We love these Fijian People

This week, we did eye exams at three different churches.  Most of our patients were adults, many of whom needed reading glasses.  Each day we worked from 8:45am to 4pm (with a 10 minute lunch break) examining 75 to 85 patients, giving out about 60 reading glasses, and 10 glasses for distance vision.  We take lots of reading glasses with us so that we can hand them out right away, but the distance glasses are kept at our home.  After a full day of work, we still have a couple of more hours to spend finding certain prescriptions to take the next day.  It was quite an exhausting week, we were excited for the weekend!

We start each day by loading up all of our equipment into our SUV
before driving out to the destination for the day.

       

This chapel (pictured below) that we were at for a couple of days,  was the first one built in Fiji.
In 1955, David O McKay prophesied in a meeting of 18 people, that one day they 
would have a church overlooking the ocean (above is view from chapel, ocean in background.

We spent a day at the service center, examining the workers 

There is always a line up of 30 or more people waiting for us when 

we first arrive, and continues to grow throughout the day.  

They don't seem to mind the wait, as it becomes their social event 

of the week, as they visit with each other while waiting in line.

To make sure they come in the right order, each person is given a ticket with a number.  Once we have given out 75 or more tickets, we cut off the line, and tell them to come the next day.
Word soon gets out, and so more and more people come line up each day.

 After the patient writes their name and age on the form, I begin the pretesting.

Then Rick goes through the eye exam with each patient

On this particular day, it was very hot outside (with no wind, and so it got extremely hot in the exam room, causing us to sweat profusely.  When we got home, it felt good to shower and change into dry clothes. 

Okay, maybe I'm not getting any sympathy!  I'll try to avoid any 

further mention of how hot it is here in Fiji!

There was one young man who came in with a tiny, but very painful, piece of metal in his eye, that he had put up with for 3 days now.  His father had tried flushing it out with water, but it still wouldn't come out.

It took a little while to find it, but we manged to, before long.
Rick then put anesthetic in his eye, and using special tools
was able to remove it

The boy's dad decided to help out by shining the flashlight right in his eye

This is me and the stake president, President Varea.
He came every day, and stayed with us all day long while we worked. 
 It is the Fijian way, it shows respect and gratitude.

Many of the women in Fiji wear jumba sulu's.  They are usually bright and pretty and 
quite comfortable.  I thought I would have one made for myself so I could fit in with 
the other women, this is me in my new jumba sulu.  Also added a few of the cute 
ladies we see every day, kind of makes you smile!!

Don't all these ladies just brighten your day?

 On a day off, we took a 5 hour return trip to a remote village, named "Navala" toward the center of the Fiji island.  We decided as a gift, we would give them some reading glasses to give to those in need in the village.  

This is one of several bridges we crossed while traveling to this village.
Some of the bridges have no side rails, and can be a little more scary to cross.

This is what the village looked like as we got closer.  

Instead of tin houses, this village is full of the Bures with thatched roofs. It
is one of the most beautiful of villages we have seen so far

This is the guide who took us around the village. Before entering the village,
I changed from shorts into a skirt, it is the respectful thing to do.
We also have to  take off sunglasses and hats.

This is one of the outhouses in the village.

This is one of the "Cook Houses", where they can cook
without heating up their own Bures (houses).

This lady is using a big "Cane" knife to get into her coconut.
She then let us drink the liquid out of the end of the coconut.
I checked, and yes, she does still have all of her fingers!

This other lady, then scraped out the flesh of the coconut for us to have a taste.
It was soft and white, and tasted amazingly good.

We left most of the coconut to share with these young kids.
They seemed to really enjoy it, too.

 These are some of the school kids in the village.  

They love getting their picture taken. 

Our guide showed us her adorable little baby lying on a mat in one
of the Bures, playing with the weaved fan in her hands.  I so 
wanted to pick up that baby and give it a hug, but felt I had better
not do that, wasn't sure if that would be good ettiquette

 On Friday evening, we dropped by the high school where we first did eye exams when we arrived in Fiji.  They were in the middle of their formal graduation dinner and dance.  Down here in the southern hemisphere, their summer is just beginning now.  

This is the Principal (Salote Mawiriwiri) of the High School, and her husband.
When we showed up, they told us they were so happy we dropped by, and to
make sure we stayed for the meal and dance.  Good old Fijian hospitality!

 Doesn't everyone look great in their formal attire?

They then had all the graduates line up for photos.

After eating a nice Fijian meal, you can see that these ladies enjoyed the fruit skewers.

This is my new calling, I teach these wonderful kids in Sunday School.
Three of my kids are away this day.  It's a big class!

Rick's new calling is as a Young Men's adviser.
This is his class.  Two of the seven are missing.
It's a fun group!

Every month our ward has a 'linger longer'.
It's a great time to get to know everyone better

We are sure enjoying all of the experiences 

this Humanitarian Mission is providing us.