Opportunity knocked on our door one February morning, an e-mail came through from Dr. Santosh Honavar from the LV Prasad Eye Institute in Hyderabad, India. He was looking for summer interns in ophthalmic photography and audio-visual production. Knowing an opportunity such as this would never surface again, we just couldn't say "No." The experience is something we will use as a valuable tool for our careers in the future.

The responsibility put forth on us preparing to travel to a third world country was enormous, though imperative for survival. The first step was applying for a passport and a visa. The next step was receiving the immunizations. They were: Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Meningococcal Meningitis, Polio Booster, and pills for Malaria. Between all the preparations for traveling to the other side of the world and all the people who told us we were crazy; we realized we were in for quite a life experience but you can never know what it was like unless you experience it for yourself.

The lifestyle in India would take anyone's breath away. It is filled with disease, starvation, and pain day in and decade out. Upon arrival in India, you see hundreds of severely poor men, women and children. They yell for your glance, and yearn for the touch of wealth. Arriving in the beginning of June which is known as the hot season of the year, was a surprise to us. Every limb is swollen from the extreme heat and perspiration stung our eyes as it poured over our brows.

Housing for most families consists of a few wooden poles buried into the ground and a piece of fabric to shield the blazing sun while the women cook meals in the dirt. When this is happening you want to give everything you have. The streets are lined with people as far as you can see. When we gave food to the unfortunate, they would tear into the bag, shove the food into their mouths and rock their bodies back and forth as if they found comfort in their mothers arms again. The camera in our hands would pay for an entire family to survive for at least five to six years.

L.V. Prasad Eye Institute's accommodations for us were outstanding. They had a guest house for us to stay in as well as for five other girls from Australia. L.V. P. supplied us with a refrigerator, t.v. and cable (we watched Chicago Hope....um yeah we were roughin' it), kitchen supplies, an air cooler, furniture and yes, we had western style toilets. All these luxuries made all that much easier to live day to day in India. Our internship at the Institute consisted of us being rotated between the different departments which utilized photography.

Young patient with retinal blastoma.

Our responsibilities included slit lamp photography and videography, fluorescein angiography, fundus photography, surgical photography and videography, external photography, video production, and darkroom procedures. At first we were very overwhelmed by the severity of the pathologies as well as the total number of patients seen each day at the Institute. We soon adapted to the situation and even became comfortable photographing patients despite the obvious language barrier.

A normal day included starting at 8 a.m. performing fluorescein angiograms until noon. Then we would change into scrubs and head to the surgical theatres to photograph a surgery, for example an enucleation of an eye or cataract surgery. After lunch we would then rotate between departments to see if there were any patients to be photographed. Most of the time we could be found photographing patients in the corneal research department or helping the doctors document external eye diseases.

As we came to an end of our stay we were asked to produced a video of ophthalmic photography and its proper techniques, not only for the incoming optometry students but also for the benefit of the doctors. This became a whole other learning experience considering neither of us had ever produced a video before. The final challenge was presenting the video to a board room of ophthalmologists hoping the techniques would be appropriate for their practical use.

As an internship this experience had many ups and downs, but as a life experience it was more that we could have ever hoped for. Not only did we gain valuable experience in the field of ophthalmic photography we also realized what would be appropriate for their practical use.

How lucky we really are to have the opportunities we have, and to have our basic necessities met everyday. Both of us would like to thank the staff at L.V. Prasad Eye Institute , especially Dr. Honavar and Miss Shobha for making our experience in India a memory never to be forgotten. Someday we will return to India to visit the friends we made and experience this incredible country yet again.

Denise Armiger and Kelly DeBoer

As a special note, I would like to thank the BPA and the EFFE committee for making my trip to India possible.

Kelly DeBoer