I saw the craziest thing behind my Georgian tutor’s apartment: a guy welding. Ok, that’s not the crazy part though-he wasn’t protecting his eyes with anything. He wasn’t even squinting! The brilliant white arc was just scorching his retinas. My eyes hurt just catching a glance from twenty feet away. He was staring at that arc like a farsighted man trying to read a nutrition label.How crazy was this guy? Suddenly, a thought shot through my mind, Georgians don’t wear glasses.
Flashes of every one of the 198 kids at my school shot through mind trying to recall if any of them wear glasses…. Not even one is bespectacled. I was walking around through the center of town looking for every man, woman, and child trying to spot some spectacles. No glasses to be seen. I saw some sunglasses, but only the ugly 90’s ones that are all the rage in this country for some reason. Had anyone else noticed this phenomenon? Not the ugly sunglasses trend (that’s very clear), but the glaring lack of real glasses.
Maybe other volunteers had noticed the same thing I had. I started asking around to others, and they were seeing the same thing as me. They mentioned seeing people in the capital, Tbilisi, wearing glasses, but I was focused on the rest of the country. Someone threw out the idea that maybe Georgians just have amazing eyesight, but I was skeptical. My inclinations led me to ask someone from the Caucasian persuasion, a Georgian, to get to the bottom of this once and for all.
I decided to speak with my counterpart because she’s my best (and only) consistent convenient option for daily cultural insights. In her opinion, parents don’t want their kids to look weak by wearing glasses. To make a long story short, glasses aren’t cool. People don’t want to be seen in glasses. GLASSES ARE FOR NERDS. The cost might be an issue as well, but I’m just spit-balling here. One thing is for certain though, Georgians do not possess super human 20/20 eyesight.
Georgia has a definite need for everyone to get an eye exam in this country. I would love to partner with an organization that would be willing to provide free eye exams and glasses to children who need it. Kids have a hard-enough time staying focused in school, and eyesight shouldn’t be the causation. Glasses are cool. I’m not just saying that because I wear them-my wife tells me I look great. If she’s saying it, it must be true.