Today was our second day of clinic and things are running very smoothly! Yesterday we saw 1,395 patients and we are well on our way to 1500 today. What´s most impressive is how the team is getting along so wonderfully, despite language barriers. We are all just jumping in where need be to help.
More important than the numbers are the individual stories and people we are helping. The El Salvadorans are extremely gracious, kind and are constantly smiling with appreciation. They take a lot of pride in their culture and have a sincere concern for each other.
Day 1 - Set up
On Tuesday, we arrived at the military base in Zacatecoluca-- our clinic location for the next two weeks. The soldiers have been very helpful and fun. They are very young, organized and professional. They ensure our safety; as well as, pitching in to help us as volunteers.
We set up all the clinic locations and had our first team meeting. Our team is extremely diverse -- American, Canadians, Italians, Spaniards, German and French representing all areas of Luxottica. We also are exposed to the El Salvadoran rainy season which consists of 20 minute downpours. We are faster than a major league baseball field crew at pulling our tarps over the equipment.
After our day of set-up, we ate a wonderful dinner at our hotel. We have a few very vocal roosters around the hotel that forego the sunrise wake-up call for one that starts at 2am.
Day 1 Clinic - 1395 helped
Transportation to and from the clinic has been a fluid exercise in both mode and method. We have experienced everything from speedy passenger vans to a full size city bus from Barcelona, Spain. It makes the journey interesting and we reasonably close to clinic.
This was the first patient of our El Salvador clinic.. we did not gather his name, however we were able to capture his smile.
Joslelin was one of our youngest patients, at 7 years old. She had a prescription that was higher than her age. She was a -11 and had never had glasses until we arrived. Andrea Evans was so moved by this that she asked me to be sure to post it in the blog.
Francisco came to us with a prescription of -11 in his right eye and a -9.75 in his left. Until our mission, the only correction he has was from some readers purchased via street vendors. It was the first opportunity he had to see a doctor, get examed, and get an accurate lens correction.
Sabrina from Germany got stopped by a elderly gentleman who gave her a big thumbs up indicating he could finally read his watch.
One final message from our European team (Sonia Wrote)
Everybody is special. We all have a good feeling when we work together and we share all we have very well. We laugh and smile with the people of El Salvador and share the greatest human experience. It is not easy, but we adapt and do very well.
Day 2 Clinic - 1544 helped
Today we were privileded to ride to clinic as a team. We finally found a big enough transport for us all and sang along with blasting tunes of ¨YMCA¨. Temperatures were not friendly with humidity reaching up to 200% according to our Hawaiian team member, Maisha. Even amongst the 100 degree heat index, we pulled together a team and were able to help everyone who came to clinic. Lots of ice cold towels to go around courtesy of our Lion´s Club Sponsors.
Some of the stories included Gilbert´s patient Jose. A 25 year old who Susi had recorded at auto refraction with a -19. Thanks to the combined compassion of Gilbert and a Nikon representative, who donated a discontinued frame, Jose was provided with the appropriate correction for his vision needs. In fact, the same style that Gilbert himself was wearing. It took us a while to understand that ¨disco¨ meant discontinued. Sorry Gilbert.
Meghan also had a touching experience involving an elderly couple that were so greatful for their experience that they reached into their bag and presented her with what they had, a nice orange. A thoughtful gesture of gratitude.
Day 3 Clinic - 1404 helped
Today, the team managed the heat much better and everything was flowing smoothly until a 30 minute down storm required us to scramble and protect the clinic site. While, patients upstairs were helped to safety and provided assistance for returning to any of the remaining clinic days. All pitched in to get the clinic back up quickly to finish the patients in que.
A special day as Steve, Carl and Ruben had the opportunity to dispense to Freddy, a 21 year old, who has a blind mother he must escort everyday. Dr. Karen Rosen established that Freddy was a plus 19 and his current ¨taped¨ pair only went to a plus 13. The team was able to provide a plus 17.5 to Freddy and his mother was in tears of joy when she heard we were ¨adopting¨ Freddy. Adoption involve a kind effort on Gail´s part to have a special pair manufactured for Freddy and sent to his home directly here in El Salvador.
We also received word that a local Optomotrist is willing to manufacture and donate 50 frames to any patients we have a difficulty in helping.
