I have often talked about the surgical patients onboard, patients having large facial tumours removed, or their legs straightened, cleft lip babies getting a new smile. But there are also a large number of smaller eye operations taking place every day giving sight to the blind or almost blind. The Mercy Ships eye team perform hundreds of cataract operations in each field service, to date almost 800 cataract patients have been treated here in Congo. I often walk past the patients on the gangway as they are carefully guided up and down the steps, some of them holding on for dear life. A few weeks later the bandages are removed, and the same patients leave the ship with the biggest smiles on their faces trying to take in this big white ship and no longer needing a guide down the gangway.
After the operations the patients and team come together in a ‘celebration of sight’ to sing and dance together and rejoice in the gift of sight. For some people this means seeing their children or grandchildren for the first time; for others it means being able to go back to work and earn a living again. For me it is another reminder of the injustice between the two worlds that I know – one where a quick free operation is done for all in need, and the other where people remain blind due to lack of skill or money for this simple procedure.
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