Back in January I wrote a little something about the Wavy Gravy documentary, The Wavy Gravy Movie - Saint Misbehavin' (Help me to be the best Wavy Gravy I can muster). I was able to check it out of my local library and highly recommend it as something to watch to lift your spirits on a long winter night.
One of the amazing episodes in the film is his merry band of compatriots traveling from Europe to Bangladesh in a couple of buses to bring relief supplies after the cyclone of 1970.
“We could embarrass these governments, who would say, ‘My God, there’s hippies doing this: we can do it better’"
They didn't make it to Bangladesh due to martial law being declared so took a side trip to Nepal instead.
From the Wavy Gravy biography (wavygravy.net)
Another great Hog Farm adventure set the stage for Wavy's participation in the founding of Seva. Recruited by San Francisco underground radio pioneer Tom Donahue and Warner Brothers Records to travel around the country and be filmed for a movie called Cruising for Burgers, later renamed Medicine Ball Caravan, the Farmers bused themselves across America, setting up stages for mainstream rock and rollers. After one last concert with Pink Floyd in Bishopsbourne, England, the Farmers pooled their movie pay and some funds raised for them from a benefit staged by a London commune and continued their trek across Europe. "It was around the time of the great Pakistani flood," Wavy remembers, "and relief was pouring in so very, very slow. There was a line of Gandhi's that hit me at that time, it was something like, 'If God should appear to starving people, God would not dare to appear in any form other than food.’ We'd had so much attention from that free kitchen at Woodstock, we thought if we were in Pakistan with any kind of food, we could embarrass the large governments, and they would speed up the food relief. Then the Indo-Pakistani war broke out, and we hung a left into K-K-K-Kathmandu, distributing food and medical supplies to Tibetan refugee camps as we traveled. We fixed leaky roofs with rolls of plastic and built a playground in Kathmandu for impoverished kids. We also saw a tremendous number of blind people in Nepal."
This lead to Wavy's involvement in the founding of the
SEVA Foundation. Here's a short video on the history of the founding of SEVA
I have a personal connection with blindness since back in 1983 I was diagnosed with cataracts. I had the one in my right eye removed and then on New Years eve I developed a 270 degree retinal tear, the retina just peeled away from the back of my eye. Several surgeries later, the eye hemorrhaged and shrunk into a useless piece of tissue.
Discussing options with my doctor, the chance of the same thing happening to my left eye was too great to think about removing the cataract in my left eye so we left it there. It progressed to the point that I became legally blind. This was really fucked up because I was starting a career in television production and was pretty damn good. Well shit!
After 8 years of partnering with a white cane, I decided after consulting with my doctor that we would give it shot and remove the cataract. This involved a 4 hour operation that included a vitrectomy as well as the cataract removal.
Success!!!!!!!!!!!! With a contact lens I now have 20/15 vision (just put a new one in yesterday).
What I did during my blind time and since is a whole other story. Suffice to say I spent a lot of time volunteering in projects to help the helpless.
So as the season of giving rolls around why not give the gift of sight by checking out and donating to the SEVA foundation.
Let there be sight
Every five seconds someone around the world goes blind. There are 285 million people worldwide who suffer serious vision impairment. Of those cases, 90% occur in the developing world, and eight out of ten cases are caused by easily preventable or curable conditions such as cataract - fixed by what here in the western world is considered a quick and simple surgery.
Over the past 35 years, Seva has restored eyesight to nearly 3.5 million people worldwide, focusing our efforts on building sustainable eye care programs.
Seva's programs focus on bringing services to places where there is little-to-no eye care for the majority of the population, in places like Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Nepal, Tanzania and many other locations around the globe.