Nielson Fiji Adventures: November 2015

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, when we get home, we have to look over our many spreadsheets to find the donated glasses that most closely match the prescription I found for the patient. Once we find it on the spreadsheet, we then go to the box of about 50 glasses which contains the one we want, and take time to read the label on each of the glasses within the box. Sometimes after searching for the frame, we find that it is a women's frame when we needed a man's frame, or vice versa; so then we go back to search the several pages of spreadsheets, again. We usually spend 2 or 3 hours to find the 10 or 12 glasses from that day, so we can bring the glasses to the church the next day. So we've spent some pretty long days working this week. It's great to work hard to provide service to others.

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

Here's a couple of the churches we visited to do eye exams.

Yes, to better fit in, I'm still wearing a Sulu some days.

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, Ann begins the pretesting.

Then the doctor begins examining the health of the eyes and determines that person's glasses prescription, before moving on to the next patient.

On this particular day, it was very hot outside (with no wind, and so it got extremely hot in the exam room, causing me to sweat profusely. When I got home, it felt good to shower and change into dry clothes. Okay, I'm sensing that I'm not getting any sympathy here, while you're freezing in the snow and ice back in Canada. 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.
I then put anesthetic in his eye, and searched for my "Algerbrush"
which is a little spinning drill to remove the foreign body.

For some reason, I couldn't find the special drill, so I resorted
to using the rolled up end of a Kleenex to get the metal piece out;
but the metal was too deep and wouldn't come out.

Since the Kleenex didn't work, I then resorted to using some high
powered glasses and the end of a tiny screw driver to dig the
stubborn piece of metal out of the cornea. You can see the patient's
father helped me out by shining a bright light on the eye while I dug
out the foreign body. Success! I then gave him some antibiotics and
sent him on his way. I can't say I've ever used a screwdriver for this
purpose before, and hopefully never will, again; but as a boy scout,
I was taught to make the best use of the resources around me.
By the way, I found the "Algerbrush" drill the next day!

I thought I'd include some photos of a few of the ladies who come in wearing their "Sulu Jumbas". Most of them made it themselves, and were so proud to pose for their photos. So that she would fit right in with the Fijian ladies, Ann had one lady sew her a Sulu Jumba. Doesn't she look outstanding?!

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. They seemed quite pleased with the glasses we were able to leave with them.

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.

This is the guide who took us around the village.

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 enjoyed 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.

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?