By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
Volunteers provide eye care in Guatemala
HUDSON -- On a visit to a sister parish in Guatemala, a group of local parishioners and doctors screened 800 people for eye care needs, but perhaps the most vital thing done during an intense eight days affected only a few.
A condition called pterygium is found among some people in the village of Yalpemech. It includes a triangular mass of "thickened conjunctiva" over the cornea. It is caused by local conditions, such as ultra-violet rays and diet.
"It can be removed by surgery, but it can grow back," said John Parent, an optometrist and member of St. Patrick Parish.
Besides Parent, there were three other eye doctors on the trip, all from Chippewa Falls, Wis.: ophthalmologists Lon and Denise Arneson, and optometrist Michelle Wright.
Also traveling to Guatemala were St. Patrick parishioners Joan Richie, a longtime member of the sister parish effort; Jane Miller; and two of Miller's daughters, Marci and Natalya.
These helpers did the initial screening of patients and found that half had vision that was 20-40 or worse, and that 27 had cataracts.
"Some of them were desperate. The gratifying thing (about doing service) was how appreciative they were," said Jane Miller, adding that many recipients made sure they shook the hands of their benefactors before they left the site.
Marci Miller had made a quite similar volunteer trip when she was 16. "The impact on me was amazing," she said, adding she was sure of her need to go back after seeing what people there have, compared to what Americans have.
At first Miller wasn't certain she'd be able to be away from her college studies at St. Norbert for more than a week, but added she couldn't pass up this opportunity. "Ten days was just a little time with all things considered."
The college in De Pere, Wis., was very accommodating of the trip, said Miller's mother, who noted there was plenty of homework when she got back.
There was one other complication the crew didn't have on this trip. On a previous trip or two, the roadway wasn't paved, and it took them seven hours to drive to the site of their work. This time, with the road reconstructed, they made the trip in less than two hours.
Richie said that some of the people who were aided hadn't had eye care for 20 years. Some local nuns had to translate because of language differences, and a less than conventional eye chart had to be used because some of the Yalpemech residents didn't recognize English letters.
"We had to do a lot of moving hands and covering eyes," Richie said.
Parent said that there were plenty of other things lacking, not just eye care. "I thought there were so many other needs, such as clean water, nutrition and treating infections," he said.
One part of the trip stood out as his favorite, Parent said. "Interacting with the children."
Parent added that he doesn't know that much Spanish, but still was able to form close bonds with residents before it was time to leave.
He and the other eye doctors couldn't bring much equipment along, just eyeglasses, machines for adjusting the power of the lenses and a few other tools.
Prison inmates from Wisconsin had done some of the power-adjustment work, then cleaned and packaged the glasses and sent them to the eye doctors, who did final tweaking of their strength on site in Guatemala.
The trip, Feb. 19-27, was arranged with the help of the state optometry association, which put out the call, through its newsletter, for eye doctors to travel to Guatemala.
Richie said she initially contacted members of the Lion's Club, which solicits donations of used glasses, and was referred to the statewide group.
Parent said that people need to keep donating glasses through the Lion's Club, because they usually can be adjusted for use by others without too much difficulty.
All of the people with vision problems, as well as the ones withing pterygium, were referred to eye doctors in the region for follow-up care once the visiting doctors left.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004