A Sad, But Sweet Goodbye

This week we finished doing eye exams at both the College and the Elementary School.  We thought you might be interested in knowing that in the past three weeks, we have completed 752 eye exams and given out 169 pairs of glasses.  And of course we look forward to doing many more.  This averaged 50 eye exams per day, although there were a couple of days where we did over 100 exams.   We did have to say a sad goodbye to all of our little friends at the elementary school.  Each day visiting there was full of fun, lots of hugs and their beautiful big smiles!  We also loved the principal and her staff, who were so helpful and kind.  They showered us with gifts on our last day.  Each child made or contributed to a card for us, so we have a huge pile of them.  Then the principal gave Rick a school shirt and me a woven purse, necklace and bracelet, the latter two, made by herself.  We were overwhelmed and so grateful!  It makes this experience so worthwhile.

How sweet of these kids and teachers to make us such beautiful cards!

Just a sampling of some of the cards......

 The above few pictures are of the Halloween dance at the Elementary school.  They had a crazy cat hat theme, each class had different hats.  We had a lot of fun dancing with these kids for an hour or so and this particular little girl, who was just a three year old sister of one of the children, decided to take a liking to me.  After she got over staring at me, she gave me the biggest smile and then just wanted to dance! Rick had lots of fun doing the Macarena, and teaching them how to do it!
Hate to disappoint you, but sorry no pictures of that!! Darn!

This student was very happy with her new glasses.
We found that all of the patients were very pleased with the new glasses.
Despite the glasses being used, and not always a perfect fit,
and not always the exact prescription, they were still thrilled to
have glasses that they would normally never be able to afford.

 We did do some more work at the College last week, but because the kids are in the middle of exams, it was a little difficult to get them to stay later to have their eyes checked, so we may return there at some time and get the last 20-30% of the kids.  This last picture is of the principals two little daughters.  They asked lots of questions and followed us around for awhile

For countless hours last week we sorted through boxes, cataloging and finding specific glasses from the previous three weeks.  Once we are caught up, we should be okay.

We have found a new love in Fiji, coconut buns.  Almost every day this week, we stopped by the bakery right near us and picked up one for lunch, or just a snack.  They are like a cinnamon bun, but with coconut throughout, instead of cinnamon.  So, so good!

November 7th was our 35th wedding anniversary.  We decided to splurge and go to one of the finest restaurant/hotels in Fiji.  It was called the Grand Pacific Hotel.  We had a wonderful meal and the lighting of the torches, the band, the great service and beautiful location on the ocean made it such a romantic and perfect place to celebrate.
The next day we drove just a short distance away from Suva to a little bay.

We had a great week in Fiji this week, we kept busy and are now looking forward to coming out of our comfort zone a little and visiting villages etc.  Keep tuned!