An Eye for an Eye

Yesterday was a very interesting day, for sure... And for those of you that have weak stomachs, stop before you get to the end of this post. But for those of you who dare, I think it's pretty awesome!

The morning started out once again with the communications class.We were asked many of the same questions as the day before concerning education and culture in America as well as our opinions of India. The hardest challenge that Maddie and I had (Dr. Jones, you will love this) was not to use fillers such as "uh" or "um." One of the students came to address us and told us that they were being taught not to use fillers so we should try not to either, and then proceeded to ask us to just tell them about ourselves. With some concentration, I was able to succeed successfully. However, neither Maddie nor myself are huge fans of public speaking. Because of this, Maddie had a more difficult time, but it was quite humorous to the students and it was great to see them laugh. 

After the class Maddie and I headed to Joseph Eye Hospital for the morning. The Eye Hospital was opened in 1919 with the mission to eradicate blindness in Trichy and the neighboring cities as well as to rehabilitate visually impaired individuals to better adjust to every day life. They have many rehabilitation centers around the surrounding areas and in Trichy that work to train and employ those who are visually impaired so they are able to lead a normal life. In addition to individuals with visual impairments, they also work with individuals with special needs. The hospital also offers various ranges of accommodations to allow every person to afford eye care. 

The Eye Hospital 

While we were at the clinic, we met a man who had "developmental delay" (they were not able to tell me his actual diagnosis) who ran a shop within the hospital. He is also married with  child. I found our the reason he was married is because his parents arranged the marriage in the hopes that God would take away his disabilities if he was married. As we now know, this did not happen, and in my eyes, I'm glad it didn't. I work with the special needs community at home and I think we all have something to learn from each person in that community. By wishing those "disabilities" away, we are asking that what makes them special to simply disappear, and I feel that I could never ask for that.

Anyways, it is wonderful that they are working with these individuals and helping to train them for the work force; I'm just very passionate about this subject and very sensitive to language related to such. So hearing phrases such as "disabled people" and that they work with "normal people" really hurts my heart. To me, this makes me feel as though they are not thought of as whole and I know many of them who I think are more "whole" than I, myself, am.

How they kept records before the electronic system (up to 10 years ago) 

Close-up

And...25 years ago!

After our quick tour around the front of the hospital we were given a tour of the rest of the hospital and were even able to see a cataract surgery! Eye surgery is definitely not for me... I don't think I like sharp objects in people's eyeballs, but it was quite amazing to see the cataract removed and a bright pupil in its place! My favorite part of the tour was the low vision and pediatric department! This is where they treated the children with visual impairments and it was great to talk to the doctor in this department about how different it is to treat children and how equipment often has to be adapted.

This is the stimulation box for babies-the lights turn on and things move in order to keep the baby's attention!

Instead of a letter chart like we get, the little ones get shapes and match them to cards

See the P.S. at the bottom of this blog for the last thing I got to see in the hospital.

After the morning at the clinic, Morgan, Maddie, and I all went to the communications class to speak to them for the final time. We were asked many questions about our goals and how we achieved them, as well as questions about culture of America (to which I said we didn't have much unified culture as India does), then I headed to Stephen Nursing Home. 

At the clinic yesterday, I learned a big more Tamil. I learned "seri," which means okay. But often the people either say "Okay" or they say "seri, sir." So it took me a while to figure out what they were actually saying! I was also informed to be careful of the word "nandri" meaning thank you. Apparently if you change one letter (1st n to a p) to say "pandri" you have now changed thank you into pig! So I have to be careful with that one!

The highlight of my day yesterday was an 80+ year old woman. There is no record of her birth, so there is no way to know how old she is, but she is definitely very old. She had Herpes Zoster, or shingles, which are very very painful. She was crying in the office and I wasn't sure if I should smile at her or look away, so I chose to smile. On her way out of the office, she stopped and started speaking to me. Since she was speaking Tamil, I had no idea what she was saying, but it was definitely directed to me. She proceeded to touch my face with both of her hands and then touch her face and then put her hand on top of my head as a priest would. At this point, Dr. Ravi informed me that she was blessing me. I was truly honored that this woman would stand to bless me when it was so hard for her to stand in the first place. Through a small act, this lady made a huge impact on my heart and I will never forget the day I was blessed by her. 

I will post my blog for today either tonight or tomorrow afternoon. Until then,

Marissa

P.S. These are the photos those with weak stomachs should avoid! There was a "museum" in the eye hospital that contained human cadaver body parts. So here are some of those; they are pretty cool!

Yep, that's a real human eye!

And again, yes, actual human face!