Mexico is a large and very diverse country. Many travelers from the United States know the country for its beaches – Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Cabo San Lucas, Puerto Vallarta, Zihuantanejo, maybe Huatulco. Some visitors may have only penetrated as far as border towns like Tijuana, Mexicali, Agua Prieto, Ciudad Juárez, Neuvo Laredo, Matamoros and others. There is a lot more magic awaiting beyond, however, as well as welcoming peoples of a mélange of cultures and even languages.
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Lions in Sight is a subgroup formed by Lions and optometrists in the late 1990’s. Originally (and still well represented), most of the volunteers and doctors for the group came from the San Francisco area. The group expanded activities in the 21st century with a vision clinic a year to Mexico’s 8 Lion regions. One to two other trips went afield to more distant clinics – Palestine, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Lithuania, Armenia, Albania, etc. Lion volunteers and doctors soon came from all over the US helping spread the motto of Lionism “We Serve”.
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After just returning from a series of eye clinics in Albania, I will share a few thoughts on the sights seen outside the window from over 34,000 feet as I made my way back on a long transatlantic sojourn. This was the second set of clinics I have worked in Albania.
My transatlantic journey began too early at a crowded Nënë Tereza Airport just to the northwest of Tirana. The first of three flights involved in my return to Oregon was scheduled for 0600. Another colleague was flying to Rome at 0530, so we shared a cab. We left our hotel out in the western Albanian countryside near Durrës at 0330. This coming after our last day of clinics. In an unheated building, we saw over 700 patients in Kukës, Albania, three hours north of where we were staying close to the border with Kosovo.
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I knew John Demshar was ill with some kind of rare cancer. Not three weeks ago, I talked with John. He sounded a bit weak, but optimism oozed from his thoughts. Then I saw the notice of his death a couple of days ago.
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Lionism is truly a worldwide phenomenon. My wife and I joined a 36-member Lions In Sight team – composed of 13 doctors and 23 others from all over the US and Canada – that worked at various vision clinics Albania seeing over 7,000 patients during the first week of November 2018.
Continue readingThe day after Christmas 2004 was a good morning to be a little early to church. While Mr. Rasanayagan puttered away in his home in Kalmunai, Sri Lanka, his wife had already left for the nearby Assembly of God church for 9 a.m. services.
The tsunami waves hit at 8:45 a.m.
Note – this is an article I wrote for the Oregon LIONS monthly magazine back a couple years ago. It seems like a nice place to launch this blog from. Helen Keller truly smiles.
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