Submitted to the Icon from
Bluffton Lions Arliss and Barbara Plaugher
When I said that VOSH-Ohio was going to provide eye care to the primary school children at Sint Maarten, someone asked if we were traveling by cruise ship!
There are other ways to get there...even though many people relate to St. Maarten as a port-of-entry for cruise ships. Our host, Lion Davey, mentioned to me that St. Maarten has had as many as five cruise ships in port at one time.
That would mean as many as 20,000 people could converge upon their small capital city of Philipsburg, a duty-free port; however, that was before the latest hurricane in September of 2017.
After planning a mission for November of 2017 and having it cancelled, when Hurricane Irma with winds of 182 miles/hour hit this island, making it the worse hurricane since 1851 and causing devastation to the entire island, we then chose another date of May 12 through 18 of 2018, out of the hurricane season time-frame.
5,00 pairs of of sunglasses
Our lead OD suggested that we obtain sunglasses for the children and I proceeded to find enough sunglasses for all the children that could possibly come to the clinic, a total of 5,000 pairs.
These were shipped from VOSH Southeast in Florida and trucked from the Lions Sorting Center in Indiana. The glasses were placed in our garage and someone said that it looked like there were enough sunglasses to fit all the children in the northeastern part of the U.S.
Our local Bluffton Lions Club assisted us in sorting and packing these sunglasses for shipping to the Sint Maarten Lions Club, where they were kept in their den until the team arrived. These sunglasses proved to be the highlight for each child visiting the clinic.
We arrived into the Princess Juliana International Airport and entered a white event-style tent being used as a temporary facility, due to the damaged terminal. It was here that our team went through the immigration area and was met by Sint Maarten Lions representatives.
This was a well-advertised project by the Sint Maarten Lions, as information was distributed through the island newspaper, radio and TV media prior to the clinic.
An optometrist flying out of JFK in New York sat beside a woman traveling to Sint Maarten, she was telling about the major drive to exam the children for vision problems, not knowing that he was to be one of the optometrists involved with the project, EYES BRIGHTER FOR A FUTURE, sponsored by the Sint Maarten Lions Club.
Even after Hurricane Irma did her damage, hurricanes Jose and Maria brought heavy rains. A Lion member I ate lunch with was so happy that a man had arrived that day to fix her roof. The damage was done in September and she had been having towels and buckets on her floor for the past eight months.
We were transported to a resort hotel, one of a few that had been repaired, as many hotels were closed and some were being demolished, due to the extreme damage.
Hurricane causes problems for tourism
Tourism is the major industry for St. Maarten, making this hurricane disaster an economic problem for the island. Many people have left the island. Some people had no insurance. You see damaged, uninhabited homes, especially on the French side of the island. We worked on the Dutch side of the island, Sint Maarten, which shares the island with Saint Martin, a territory of France.A
Sint Maarten is an island country in the Caribbean and a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands with population of approximately 40,000 on 14 square miles, or 40% of the island, while the northern 60% is French.
We were offered a tour after clinic time and viewed areas where the Dutch West India Company began salt mining operations, which made this a successful colony, as they shipped salt to Holland. One salt pond now is a dump site, of which they are not proud of, and hope to change soon.
We viewed the Old Spanish Fort high upon a hill and were hoping we could visit, but found that it was under repair. We learned about the history of the island and their government through our Lion guide. The king is a royal monarch in name only and does visit the island every few years. A Governor is appointed by the Dutch Crown.
Our clinic was busy from Monday through Friday. On Thursday we had visits from many dignitaries of the island. The Minister of Education visited the clinic and spoke to the well- behaved children.
The governor made a visit
The governor also made a visit, along with the Prime Minister and the Chair-lady of Parliament. This was quite an honor. We worked through the many children making their way through the various stations around the clinic site, held in the Belair Community Center, while the visitors were much pleased with the organization of the project and the work done by the Lions Club of Sint Maarten. Friday was our busiest day while caring for approximately 750 children and teachers.
Our team of seventeen members coming from Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, California, Florida, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and of course Ohio included eight optometrists and one optician.
All members, except three, were well-seasoned VOSHERS with many missions under their belt. We were privileged to have 17 RN and LPN students, from a local medical college on the island, to assist with the screenings.
All children and teachers were examined by an optometrist and glasses were provided as needed. Nine referrals were scheduled to be seen by an ophthalmologist on the French side of the island. Some glasses were unable to be filled from our inventory that we carry with the team.
The scripts were taken back home and either filled at our local sorting center in Pandora or sent to an optometric laboratory here in Ohio. These are then mailed back to the island where an optician will be fitting the glasses, at no cost to the patient.
We were told that children’s glasses cost between $600 and $700 on the island, and many parents are unable to afford this expense. In fact we had a few cases where a child might be wearing glasses from a family member. A grand total of 2,795 patients were cared for during this time as recorded by registration, including three patients in a local hospital across the street.
The original number of expected children diminished as families fled the island after the disaster. Also if a signed form giving permission to care for the child was not completed by the parents, that child was unable to be seen in the clinic, thus reducing our expected total numbers.
We visited Philipsburg, the capital city that holds carnival starting in April and ending in May. We walked down Front Street where shops are set up for the influx of cruise ship guests. Some of our team members helped the local economy during their visit. English is mainly spoken on the island, even though our host, Lion Davey, speaks three languages. This made our clinic time easy, as no interpreters were needed.
The Dutch side of the island has many casinos. In fact one casino raised $46,000 at bingo and divided the proceeds with the Lions Club and another service organization. This helped to fund sponsoring the eyeglass clinic for the children.
Our tour of the French side of the island showed much vegetation dead from the ocean salt water washed in during the hurricane. In the low-lying areas the devastation was quite severe, as the houses had been completely under water at one time.
Hunkered down in a bunker
One of the Lions told us about being hunkered down in a bunker for a period of five hours as the hurricane passed over. It is hard to imagine, even when living in a hurricane belt and used to severe weather, how it would be by not knowing if your house would withstand such force. Many homes are built to withstand winds and storms to a certain degree, but a major storm does cause severe damage.
Our driver for the week was Russell. We visited a 300 acre park site near the coast where his family had erected a statue of his uncle and leased the area to the government. His uncle wasatallman,nearly7ft.tallandRussellwasproudofhisfamilyhistory. Russelldidthe coordination of the bus transportation that brought the children from the seventeen schools to and from the clinic, along with the transportation of the team.
The beaches are beautiful; however, once a year there is a seaweed type plant that does come close to shore from the ocean, forming a brown slick on the water. This does not interfere with the many sun bathers you see all around the island on the beaches. Numerous iguanas were sunning themselves also around the island. We had an opportunity to stop our travel and feed a banana leaf to the iguanas and have a photo shoot.
Margo is the capital of Saint Martin, the French side of the island. This side is known more for its food such as French pastries. We figured that gas was approximately $3.30/gallon as it is sold by the liter. There are only 37 square miles to drive around the island, but due to traffic at times, the driving can get rather slow. We traveled by numerous boats destroyed from the hurricane and still lying in the docks with repair possibly not feasible.
We completed our mission and visit with the friendly people of Sint Maarten flying home again through the Princess Juliana airport. It is here that the jets fly in low over Mullet Beach, a famous site on the island.
There is a fence located at the end of the runway, and as the planes fly out, people have found it a thrill to hang onto the fence and the exhaust from the jets will send these people horizontal, along with sand flying. A danger sign is posted and not too long ago a woman lost her life as she stumbled into the street, falling and hitting her head. Needless to say we were there but no one tried this activity.
