seeing is believing

In Nuevo Renacer, the Agros community that River West has partnered with over the last 3 years, there is a young woman named Reina. On our first visit to that community, many of us commented on the lack of personal space she allowed us. She seemed to always be right up in someone's face. We wondered aloud why and commiserated on our discomfort. On a subsequent visit, I spent some time with Reina at her home where she proceeded to put on the thickest glasses I have ever seen. (And I am legally blind in my left eye--so I know pop bottle lens!) And it dawned me, she can't see, that's why she gets to close. I asked her why she doesn't wear her glasses out and she said she was embarassed by them.

Having sight issues myself, this interaction really impacted me because I realized that I could be Reina. Even worse, I could be Reina and not even have glasses to be embarassed by. That's the situation of a lot folks in El Salvador. And honestly, without my lens, I'm fairly useless--there is so little I can see clearly and without them I get headaches that eventually can become migraines. Without my lens, I would also be at the mercy of those that could see around me--a potentially dangerous position. Without corrective eye care, my world would be a lot smaller. So eye care for the poor is definitely one of those issues that I am passionate about.

Recently ENLACE had a team from the midwest of eye Doctors and support staff that offered an eye care clinic. They were able to test vision, dilate eyes if needed and distribute glasses to people in the the poor communities of San Martin. Without clinics like this, the people in these communities would have virtually no access to glasses at all. The team was also able to bring down a huge amount of medicine. In many cases they were able to give folks with glaucoma sufficient medication for 1 year. If you aren't familiar, my lay understanding is that glaucoma is a progressive disease in which increased pressure in the eye eventually will lead to blindness. It is the number two cause of blindness in the world. It's pretty cool to know that a few more people will be seeing for a while longer because of a 1 week visit of about 15 caring people!

I have to be honest, I still find myself struggling sometimes wondering why God uprooted my life to bring me here. I feel so clueless so often and helpless and needy... I ask over and over, "What is my purpose? What is my role? Why God, why?" and then a team like the above shows up with love and kindness and they are simply a joy to get to know. And throughout this team's visit I was able to help with some minor translation, answer questions and, I think, provide comedic relief. But most importantly, I hope I was an encouragement to them as they were being an encouragement to the people in San Martin. And that is a pretty cool role and I am honored and blessed just to be of any kind of service in such a cool project. So, I guess they offered eye care, encouraged the communities and were a significant support to me in my new walk with ENLACE. Pretty cool.

Attached are some photos I took that capture some of the week.