After two days off the clinic it was fairly hard for everyone to get up and be at the bus at 07:15. Barb was slightly late did get to wear the cheerleading uniform the whole day and do a cheer for us during morning brief. This got everyone in a good mood and the day started off well.
Throughout the day we were able to help 2236 patients. We had a lot of exciting and moving moments when we were able to help patients that had not seen for a long time or had never had glasses. The three most moving stories will follow.
A 42-yr old woman came to the prescription station and presented Ron with a -23 and being very nearsighted. The woman had never had glasses before and literally could see anything clearly no further away than 2 inches from her nose. Ron was able to find her a pair of glasses with the help of Cynthia that were -12, approximately half of the prescription she needed. The moment we put the glasses on her, she was excited how clearly she could see although we were not even able to give her a perfect match. At that point Alan walked up to see what the excitement was about and suggested to try and piggy-back a second pair of glasses to attempt to give her an even better result. Ron went to IMS to find a smaller pair that was able to be fitted onto the first pair and managed to make the prescribed glasses up to -20. This almost gave the woman perfect sight and her amazement was apparent. As this moved us a lot this story is not over yet.
Ron offered to make her the perfect glasses when he gets back to his office in Detroit, MI and send them to her, so she will be able to see with one pair of glasses in the very near futures. We truly gave her the gift of sight.
Another moving story we came across was a mother that had a -16. We managed to get a pair of glasses that were -10.Although her little son did not have a sheet and was not supposed to be checked, Michael Siebert proposed to check him as well. He was checked although he did not have myopia but he had 4 diopters of stigmatism and we made sure he received glasses. The woman also had a 3 months old daughter, Michael explained to her how important it was to check the daughter in, as she would probably face difficulties in sight as well when she grew older.
We are seeing a lot of high cylinders, which are due to genetic reasons and not as common in first world countries; making it quite difficult for us at this point of the clinic to find perfect matches for everyone. Nevertheless everyone is trying really hard to find a very close match and a pair of glasses that matches age and gender.
The last story we have for today which really moved those in dispensing was of two little boys. One got a big pair of old glasses and the other pair was pink. Dana (our birthday-kid of today as we keep on celebrating birthdays throughout our trip..) did not want to supply the boys with what was given to her. She went to get Chabellas for one of them. She told the little boy she was putting them onto, that they were specially made for him. The boy started crying because he was so moved. Dana however realized these glasses were not intended for the boy that got them and had to call him back. Moved by how he reacted she went down to Shawn to get another pair of Chabellas for him as well. The outcome was more than worth it.
Tonight is silent auction and everyone is now putting in their items to fundraise money for the gift of sight foundation. Trying to rise the price people walk around praising their items to everyone else.
We will of course try to raise more money than previous missions all depending upon generosity, probably creativity of items that can be bid upon and the supports of you guys out there who can support us as well ....online!! ( pls. see website www.givethegiftofsight.com and look for team chile 2008 team leader tim mohrhaus - thanks for supporting us in advance!)
Finishing tonight we want to wish Dana a great birthday and all that she wishes for to come true. She has been so cheerful and supportive to everyone in the team, volunteers and of course to the patients. Stay the way you are "cow-girl".
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