Cortical Visual Impairment with The Red Balloon Foundation

(https://www.theredballoonfoundation.org.za)

Christine Roman Lantzy, Ph.D.

Director, Pediatric VIEW Program, The Children’s Home of Pittsburgh

June 15, 2024

I am off to Johannesburg, South Africa for 3 weeks. It is a lengthy trip that will be focused on teaching about CVI, assessing children with CVI, mentoring those who attended previous trainings, and supporting families whose children are impacted by CVI. I continue to feel honored to share my points of view with people from a place so far away from my first thoughts about CVI. I am also grateful to The Children’s Home for supporting my ability to participate in this charity trip that will hopefully be impactful.

I am currently in hour 22 of this journey. I left my home in Pittsburgh at 10 AM on June 14 and will arrive late this evening on June 15. It’s a lot. I met up with my coworker, Lindsay Hillier in Amsterdam. I would have traveled with her from Canada but as many are aware, I am a “person of suspicion” in Canada. So, rather than being detained and questioned to the point of frustration, it seemed like a better idea for both of us to begin from our mutual home countries.

Things I wonder on long flights:

How can one plane be in the air so long without refueling?
What’s up with the so-called meals?
Do passengers check their manners with their luggage?
Is it against the laws of nature to see the sun rise multiple times in a 12- hour span?
Why do the complimentary headsets function like they were once used on my transistor radio in 1965?
Are flight attendants in fact, undercover prison guards? I asked for a bottle of water and the flight attendant’s response was akin to Oliver Twist requesting more gruel.
What is the secret to being able to sleep on a plane?

But in a few more hours, I will be through customs and our hosts, Antoinette and Terry will be transporting Lindsay and me to our conference site. I have packed lots of material about CVI, Pediatric VIEW and The Children’s Home to share in the upcoming weeks. I will try to share snippets of my time in South Africa by writing a casual blog and will share some images to make up for the time-zone shifting, sleep deprivation, no electricity experiencing writing style.