June 24

This morning I spent some time in the eye clinic. They have a slit lamp, wall charts, refractive lenses for the purposes of creating a prescription, and an ophthalmoscope. There was one sad story. A 45-year-old woman with an infant came in because she had reduced vision and eye irritation. She must have walked here. The healthcare provider thought that she probably had early cataracts due to some type of chronic condition and needed surgery. She has government insurance which would cover most of the surgery cost. But the eye surgery center is several hours away by car, and this woman is poor with no access to transportation. So it seems that she is going to get increasingly blind with small children to care for, and no real hope for an intervention.

Attached is a picture of a different woman, showing how the local women carry their babies. They of course do not have strollers or anything of that nature. So they wrap the baby in a piggyback position on their backs, using a few pieces of cloth (sometimes a towel). This keeps the women's hands free, and the babies seem to sleep a lot in that cozy position on their mother's back! This woman was very friendly and did not seem to mind that I wanted to take her picture. She has a beautiful smile!