Introduction
I don’t know if I
could have found a more interesting subject for this assignment.
When I started
thinking some months ago about how to spend my 8-week my summer holiday, I knew
I wanted to do something to extend my photographic practice. I began looking around the internet for
classes, most of which seemed to be rather expensive and not in the direction I
would be travelling, toward my in-laws in Japan. I found a few organizations offering
internships with newspapers and magazines in several developing Asian nations,
but it seemed fees were too high for unpaid work experience. I then came upon Unite For Sight, a US-based NGO
supporting eye clinics in several developing countries and offering volunteer
opportunities to photography students. Three
of their network hospitals are in India, east of and very close to Dubai.
With a reference from
my OCA tutor and other supporting documents, my application to the program was
accepted and my plan set in motion: to
do this narrative assignment on some aspect of life at Kalinga Eye Hospital. Besides meeting my own needs, I wanted to do
work that would be useful to the hospital, but communication from India was
sparse. The NGO claimed the hospital
staff was busy and would be able to discuss things with me once I arrived.
