Halfway done – #Cusco16

Halfway done

Tuesday was, in many ways, the best day we’ve ever had.  And in a number of ways, it was one of the worst.

Let’s get the worst things out of the way.

• The local municipality had double-booked the plaza that our team is working in.  Tuesday was International Women’s Day (as you may have also seen on Facebook), so the people of San Sebastian put on quite a party, complete with dancers, a concert, and some amps and speakers that would make Def Leppard jealous.  Needless to say, our medical doctors couldn’t listen for heart/lung sounds. Crowd control was nearly impossible. Our broken Spanish is hard for them to understand in a quiet room, but you add in the concert, and it was very frustrating.
• For the first time in our 6 years of running the clinic, it really rained hard.  Most of our stations were underneath tents, but the line to enter the clinic was not.  Our clinic basically shut down for about 45 minutes during the middle of the day when people had already been waiting in line since 4:00am.
• Every year, our clinic is in a new location, so we have to work with the space and flow we are given.  This year, it was still not really in sync even yesterday.  We think we have finally worked out the bugs, but still didn’t hit our stride yet.

Then we met this family:

 

This little 12 year old girl on the left side of the screen came for us to check her eyes.  She had never had an eye exam or worn glasses before.  We found out that she is incredibly nearsighted.  If you wear glasses or contacts, you might have a power like -2.00 or even -6.00.  This little girl was -14.00 in both eyes with about -3.00 of astigmatism in both eyes.  She literally couldn’t see past her nose she was so nearsighted.  We found the highest powered pair of glasses we had (which was actually pretty close, and it was her size!), and gave her a brand new world.

 

Thank you again for your support and help

Despite all the frustrations of yesterday, the clinic saw 433 patients, 250 of which saw us at the optometry clinic.  Both of these set records for us in our 6 years of doing this medical campaign.   We are so grateful for all the support and prayers you have offered for us.