Published: October 04, 2008 09:42 pm         

Gift of vision

Local optometrist talks about mission trip to Honduras.

Three Logansport residents put their skills to use this summer in medical clinics nearly 2,000 miles from their Logansport homes.

Optometrist Bill Fawcett, his 19-year-old daughter Christena and pharmacist Tim Busch traveled by airliner, small plane and then bus to a village in the mountains of Honduras.

Bill said he was moved just seeing the living conditions “and how blessed we are here in America.”

“If you haven’t been out of the country, you don’t realize what we have,” he said. “Even though things aren’t perfect here, and we’d like it better, they just don’t have much.”

Bill quotes statistics indicating that 40 percent of the country lives on $2 a day or less and the unemployment rate is as high as 50 percent.

While in Honduras, the Fawcetts and Busch could not drink the water or enjoy a hot shower. They could not take for granted advanced medical care or having floors other than dirt.

The three were part of a team of nurses, doctors, dentists, construction workers and participants in children’s ministry sent to Honduras through World Gospel Outreach, a Christian missionary organization. The trip lasted from July 5 through 12.

Bill was there to provide optometry services, but because of the setting and poor conditions, the eye examinations he carried out were a far cry from what he provides routinely in his Logansport office.

Bill used an autorefractor to get an estimate on prescription for glasses. Through an interpreter, he’d ask what problems the person had. The most common issue is seeing to read.

“People down there may need reading glasses at age 30 compared to here, it’s in the 40s,” Bill said.

Another issue is dry, itchy eyes due to the climate and many having to work outdoors.

Bill did not have time to look into the eyes because he had to treat as many people as he could in four days. People lined up by the hundreds awaiting service. He had to forego thoroughness for quantity.

In four days, Bill saw 351 patients for eye care and provided 300 pairs of reading glasses. The team of 35 helped more than 2,100 people in four days.

“A lot of these people wouldn’t be able to see if I hadn’t gone down there,” Bill said. “There are some people that might have been sick if medical people didn’t go down and give treatment.”

A select few were able to pick out frames. The lenses would be made in the United States and shipped back to Honduras. Others got prescriptions that could be filled in Honduras.

“There’s no way we could have all of their different prescriptions so we just did the best we could,” Bill said.

The orders were paid for by Midwest Eye Consultants, the company Bill works for.

Bill saw many ailments that would be treatable in the United States but mostly went untreated in Honduras. Many natives had cataracts. Some had endured the $50 surgery conducted by local surgeons. Bill referred to the surgeries as butchered. With no implants, that meant big, thick glasses to wear.

Glaucoma requires long-term therapy, which is simply not available in the moutains of Honduras. In many situations, the people had to make do. Because Bill did not have bifocals available, he gave some patients two pair of glasses, one for seeing upclose and the other for distance.

Many had astigmatism while some suffered from blindness.

While her father treated patients, Christena helped in a dental clinic, dispensed glasses and medication and performed children’s ministry.

“It was kind of like a mini Sunday school lesson,” she said of the evangelism.

Christena prayed with many of the people coming in for treatment. She also checked the children for lice and washed and brushed their hair.

“I put pretties in the girls’ hair and gave them a comb,” she said. “That was fun.”

Christena noted that many villagers put on their Sunday best to come to the clinic. Part of the mission trip was spent showing people how to properly take care of themselves.

Upon returning to the United States, neither Bill nor his daughter suffered the culture shock they had in previous missions. The trip to Honduras was the second for both. Bill has also been to Mexico three times for mission work.

Because of how the journeys inspired them, the father-daughter team plan to return. For Christena, the first mission trip provided a career path. She is in nursing school at Purdue University. The second time around, she got experience in medical care and a new perspective.

“It was humbling just to think we can make that big of an impact with just washing kids’ hair or giving people medicine,” she said. “It was just a reminder of how blessed we are here and how easily we take things for granted.”

Kevin Lilly can be reached at (574) 732-5117, or via e-mail at kevin.lilly@pharostribune.com



Want to go?

Anyone interested in going on a mission trip to Honduras, can call Bill Fawcett for more information. He can be reached at (574) 722-5252. Fawcett is also interested in giving presentations on his experience.