Waiting Lines...

This week, we spent our time at two churches, seeing lots of adults.  

Each day, Rick examined between 90 and 99 patients, and I gave out 

about 80 to 85 glasses.  We were exhausted by the end of each day, 

but it was a "good" tired, knowing we were helping to change 

many people's lives for the better by allowing them to see much better.

This was a week of many line ups with some people waiting several hours to 

have a simple eye exam.  To ensure that they would get an eye exam some 

would come two hours before we even arrived.  It was sad and difficult, 

at the end of each day, to have to turn away 30 to 60 people.

We met two wonderful stake presidents, as shown below.  These are dedicated men who love their "flock", and would make any sacrifice to help them out.  They would stay all day with us to assist us in translation and organizing the crowds.  

President Varea

President Tagidunu

Many of these people (in their 50's, 60's, and 70's) told us this was their first eye exam, ever!  Rick found several people who had "Pterygiums" growing across 

their corneas.  We have seen this a lot here and if left untreated could cause 

them to go blind.  We've pictured a couple of them below:

This lady (below) had a severe case of keratoconus.  This is a disease where 

the apex of the cornea pokes out like a cone and becomes very distorted, 

making it very difficult to see.  If you look closely at her cornea 

(from these two angles), you will see that the cornea really pokes out there.

This patient with Keratoconus was very happy with her new glasses,
even though glasses can't fully correct her vision with this disease.

A cute picture of sisters

This group of 5 ladies popped over to the church to have their
 eyes examined, all wearing their matching outfits from work.

Each Thursday, Rick invites all the young men over for supper, and then play different kinds of games.  Last week, they played a fun card game.  This week, 
they did a number of "minute-to-win-it" challenges balancing dice on a table 
knife in their mouths, as well as balancing dice or ping-pong balls in the 
plate on their head.  They are very nice boys and are so excited to be finally 
having some young men activities!

One sad thing this past week, was that we went to the funeral for a 1 year old girl who died of meningitis.  She was the daughter of the principal of the high school where we first did eye exams when we arrived in October.  Instead of a funeral, they called it a "Mortal Graduation Ceremony", the parents both spoke about faith and the Plan of Salvation, it was so heart-wrenching but also uplifting.

Can you see the long name of the child who passed away?
Esalynn Rose Salailagi Qoliwasawasa Malani Maiwirwiri

After the funeral, I had to take a picture of a couple of young boys, 
who were so cute wearing their Sulu's.

This young man was serving the punch after the funeral,  from a big cooler.  We were later told that it's the custom to pour the drink powder into the water and mix it up by swirling their hand in the drink. Interesting?

We attended a Seminary Graduation.  It's their custom to wear "Salu-Salu's" around their neck at graduation, sometimes multiple ones.  
Don't they look wonderful!

Three different Salu-Salu's, one of them edible!

One day off, we spent by the ocean, and Rick took the opportunity to spend 
some time kayaking in the ocean.  This was on the other side of the island, 
where there are some nice beaches and it is also a little hotter.

Well, good-bye for another week.  

We will post more next week, thank you for following us!