Sunday
After a late breakfast in the hotel, where David and I gained crucial information about how to order our eggs??juevos revueltado? for ?scrambled? and ?juevos volteado? for ?flipped over??we sat in the lobby with Jane and a couple from Brookline who were passing through San Juan Del Sur to conduct an eye care clinic that they started about 10 years ago. After meeting David Gullette from Simmons, Marcia, a special ed teacher and literacy specialist; and Bruce, an optometrist and professor at NE College of Optometry (NECO), began traveling to Nicaragua to conduct eye exams and provide glasses to people throughout the country. On this trip, Bruce had brought 15 students from NECO for an intensive field course.
During a fascinating conversation, which picked up again that night over dinner at Jane?s house up on the hill in San Juan Del Sur, the connection between Bruce and Marcia?s work and the work of the Biblioteca Movil was, literally, brought into focus. Jane and Bruce began to lay the groundwork for a collaborative model which could put books into the hands of eye doctors and other mobile health professionals to distribute during their field clinics. We imagined the moment when a person–unable to read for her entire adult life because of a simple eye problem–could be handed a pair of reading glasses and a book to try them out on. These programs makes so much sense that they are almost impossible to believe.