Our First Week of Eye Exams

This week was our first week of actually 

performing humanitarian eye exams in Fiji. 

We were very excited as we began doing what we came to do.

My wonderful assistant, Ann,, first put the drops in.

"This won't hurt a bit!"

"Can you read the chart?"

"Which is better, number 1 or number 2....?"

The kids were happy to be missing some class time ...

Ann did a great job measuring their eyes with the Portable High Tech AUTO-REFRACTOR.

The Auto-Refractor measures their eyes to help determine what power of glasses they might need.

Dr. Nielson did Binocular Indirect Ophthalmoscopy to evaluate their retina.

With this system in place, we averaged about 50 eye exams 

per day, working from 9 to 3.  This pace 

sure kept us hopping, but was manageable.

This first week of eye exams was at a church college/high school in Tamavua, just north of Suva.

You can see that the school campus is beautiful, and overlooks the ocean.

It was a nice place to begin our service, before we travel to more remote villages next month.

The Principal of the high school asked us to put on an 80 minute presentation on eyes, and to also include some of life's lessons we've learned over the years.  We spent a number of hours preparing to give this presentation to 420 students and 30 staff.   It seemed to be very well received.

To start things off, the principal of the school, presented us with a "Salu-Salu", as a great honor.  It's similar to an Hawain Lae, but with a Fijian flare to it.  

Then we got into the presentation, providing educational things about eyes, 

with a lot of humor & fun added in.  

As part of an object lesson, at one point, I threw a number of marshmallows out to the audience.  That sure caught their attention, and brought on a some laughs.

Another deep object lesson, when you pick up one end of the stick,
you automatically pick up the other end.

After it was all over, I sat down & played the drums that were on the stage.
I used to play the drums as a teenager, so it was a good "Blast from the Past".

It was great first week of doing eye exams!

Our First Week in Fiji

Our first full week here in Fiji has been one of preparation and administration, and occasional frustration, but everything has turned out okay in the end.

On the day we arrived in Fiji, the customs officer gave us a 14 day permit to give us time to go to the Immigration office in Suva to apply for our 6 month work permit to allow us to stay in Fiji to do our humanitarian mission.  On Monday morning, we learned that we had all the proper paperwork, except for a "Letter of Request" from our sponsor.  When I explained that we were doing this on our own initiative, time & expense, and didn't actually have anyone sponsoring us, They thought it was an admirable thing we were doing, but their system didn't allow us staying here doing humanitarian eye exams without a sponsor; so we set off to find a sponsor!
We first went to the biggest eye training center and humanitarian center in Fiji, called the Pacific Eye Center, and spoke with one of the head people there, followed by another head person in another department.  Both rejected us, saying there were too many legal and liability issues for them to deal with.  We then arranged to meet with the Lion's Club President, and much to our relief, he agreed to write us the Letter we needed.  Two days later, we received the letter, and took it to the Immigration people, and it was accepted.  We pick up our 6 month work permit on Monday next week. Hurray!!!
We learned a lesson, that we can't be successful without help from the locals, here.

And yes, the surf board on top came with the vehicle.
Can't wit to use it!

After many different obstacles and challenges, we were successful at securing a 4 wheel drive SUV, a Toyota Prado, at an outstanding price.  We're actually renting it from a respected mechanic for about 25% of what it would have cost to rent one through normal channels.  It's going to be great not having to worry about repairs or selling a vehicle at the end of our six months, here.

We've also spent the week going to a number of different grocery stores trying to find foods that are familiar to us.  Some things are not found here at all, while other things can be found, but at a price 4 times higher than in Canada.  It does help, however, that some others food are plentiful and very inexpensive.  We are enjoying a number of new and tasty foods, as well.

On one of our spare mornings, found a beautiful park and had a wonderful walk.

This week, we met with the principal of a school with over 400 children, to arrange doing eye exams for them.  They are thrilled and will have us start next week.  As a way to test out all our equipment and prepare for doing our first humanitarian eye exams, we had a couple of the students come to our rental house to allow us to practice, to get all of the kinks worked out before we start the real thing this coming week.  Some of the equipment was donated to us by the CVC (Canadian Vision Care) charitable group, and some was purchased by myself.  It's great to have the support of the CVC.  

These two Fijians were wonderful.

We found out these two sisters live in a tin shack and sleep on the floor.

Healthy Eyes!

Today, we ate at a wonderful restaurant in a Rain Forest area, appropriately called the Rain Forest Inn

We then went for a two hour hike into the rain forest, walking around and through rivers and beautiful waterfalls.  It was absolutely breath taking.

If you look closely, you'll see someone swinging on a rope...

A great finish to the week.!

Our Journey to Suva, Fiji

Thinking it might be a little too much luggage to take to Fiji, we decided to 

downsize to just 2 big suitcases and one carry-on luggage, each.

After arriving in Las Angeles after our 3 hour flight from Calgary, we had a 7 hour layover in LAX,
 before beginning our 12 hour flight across the ocean to get to the Nadi, Fiji airport.
It was a little tricky, but we managed to fit all of our luggage into this little rental car before driving 3 hours to the capital city of Suva.  We were exhausted with all this travel, but the excitement kept us going.

We then moved into our furnished "Flat".  We were quite pleased with the Flat, as it has a nice view of the mountains and the valley near Suva.

After two days of travel, and shopping for all sorts of odds & ends, as well as food, we were both exhausted, suffering jet lag.  Sunday was a day of rest for us, as we went to Church, in a beautiful location, over looking the ocean.  

As you can see, Dr. Nielson is already blending in with the Native Fijians, 

wearing a Sulu (it's not a skirt!).  

I found out just how cool and comfortable a Sulu is on a hot summer day!

Things are extremely busy as we make final preparations to leave Calgary.

One of the items on our "To-Do" list was to have some shirts made up with our motto, 

"EYE CARE FOR FIJI".

It's hard to believe that we are on the verge of leaving for Fiji.

We are both excited and somewhat nervous with what lies ahead for us.