Project Phongsali: We seek help for the visually impaired, a long journey for people who have never traveled beyond their village.

Sang has been severely visually impaired since childhood but has never been examined or treated by a qualified physician.

Day 58

Yai’s been gone for two days and phone contact with him has been frustrating.  He’s in Odumxai within easy range of cell phone towers so the problem must be on my end.  The three blind villagers that he’s guiding left here smiling, waving, and calling “bye-bye” to my camera, all happy to be headed for possible treatment.  “Happy”, I thought, but with hopes too high.  A sad situation.

When Yai got his first call through to me he must have distrusted our connection because he delivered his update rapid fire, wasting no time with small talk: he’d arrived, found a guesthouse, saw everyone fed, and made three appointments at the eye clinic.  “By the way, the blind fellow is sick and can’t stand up.   Goodbye”.

Hours later when we reconnected and Yai was able to provide details, he told me that all six villagers had been car sick almost from the moment they left camp and headed down the dusty, rutted road toward Muang May.  In Yai’s words, “Everyone was throwing away.  It was terrible, smell so bad”.

Upon arrival all recovered, more or less, except for Sang, the twenty-eight year old from Ta Moh village. An hour after climbing out of the truck was still having difficulty standing or walking.  I’m betting that, being blind, he’s having an especially hard time regaining his equilibrium after suffering so strong a bout of motion sickness.

The three blind villagers, San, Sang and Lune, couldn’t be in better hands.  Yai is about the biggest hearted person in a nation full of big-hearted people.  And, he’s calm in a crisis. I’m sure he’ll do whatever he can to help the villagers through the experience.  I made certain that he left here with enough “emergency money” to contend with a variety of problems.  Yai’s dependable about returning unused cash and accounting for expenses with receipts.