We delivered high quality eye exams and eyeglasses to 955 patients today. Later this week we plan on seeing up to 1,500 people per day. Our volunteer group has been outstanding, including the Lions International Club, the local military base, the local high school and university English classes and various international missionaries from the Church of Later Day Saints.
We saw two particularly interesting patients today. The first case involved a partially blind older gentleman, and the second case involved a deaf and mute lady. Both cases brought tears to our eyes and smiles to our hears. We turned two particularly tough situations into success stories.
An older gentleman with glasses came into our Clinic today. Although he had corneal scars in his left eye, which effectively left his blind in the left eye, he still had a great smile and a good spirit. Unfortunately, his old glasses were broken and tragically, the right lens was broken. Imagine trying to use the left lens of your glasses when you can only see out of your right eye. The good news was that we found him a pair of glasses (unlike his old pair that was broker), both of these lenses worked. The gentleman left our clinic very happy. His "never say die" attitude made a difference to our volunteers and certainly encouraged us to continue to work hard. The rain showers last night certainly didn't dampen his spirits.
The second case involved a deaf and mute lady. Communication was hard given her personal limitations. In fact, we needed two volunteers to even get her into the Clinic. She was wearing a purple polka dotted dress. Similar to the partially blind man, she was definitely a sweet lady. Our deaf and mute lady needs cataract surgery. But in the meantime, our able team of doctors and opticians determined that she could benefit from a strong pair of reading glasses and with some new sunglasses. We dispensed a pair of +3.00 reading glasses, along with some new sunglasses. The fun part is that we had to play a game of sureades in order to determine what worked and what would improve her quality of life. The most important thing to her was to be able to sew. It worked. She got her readers and sunglasses and was happy as a lark.
That's it for today. Signing off from El Salvador, your "roving reporter". Bye.
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