Day 6: Hodgepodge


Wow!  There’s so much to share and it’s overwhelming to try to write about it concisely.  Today was our last day of clinic for the trip.  We had our busiest day yet with 130 people fitted for glasses.  The final numbers haven’t been tallied yet, but that brings us somewhere near 450+ people served with more than 700 pairs of glasses and another 450+ pairs of sunglasses as well.


The attached video walks you through what our clinic looked like.  You enter into the courtyard and begin with the registration table.  Registrants then waited in the seating area of the courtyard where a short session on caring for your eye health was held and then the witness for Christ by either Pastor Rudy or Pastor David.  From there, registrants went to the nursing station where they discussed their eye health history and learned about the use of eye drops and received an eye dropper and a recipe for making their own eye drops.  Due to the altitude and the dust or dirt in many work environments, many of the people we saw have sore and dry eyes on a regular basis, and drops can be helpful.  From the nursing station, they were walked to the testing station, where we had two crews testing to determine their prescription.  Anyone who’s ever been to the eye doctor knows what this involves…this one or that one?  Number one or number two…


After their prescription was determined, they moved on to the pulling and dispensing station, where five of us worked to pull a selection of glasses at, just below, and just above where they tested.  Our testing flippers can only determine by the half measure, but we have glasses by the quarter measure, so the dispensing station is where we really nail down the best prescription for their final pick.  We also work to select glasses that are appropriate for gender and fit the face of each person.  Once the right pair of glasses - and sometimes two pairs if they need both reading and distance glasses  - has been selected, they move on to the final station, where fittings, repairs, adjustments, and cleaning take place.  Here, they also receive a glasses case and a pair of sunglasses, along with instructions for how to care for their glasses.  


This process is pretty remarkable when you think about it.  As a team, we are fitting and dispensing 15-30 pairs of glasses an hour.  So many of those we saw haven’t had glasses in a while and some had never had them, despite having terrible vision!


The ability to see clearly is definitely something we take for granted.


Tomorrow, we’re off to Antigua for a cultural day before heading home on Friday.  I look forward to sharing additional photos and experiences tomorrow!



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Organized Chaos: Morning of Day 1

Image
Good morning from Detroit Metro!    Getting a small family to the airport on time is enough of a challenge, and we’re a large family for purposes of this trip.    Fourteen REM-interrupted, inadequately caffeinated humans managed to show up on time (almost) and made it through security after the confiscation and testing of contraband peanut butter and other food stuffs and toiletries.    The new TSA security machines look like a mini MRI worms and everything has to go into the yawning maw of darkness.    For those of you wondering, yes, you still have to remove shoes, belts, sweatshirts, jackets, etc. and walk ignominiously through the scanner barefoot and feeling vaguely like you must have done something wrong. Having a good trip isn’t really about nothing going wrong…it’s about the grace with which you handle the inevitable hiccups. Now would be a good time to listen to Chris Tomlin’s excellent version of Amazing Grace (My Chains Are Gone).
Read more

Goodnight, Day 1!

Image
We’ve been awake for twenty hours now and this blogger’s brain is a pleasant mush.  This wasn’t just a travel day, but a productive one as well.  We went directly from the airport to “lunch” (no idea what meal or what time it was) and then to the church to set up the clinic.  Our host church - Christo Rey Lutheran Church and Pastor Rudy, have been preparing for us, making room and accommodations.  Pastor Rudy must be one of Guatemala’s top influencers, because his Facebook post about the eyeglass clinic was viewed by 15,000 people! 😳   Setting up the clinic requires staffing and sourcing five stations - Witness & Education, Nursing, Testing, Provisioning, and Fitting.  Most Ministries has the process down and we quickly unpacked our fourteen suitcases of supplies, arranged our stations, re-trained, and assigned ourselves to stations.  We expect tomorrow to be our busiest day, as more people will be off work and available to come. Did you know that...
Read more

Keeping Our Stomachs: Day 1

Image
Fourteen left; fourteen arrived!  If our airplane had been a bike when the pilot stood up on the brakes, we would have been flipping over the handlebars like so many Skittles.  😂  Katie, one of our leaders, is an expert at counting to 14!  Through three airports, two rounds of security, and a trip through customs, she and Liz kept us together.  This traveler’s suitcase got flagged and we had one extremely confused customs agent when he found 250 pairs of glasses in my suitcase. Guatemala has a rich history of culture, agriculture, architecture, and commerce.  Though Mexico is the leading exporter of avocados today, Guatemala is the original exporter.  It’s believed that the avocado tree originated in Guatemala and South-Central Mexico. The original aqueducts (below the current ones we’re seeing on our drive to the church) were built to bring fresh water into Guatemala City in 1776!  Guatemala is 5,000 feet above sea level, so our native host, Nur...
Read more