr. Dave Gill from Columbus, who is our lead doctor. He had received a pair of glasses donated by a patient and had brought them to Guatemala. They went to Josefa who was in her mid-30s and had traveled to the clinic with her daughter. She received a pair of green metal frames from Dr. Dave and was so pleased with the way they looked and helped her see clearly again.



Marcee from Conneticut had also brought along some glasses. A gentleman named Jose came through and she was able to match a pair donated by her daughter Danielle. They were the exact prescription and needed no adjustments! Anyone who has been to a clinic knows this can be rare.


After our lunch of yummy pizza and oranges we were revived and ready to go again. Up at the IMS table, where we key in the prescriptions and match them with glasses, a form came through with a really high RX. It was for a 14 year old girl who had a -10.00 in both eyes. We noticed her sitting in the bleachers and she kept pulling her cell phone out - she had to hold it right in front of her face to be able to read. We wanted to help her in some way and Abbey from Cincinnati had brought some frames with her from the home office recycle center. One of them was a -8.00 in both eyes. We thought this would be the best match we could offer her so we went over and Abbey and Stephanie from Salt Lake City helped fit the glasses. The look on her face was priceless. She smiled and opened her eyes really wide. The whole time Mark Lyons was clicking away on his camera. She must have felt like a movie star. It was one of those moments of mission magic that you always hear about.

Clinic hustled and bustled for the rest of the afternoon and we had a steady stream of people moving through. We saw just under 1,000 people today - all in a day's work at a OneSight clinic. Now time for some rest and on to day 4 tomorrow! If you are reading this and still want to donate to the Team Guatemala fundraising page, please click on the link above - we are almost halfway to our goal!

Thanks for following our clinic blog -- check back soon!

Today we began our second day of clinic excited that we already have many wonderful stories of people whom we have been able to help. Our team has begun to come together working side by side and bonding through our experiences shared in and out of clinic.

Our mission is to deliver the gift of sight to as many people as we can in the Quiche region of Guatemala. Our team member Kristianne from Salt Lake City shared a story of one young gentleman who was in such need he traveled 8 hours by bus to get to our clinic. As we learned from our own experience with bus rides through the mountains of Guatemala is NOT an easy journey. We were able to help him so that he'll be able to perform his work more easily and enjoy clearer vision.

Luisa Leah, a 63 year-old woman who has never worn glasses. As she came through our clinic, Xiomera and Holly screened her to determine her prescription strength for glasses. The auto-refractor reading was so high that they thought perhaps they had gotten an inaccurate reading and had Lynn tell the doctors to double check her vision. Our student doctor from the St. Louis College of Optometry, Deanne, examined her and indeed her vision was so poor that she has been functionally blind up to this point.

The photo at the top is from another story we heard today that came from Lynn, who works for LensCrafters in Massachusetts. It was about Josefina who had been in an accident 17 years ago and suffered nerve damage to one of her eyes. She could no longer open her eye because of this. Josefina told Dr. Deanne, and Juliana, our team member from Oakley, that the injury was further aggravated by surgery. They consulted with Dr. Gill, a Sears Optical doctor from Columbus OH, who determined that we could only correct her vision in her other eye. Josefina was extremely excited and grateful that we could help with the vision in her one good eye, and we knew that excellent team work again made a real difference in someone's life.

Our team members all work hard on a OneSight mission, and it is patients like Luisa that reward us for the work we do. Through our work and sharing our experiences as we continue our mission here, we have come together like a family in Santa Cruz del Quiche. Buenas noches!

Their Eyes Explain Their Emotions…

Today was our first day of clinic. With excitement and a bit of nervous anticipation, we walked single file down the narrow and busy streets of Quiche to the clinic site. The small open-air gym that normally serves as the headquarters of the local Lions Club will be our clinic location for the next two weeks.

We began the morning with a OneSight tradition – a pep rally-type cheer with all hands in. Our mission leaders gave us our station assignments and we quickly got to work. By 10 am, we had things running as smoothly as if we were all OneSight veterans, even though 14 out of our 33 team members were experiencing their first clinic.

While smooth operations are important to us, Massimo, one of our first-timers from Italy, captured the true essence of OneSight -- giving the gift of sight. He observed that although there are many cultural and language barriers here, nothing could hinder our ability to communicate our love and respect for the people of Quiche. We could see that the recipients are able to understand the meaning of the clinic regardless of these barriers. Today they showed us their own simple sign of gratitude— smiles and the joy in their eyes.

It was a great first day! We all look forward to Day 2 of our clinic (after a good night’s sleep!).

Curvas Peligrosas!

Our team arrived safely and on time in Guatemala Sunday evening after traveling in from Italy, Spain, the U.K., Canada and points all over the U.S. We enjoyed a restful night at the Radisson in Guatemala City and after bonding over a wonderful breakfast, we boarded a big white bus to head up the mountains of the Quiche region. We thought the trip was going to take about 3 hours, but...

Dangerous curves...these two words summed up a good portion of our first full day in Guatemala. The diesel bus chugged slowly, but steadily up the steep and winding mountain roads that we estimate were at a 45-degree incline. At many points we encountered hairpin turns and signs that warned of "Curvas Peligrosas". It became even more interesting as the highway we traveled entered the small town of Chi Chi. The streets were more like narrow alleys cutting through the heart of town. Several turns were very tight and harrowing for a full size charter bus to navigate. The driver skillfully made the first tight corner, but the next one presented a formidable challenge of a narrow 90-degree turn, uphill, on a bus loaded with thousands of pounds of cargo. After many attempts to make the turn, the bus stalled. Our group's solution was to get off the bus in order to lighten the load and hopefully make the turn possible. Success! We re-boarded the bus and were on our way to Quiche, but not without first encountering more "curvas peligrosas."

SIX bumpy hours later we finally arrived in Santa Cruz del Quiche, got off the bus and pulled our many bags down a narrow cobblestone street to our very quaint and lovely hotel.

I think I can......I think I can... I think I can I THINK I CAN I THINK I CAN! I DID!

OneSight volunteers seen lining the sidewalks of 'ChiChi' encouraging the bus driver around an imposible turn.

The day ended with great food, team bonding and excitement for our first clinic day.

Guatemala Here We Come!

Two days and counting...

On Sunday, Jan. 25 our OneSight "Team Guatemala" will finally meet for the first time at the airport in Houston. We'll board a flight for Guatemala City and together we will begin our adventure. It will be wonderful to finally arrive and get started with our clinic in Santa Cruz del Quiche, a mountain town about 3 hours from Guatemala City.  

(The top photo shows 3 of our team members who are traveling from Luxottica Retail's offices in Mason, OH. From left, Holly, Abbey and Alycia. The bags are filled with clinic supplies and equipment.)

Our host partners in Guatemala, the local Lions Club and many local residents and officials, have planned and prepared for our arrival for many months. Recipients are awaiting their appointed day to attend our clinic.  Over the last few months,  the OneSight Foundation team has ensured the gradual safe delivery of our eyeglass inventory. These thousands of used prescription eyeglasses already made their first journey to the OneSight Recycle Centers from donors around the globe. (The bottom photo shows a basket of donated eyeglasses that are being prepared for a future clinic at the OneSight Recycle Center in Mason, OH.)

We invite you to follow this blog and share our experiences the next 2 weeks while we give the gift of sight in Guatemala. We will post as often as possible, assuming the internet connection cooperates! We hope you will share your comments and messages with us. Stay tuned for our first post from Guatemala...