Busy Busy week!!

This was been another busy week, this time working six days in a row.  We saw a variety of patients at four different churches.  Our biggest day was 102 patients, and then had to turn away many who were still waiting and wanting an eye exam.

I got quite close to these three kids, they loved to help me out

This little girl wouldn't leave me alone for some reason.  It was quite sweet.

This boy, named Eli, became our friend, and hung around all day.
He even raced home to his village and brought back some cooked
corn on the cob for us, freshly picked from his family's garden.

This is Silosi, he is a young man in my Sunday School class as well as in the Young Men with Rick.  We have gotten to like him a lot and invited him to come with us to work sometimes.  It is summer holidays for them and he has nothing else to do.  He is trying to save for a mission, so hopefully we can help him out a little.  He also cuts our grass for us.  He is super sweet!

Silosi

This was one of the churches we worked at for two days this week.

 This church sat on the top of a large hill/mountain in a remote part of Fiji.  The view from up here was amazing.  We could see much of the rain forest jungle, as well as the sea, and the big island called, Ovalau, which used to be the capital of Fiji many years ago.

Once again, we had large line ups all day, waiting for us.

They kept their spirits up, despite the hours of waiting.

The kids here are usually very happy, not sure about a couple of them here

When these kids were asked to do a crazy pose
for the camera, they really put on a show!

After working one day, the Stake President
walked us to his home in a nearby village.

This is President Tagidunu and his wife.

We see a lot of this here in Fiji, this pterygium is completely covering his pupil, making him completely blind out of this eye.

On Friday, after a long day of seeing 102 patients, 
we then drove over two hours to the town of Sigatoka, 
and stayed over night in the Bures at the Tubakula 
Resort in a nice beach setting.

This is the one we stayed at.

The next day, we went to the Warwick Hotel
for a National Diabetic Conference.

At the conference, Rick was asked to do a presentation on how diabetes affects the eyes.  We then were to examine all of the diabetic kids and leaders  

This was the hotel room in which we were to do eye exams.  It was kind of a strange setting, but quite comfortable! We were kept very busy through to the late afternoon.  The hotel staff heard we were there and they kept coming and coming.........

After we finished doing the eye examinations, we walked around 
the lovely resort, and just relaxed and enjoyed the scenery.  

It was truly a beautiful resort, and the water looked too inviting to ignore, 
wished we would have had more time to swim and enjoy the beauty.

We don't see a lot of Christmas trees, so 

when you do, you have to take a picture!!

These beautiful flaming red trees are called 
Fijian Christmas trees, they are at their peak right now. 

This is a close up of these beautiful flowers.

As we drove home from the conference, we had to stop and 
take a picture of these fishermen coming home from a successful day.

Along the way, we found these men washing their horses. 

As we drive around the island, we can often see people selling 
their fish on the side of the road. It doesn't get any fresher than this.

That's all for this busy week...

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!