10
Sep
2018
TX
United States

Travel days are either 

  • Monday the 10th (early evening flight) from Dallas to Chihuahua on American (2 hr non-stop) returning on Sunday the 16th (flight leaves around 12:35pm and arrives about 3:35pm - although there is another flight that leaves 6am for anyone who really wants to do that to themselves).
  • Tuesday the 11th returning the 16th

The main difference between the two travel days is that those leaving monday will stay overnight in Chihuahua City Monday and travel to the clinic (about 120 mile drive) on Tuesday morning so that they will have an on-site orientation/ training before the organized chaos of seeing patients starts Wednesday.

We will see between 600 and 1,000 eye patients from Wednesday thru Friday and do probably 200 - 350 surgeries (mostly cataracts). We've been told that we provide about 60% of the eye care for the indigent population of the state of Chihuahua.

While we always look for Optometrists, Opticians, Dentists (we have a three chair dental room), eye surgeons and scrub nurses; we have plenty of things for people without a medical background to do. Examples include 

  • Translating (our patients speak spanish and Low German), 
  • Working in pre-op preparing patients for surgery
  • Sterilization (getting instruments ready for surgery and dentists)
  • Optical - fitting people for glasses and making lenses
  • Eye screening (using machines to do the initial readings for the doctors)
  • Patient management (moving patients through the various stations)
  • Circulators (people who run the instruments between surgery and sterilization)
  • Photography and video (I post live while I'm down there)
  • Construction (we always have some project going on)
  • Cooking (we make breakfast while the local communities make lunch and dinner - and the food is great)

Costs for the clinic are basically

$350 volunteer fee (covers meals, lodging, ground transportation in Mexico, and a T-shirt, water and some soft drinks)

    35  Annual fee paid at first clinic per calendar year

  600  Airfare from Dallas to Chihuahua city (this is subject to change). If people have miles or want to arrange their own 

          transportation, that is ok too - as long as they are at the right place and at the right time for our ground transportation.

 

Other optional costs include 

  • $10 or $15 for additional shirts, 
  • perhaps about $100 for activities if we go to the Copper Canyon (zip-lining, and rappelling)
  • Whatever people want to spend on Alcoholic beverages
  • Perhaps $10 - $40 for snacks or extra food in Chihuahua city or at the airports

Many people go down with $40 of cash and return with almost all of it.

Our web site is www.guerreroclinic.org (where the application is posted) and our facebook page is "guerrero clinic"

Contact info is Robert@GuerreroClinic.org and my cell is 214-213-6808