Tuesday 7/14

For some of us, it was another busy day at the eye clinic. Once again, our autorefractor was slow to awaken, but once it decided to work for us, the rest of the day went smoothly. Karen, Kristen, Shirley, and our new translator, Dulce, worked in the autorefractor room doing the initial assessments and screenings with the machine and the eye charts. Jenn and George and Jacobo assisted with the glasses fittings, and a handful of AP students assisted with check-in and as hall monitors. Once again, we were able to treat patients ranging in age from about 8 years old to 86 years old. For the 86 year old man, this was his first time to ever have someone check his eyes. We saw 81 patients today and gave out 87 pairs of glasses. Not bad for one day's work. The best part was that we were able to see everyone who showed up and didn't have to turn away a single person due to lack of time or resources. Praise the Lord!

The other team members spent the morning working at the Sra. Umanzor's kindergarten and a few of them returned in the afternoon for several hours. Cecelia joined us at the eye clinic to learn about the routine there and receive hands-on training working the autorefractor and doing the calculations for the eyeglass fittings.

Several of us from the eye clinic had our first opportunity to ride in the ever popular taxis as we went to the ranch for lunch and returned to the hospital. While the roads in Quimistan were a bit uneventful though bumpy, the ride on the highway in one of those taxis with 18 wheelers whizzing by at full speed was slightly disconcerting. Thankfully, we only had to do this going one direction.

The evening wrapped up with supper and a meeting with Danilo Saguero and Dario Pachecho to discuss the Quimistan Valley Scholar (QVS) program.

Karen