A Big Thank-you...

This past week, we finished up testing eyes at both the High School and the Elementary School.
Over the past 3 weeks, we have completed 752 eye exams, and given out 169 glasses (20% of the people needed glasses).  Eighty percent of the exams were done on children.  The highest number of eye exams in one day was 115; but the average has been 50 exams per day,

On our last day at the Elementary School, the Principal and kids gave 

us thank-you cards and a number of lovely gifts, some of them handmade.

They have treated us like royalty and we have really felt loved and appreciated.

Here's a sampling of some of the cards.

You'll notice that because this is a Church school, they refer to us as Sister & Brother

We certainly felt loved...

According to this girl, I am the "Best Doctor in the World".

This girl would walk with us around the school yard at recess.

On the last day, the school held a Halloween & Cat Hat Dance.  

You can see Ann is dancing with some of the kids.  

When they Played "The Macarena", and didn't know how to do the proper dance,  I took it upon myself to teach them how.

Sorry to disappoint you, but there's no pictures of that!

This past week, we spent over 20 hours sorting through 96 boxes of glasses, filling the orders for 169 glasses over the past 3 weeks.  Now that we're caught up, it shouldn't be such a huge job if we just keep up with it each day.

This girl was very thrilled with her new glasses.  We have been overwhelmed with the positive feedback from all of those patients who received their new glasses.  It doesn't matter to them that they are used glasses, or that sometimes the prescription is just close to what they actually need.  Generally, people just can't afford to purchase glasses on their own. 

On Friday night, we took time to celebrate our 35th Wedding Anniversary.

It was a memorable and wonderful evening, as we ate outside near the beach, watching the sunset, and listening to a 5 piece band play romantic music from the 70's and 80's.

They surprised us with this plate of goodies, after our meal.

On this special occasion, we splurged at the "Grand Pacific", the nicest hotel & restaurant in the city of Suva.

At dusk, they held the "Lighting of the Torch" ceremony...

On Saturday afternoon, we went for a drive to the east coast of Suva, and found some nice paths along the ocean front to walk along.

On this drive, we stopped to ask a person, directions on getting to where we wanted to go.  After showing us on our map, where we were, and where we needed to go, he invited us to come in for a meal.  Unfortunately we had to decline, as we had another commitment to attend; but this is just so typical of how friendly and nice these people are, and how well they treat us.  Now that we have been here one month now, we have really come to love the people of Fiji.