Rotarians at work... the eye team!  A lot hard work from non-doctors is crucial...

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One of the empheses of this mission is vocational training and the Eye Team has the fortune to work with 6 Ugandan optometry students from the medical university in Kampala.  These 6 3rd year students are the very first optometry students being

educated in Uganda.  All current Ugandan optometry doctors have received their degrees at foreign schools.  We are honored to assist in their education during this short period of time.  The young women and men in this group are very respectful and eager to learn and simply a delight to work with.

During first 2 days of the mission eye clinic we saw 232 patients and 227 patients.  Our optometrists from Denmark won't arrive until day 3, so we have been working with 3 doctors and 4 techs plus our 6 Ugandan optometry students who we are training and who translate for us.

There have been quite a variety of eye problems.  I have seen a number of people with eye injuries related to motorcycle riding.  Motorcycles are a very common form of transportation here in Uganda...they scoot along the edge of the road.  Most don't have helmets or face shields.  Some ride three to a bike and some ride holding an umbrella in the rain.  Getting a stone in the eye seems to be common and unfortunately that can result in corneal scarring and loss of vision.

Travel Success

After 28+ hours of travel, we have arrived in Entebbe Uganda.  There were no glitches or problems or delays!!  We connected with the Brazilian Rotarians at our gate in Dubai and were on the same flight to Uganda.

We were weary and, yes, there was no rest for us... the equipment was loaded onto small busses and we headed right to Entebbe Hospital for orientation and set-up.

Next, a quick stop at the hotel to drop off our luggage and then, without a shower, we headed to the Rotary Club of Bwebajja for their meeting followed by dinner.  The mashed bananas steamed in banana tree leaves were yummy!

Here is "the team" waiting patiently for departure. It's been a long day already with a 3:30AM departure from our respective homes. Wish us luck!
 

Posted on the Rotary Club of Nkumba Facebook page.

We are only a few days away from our departure to Uganda.  The pending forecast for a blizzard certainly is adding to the excitement (?stress!).  The eye team goals of this mission will include providing eye exams and glasses, working with the visually impaired, and teaching Ugandan eye doc students.  

This will personally be my 6th international Rotary Foundation mission.  On my previous 5 missions, I created blogs for myself and other Elizabethtown Rotary Club participants.  This mission's blog, however, will have contributors from various members of eye team and thus it's address is Rotary7390uganda.blogspot.com to represent all our different clubs - Elizabethtown, Lancaster, Lancaster-Hempfield, Lancaster - Penn Square, Mechanicsburg North, Northern Lebanon County and York-East.