I want to explain things with images. I want to convey feelings with words. I want to force myself to remember that paralysis feeds the fear that produces it, making this vicious circle the most dangerous. How difficult, isn’t it? To the point, then. A thousand hours on aeroplanes with my friend Pia, a “navy seal of the operating theatres” who knows, like me, that we are going on a humanitarian mission to help, but sharing the pressure and the demand to give our all. Nerves, anxiety, focus and commitment.

We collided in Barcelona with the equipment, microscopes, supplies, decartables and several unknown volunteers who are coming with us to Nigeria. Tension in the atmosphere. Elena takes the lead. Something we later learned was to be a truism and a blessing. We transformed a library into an operating theatre in one day. We started operating on the most challenging cases imaginable. Very low income patients, off the health radar, speaking local dialects and little English. The eyes selected for intervention are those that are the most compromised (several bordering on absolute blindness). The energy of Elena @elenabarraquer, that “great little being”, infects us all and in less than 48 hours we become a futuristic machine that generates vision and smiles in those who come in for surgery. Each member of the team gives 100% to the universe around us. We are all proud of each other.

Not only intraocular lenses for hypermature cataracts, we also exchanged disability for hope and anguish for joy. The amount of things we experienced and learned cannot be put into words, at least for now. The funnel of what happened is too small for so much. It wasn’t 10 days of giving everything and receiving more, it still is and will continue to be.

I’m sorry Elena, I don’t think you’ll be able to get rid of me in the next expeditions.

After what I’ve lived and now more than ever, #NOMASCATARATAS

Fernando Mayorga Argañaraz – Surgeon

How can I describe in a few words what I experienced?

For me, it was a whole week of different emotions…. uncertainty and anxiety at the beginning. A unique experience in my life thanks to Fer @chorguis, Elena and the @fundacionelenabarraquer a dream I had for years has come true.
I loved sharing these days with all of you, everyone did their best to make sure everything went well, there was camaraderie and teamwork.

It was a pleasure to see the happiness on the faces of the patients who arrived with fear and left with a smile on their faces? Thank you again for inviting me to experience what is beautiful, incredible, exhausting, stressful and, at the same time, so rewarding!

I loved meeting you all and sharing so much.

Pia Ferrari – Instrumentalist