No, not a Motorcycle, a Bicycle!

The twin towns of Cayo, San Ignacio and Santa Elena, are separated by the Macal River with two bridges that cross. One, the low bridge goes into San Ignacio while the other, the Hawksworth Bridge a.k.a. The High Bridge, leaves San Ignacio going into Santa Elena. Last Thursday, Brad and I went across the High Bridge to do our grocery shopping on the cheaper side of town before catching our bus, as is our usual custom. While climbing the steep hill that is immediately after the bridge, I looked up the road to check for traffic. Since this is a one way area, my quick glance confirmed there was no one coming the wrong way so I diverted my attention to the traffic coming across the b

ridge as I crossed the street. Before I knew what was going on, I had been thrown across the street. Puzzled, damaged and trying and figure out what just happened, I realize I am laying in the road. I jump up, to my ankles dismay and hobble out of the street just as a car drives by. Brad runs to my side to assess the damage and asks where my glasses are. By this time, a car had already driven over them and they were in a million pieces in the road. Shocked, hurt and unable to see very well my brain started wheeling over the recent decision to leave Belize due to a lack of funds. With just enough money to hold out until our flight I looked down at what remained of such a huge part of my life and each shard looked like little dollar symbols being ran over in the street. I had a melt down. The glasses were the final blow! I had a scratch on the rt lens that a puppy of the Samuel twin's chewed into it in the tenth grade so I know I can date them to at least early high school. No matter how crazy of a night I had or how adventurous of a trip I engaged in, I had never lost or broken my glasses. I am now 34 years old and therefore have had those same pair of specks

8 days later.

for more than half my life. When I regained my wits, I searched for the cause of all this disarray and saw a terrified young man on a bicycle. Yes, a regular old foot powered bicycle. I have no idea where he came from or why the hell he ran rite into me but the look on his face told me he just knew I was going to go off on him. To his surprise, I did not get upset with him, hell, I never even asked why or how he hit me. He was on the verge of tears himself and I already knew there was no way he could afford to buy me a new pair of glasses. I told the boy he could go after I gave him an old lady lecture on paying attention and what if he had hit a girl half my size..... I have seen a little girl get hit by a biker. He hit her so hard, he flew over his own handle bars and rolled about three times across the road. When the little girl tried to stand up, she passed out. The whole family came out of the house, the women to get the girl and the men armed with sticks to get the biker. The biker got his bloody self on his bike and took off. After my accident, Brad helped me get to the closest place to sit, a dingy little bar called Compari's, and called a close friend for a place to stay in town for the night. While waiting for my friend to finish work, we had a couple drinks at the bar while listening to all the lectures about how I should have made that boy pay for what he did. I tried to tune everyone out as my head was in a lot of pain and I had a softball sized knot just below my knee that was quite effectively distracting me. After, maybe too many drinks and definitely too much money was spent, we went to crash at my pals house.

***Let me back track for a minute. Many of you are probably wondering why in the hell I have been wearing the same pair of glasses for over 15 years. The following may be a topic where folks want to point out how my logic is flawed, that's fine but it's your opinion. I have lived this and it is what I feel...When I was first told I was going to need to wear glasses, my brother and I had the exact same script but in the opposite eyes. I, being the studious type back then, wore my glasses all day so I could read the chalk boards and because I was told I was supposed to. My brother, on the other hand, was a bit older and more conscious of public opinion and was embarrassed to wear his. Over the years I grew so dependent on my glasses that there was no way I could go out without them. My brother, who was still refusing to wear them, didn't need them to see to drive or to read far away. I began to think about why my eyes were getting worse rapidly and my brothers were not. It boiled down to one difference, I had allowed my eye muscles to rely on my glasses to focus instead of exercising these muscles and keeping them in shape. My brother refused to wear his and let his eyes work to focus for him. At that point, I decided I would only increase my prescription when I exhausted the ability of my current pair of glasses. To this day, my brother only uses his glasses for night driving and I need mine for everything but close up reading.

Last year Brad and I were in Va. for three months. I was aware it was time for a new pair and tried to set up an eye exam. Without insurance, most offices wouldn't give me an appointment and those who would were asking anywhere from $70US to $250US for the exam. If you have read our blog, you will know this is outside of our price range. I did have a newer script from the time I was working at Intel and tried to use this for my new pair. No Go! Your prescription must be less than a yr old for you to be able to use it. We decided we would wait until we were back in Belize to go thru all of this. The time and money were never right and I probably would have gone a few more years with my old trusty pair.***

The aftermath.

Having never been with out my glasses, the plan was to make an appointment the next day to procure my next pair of eyes. We all got up early, early and waited for the city to wake up while trying to make light of all the colours I was turning. Here I want to remind folks that Belize is a small country and I guess it can function with just two optometrist in the Cayo area and one of them serves Cayo, Belmopan and Belize City. No one would be available until the following Tuesday (and it was now Friday.) On Tuesday, I received a call from the Dr.s secretary asking to reschedule as they did not have enough appointments to warrant the Dr.'s services for that day. So, finally, on Thursday, in less than 15 minutes, I received my new prescription. YAY!

So, what am I trying to say in this blog? I'm not entirely sure but here are a few things I have recently learned. It only cost me $55Bz to get my new prescription, compared to at least $140Bz in the states. If you are an optometrist and are thinking of relocating to a tropical environment, we could use you down here. You don't have to be in a motorized accident to get a little whip lash. Everything is a bit easier to handle when you have the help of good friends.

Thanks for reading my rant and don't forget to look both ways!