Seeing the light in Northern Thailand
Posted Tuesday, December 04, 2007, 3:27 PM by Lonely Planet
On my first day in the Ubon Ratchathani province in Northeastern Thailand 3,405 people received free eye exams and eye glasses if they needed it, thanks to an organisation called Give the Gift of Sight. "Slow day," one of the volunteers said.
Their humanitarian mission has just wrapped up and the group is hoping to give away all of the 65,000 recycled glasses that a family of eye glass specialists brought from Italy. Give the Gift of Sight is handing out heaps of sun glasses as well to stop the sun damage they're seeing. 
(photo by Zack Seckler)
Farmers, monks, and villagers come from miles around to get their eyes examined. There was one old man with new glasses sitting in the middle of the hectic scene looking at the detail of his own weathered hands, amazed. Imagine what it must feel like to suddenly see that you're living in an old body.
The area is famous for "forest monks," and on Wednesday I went out to see a group of monks who went to the Give Gift of Sight clinic that morning - one of them was the 6 millionth recipient of the program. Some of the monks were quite flash in their flowing orange robes and new sun glasses, and others were hunched over Buddhist text, reading with their new spectacles.
The head monk showed me around the temple, and probably because I kept asking him questions about Buddhism took me to the outdoor meditation area - where bodhi trees grew between red bricks - and made me meditate with him for ten minutes. I felt truly honored.
"Did you get what you wanted?" Pete Simsamer, a Thai high school student who volunteered as a translator, asked at the end of the trip.
"Yeah," I smiled at him. "I got more than I wanted - in a good way."
- Josh Krist
Labels: Asia and Pacific, Thailand, Volunteer
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3 Comments:
Well written albeit too short.
BTW; where's MY free eyeglasses?
Nice article. Would have liked to hear more about the forest monks and your meditation experience though.
It's been so long we worked together but I've just read your post, so ridiculous. I'm glad you could write things about what you've seen so very well, as well as I was glad working with you guys. One of my best experiences, it really was.
After that mission about 3 months, my second mission was held. It was good, but not much better (actually, I would say worse in my opinion). I only worked at the clinic, no traveling and no touring. You couldn't imagine how bored I was.
As I said, I was very glad working with you, Zack, Holly and Louis. Really unforgettable memories, you guys gave me.
I hoped you would have read this comment.
Keep in touch; petesimsamer@live.com
Best regards,
Pete. :-D
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