The life and times of an optometrist: iCare trip to Negril, Jamaica part 1

At the end of October I flew out to Jamaica with a friend and colleague (Heather) as part of the iCare initiative run by Great Shape Inc., an American charity that provides a variety of services to the people of the Caribbean including dentistry, teaching the teachers and eye care. The iCare initiative has been running for 9 years, this year was the 10th year. This year it ran two projects in Jamaica, and one in Turks and Caicos. I went to the second week in Jamaica which was based in the west of Jamaica in Negril.

After getting up very early, about 5:40, to get a 9:45 flight we were on our way to Miami for a few hours of wandering around shops and trying to buy stamps for postcards. For reference you can't buy stamps in American airports for some stupid reason! A few hours later we were on last short flight down to Montego Bay, and then another 90 minutes of transfer to the resort. By the time we got to the resort it was about 22:00 local time but felt like 4 in the morning to us! So it was quick check in, finding rooms, saying brief hello to room-mates for the week before passing out with exhaustion.

Bob Marley statue in Time Square

Our first day in Jamaica was spent acclimatising to the weather, in Heather's case the gym, in my case getting a sneaky scuba dive in and trying to recover from the jet-lag. We then went for a walk down towards the town of Negril to do some souvenir shopping, pick up some post cards and get a feel for the area. The locals were really friendly although a little confused that we actually wanted to walk the couple of miles down to town rather than get a taxi. We caught a taxi back after a successful trip round Time Square, yes the mall (collection of 20 shops) is called Time Square, so we could watch the sunset. The sunset in Negril is truly stunning.

Sunset with a photobombing pelican

Sunday morning started with a brisk walk down the beach to enjoy the weather before fighting off the birds at breakfast, they really are persistent, before heading across the road to start the induction for the week, meet everyone and be told how it was all going to work for the week. We also donated some toys which are currently being donated to kids around Jamaica as part of the Sandals Foundation toy drive. In total there were 49 of us ranging from optometrists, student optometrists, ophthalmologists, dispensing opticians, student dispensers, lab technicians. nurses and retired engineers. Most were from various parts of the United States with a few Canadians and Heather and I as the sole British representatives. A lot of people were returners with some having done as many as 7 previous trips with iCare and a few had already done the mission to Ochi 2 weeks before.

The iCare Negril team

In the afternoon we headed down to Little London, where our clinic would be based for the week. Little London is a pleasant 30 minute drive from the resort, if you can cope with the randomness of Jamaican drivers. We were based in the Fellowship Church of God and it's neighbouring church hall. We spent the afternoon rearranging the church so there was a nice flow through all the different sections of booking in, nurses, visions, pre-tests, triage, refraction, pathology, laser, sunglasses and dispensing/lab in the church hall. As you can imagine doing all this lifting and moving in 28 degree heat was a little hot and sweaty so we were all grateful when we had finished and were able to go back to the resort to get changed and relax for the evening before bracing ourselves for the week to come.