Our Week is Wrapping Up.

Tomorrow is the last day of our clinic in Rivas Nicaragua. It has been a long two weeks but one filled with many rewards. There were so many great people that our team met on this mission. So many men women and children that came and went. We saw them for just a few moments but they will remain in our hearts and memories forever.

Alberto with his special touch and gift with children. He is truly a gentlemen in all sense of the words.
Cat was able to dispense this pair of glasses to a 55 year old woman who has never had glasses and was prescribed with a -9 prescription. Just think how much this will effect her life for the better.
Maria dispensed this pair and to her disappointment I had to tell her we had no way of printing off a picture for her. With no e-mail address either she wanted something to remember me by so I took off my bracelets and put them on her. I held her hand and felt her trembling from excitement. This woman brought me to tears and left the clinic beaming from ear to ear.

VOI Giving Back Hope

Just for a moment I would like you to imagine that you live the life of Jose Bonilla. A 49 year old man who has been living the past eight years with cataracts in both of his eyes that have rendered him blind. I am sure that any one would agree that having to be a burden on ones family is a situation that no one would want to be in. So when Jose walked in to the OneSight clinic being lead in by his wife to Dr. Jeff Geisert station his disposition was rather bleak. His examination not only showed that he was a candidate for an operation through VOI but was told that he would be having his operation on Monday. The VOI team was going to make it possible to take his bandages off and walk out of the hospital that day. This was a fantastic story that Dr. Geisert was proud to be apart of. If I get any word on his recovery I will give you an update

This is a message from the VOI team as of Saturday:

Our three day total is 82 cataract surgeries and we are aiming for a goal or 250.Our team has really come together well and we can't ask for a better organization like OneSight to partner with on a prfofessional and social leve. Long hours,long days but that is why we are here. Tomorrow is sunny and we are looking forward to a day off. We will come back strong on Monday and have a great week

Saturday we saw 5 patients that live on an island, they had an hour boat ride to get to us. Plus, the time to the hospital.

On Saturday we had five patients arrive after an hour ride by boat and had the extra trek to get to the hospital.OneSight had Saturday off but we had a schedule to keep. The breakfast was scheduled at 7 am. Right at the time we were to headed to the hospital. However the chef came in at 4-am for us and said it was no problem for all the help we are doing in his country.Its nice to be supported and appreciated for all our hard work

I had the opportunity to visit the hospital today and see one of the cataract suregeries in progress. When I walked in to the operating room I was the exact time that one of the patients was having his cataract extracted from his left eye. I was truly amazed as to how quick of a procedure this is. To borrow the words of one of my fellow team mates Christina Barnes, "Some of these people have had their lives put on hold for years over an operation that we would consider so basic here in the western countries."It is truly a great thing what VOI provides to these people. Not only their sight restored but their lives restored as well. Vision Outreach International,

To Italy with Love

Lets recognise our team from Italy and give them an opportunity to say hello to all their friends and family back home.

Ciao a tutti! Siamo Alberto, Andrea, Fulvio, GianLuca, Gloria, Mariagrazia e Sara. Siamo il team europeo di questa missione. Andrea lavora a Londra mentre gli altri lavorano negli stabilimenti di Agordo, Sedico e Pederobba. Praticamente piu' che un team europeo siamo un GRANDE TEAM ITALIANO!

Vorremmo raccontarvi tante cose e trasmettervi alcune delle emozioni di questi giorni ma farlo e' quasi impossibile, troppe sarebbero le cose da dire! La cosa piu' importante e' che stiamo cercando di lavorare al meglio con tutto il team ma soprattutto per il bene della gente che stiamo incontrando.

Chiudiamo salutando tutti gli amici che ci stanno seguendo sul blog per avere nostre notizie e vedere qualche nostra foto. Un saluto e HASTA LUEGO!!!! CIAO
benissimo

Saturday in San Juan Del Sur

The highest point in San Juan Del Sur.

After lunch with the Italiano's.
Dr. Tosh Arciaga and Dr. Joel Jenkins posing for a picture that I snuck in on.
Nicole, who works in training and development for Oakley, checking out the street vendor shades.
I think our next group photo should be attempted at the beginning of the day but I couldn't resist posting this one even though half of us weren't looking at the camera. This one was taken at about 4 in the afternoon.

All work and know play make for some very tired clinic volunteers. So, today we all piled in to our tour vans and drove to San Juan Del Sur to eat at a charming little tiki hut style restaurant that was hosted by the Lions Club. Grilled chicken, roast beef, and breaded sea food was on the menu. Many of us washed it down with a few cervasezes and then went sight seeing. Some were feeling a little more brave and hopped in some boats in very rough waters to do some fishing. The Italians got lucky and managed to snag themselves a catch that they had a local Italian restaurant in Granada serve up for them tonight.

Today was a great opportunity to relax, take a breath and get to know some of our team members. However this break comes to an end Monday morning when it is business as usual. We are here with a job to do and VOI has 30 cataract operations planned for Monday as well. Look forward to keeping you updated on the progress.

Day 3

While walking in to clinic this morning we already had many of the clinic patients getting their eyes dialated before they go through the auto refractor.
Alberto using his charm to entertain the children at the auto refractor.
Rachel and I were one of the people that worked the IMS station today. This is a tedious role as you pain stakingly enter prescription after prescription in to the computers to see what we have in our stock that best matches the individuals prescription. The clinic saw over 1550 people today so as you can imagine it can be very mentally tiring trying to find matches of that magnitude. One very unique case came to our station. It was for a male that had no vision in his left eye and script of -14 in his right.His slip said that it was for a congenital defect. We both thought that we would have a difficult time filling such a high prescription,but to our surprise we came up with a match when we ran it in our data base. We had a pair of glasses in our stock that matched and thought it would be worth running to dispensing to see who was the recipient that would be getting this pair. When Rachel got to dispensing she presented them to a 14 year old boy who was standing there with no shoes and it appeared that he hadn't been wearing shoes in quite awhile. He did not go to school and resorted to begging in the streets. This boy was extremely shy but when he put on his glasses the interpreter asked what he saw, he was able to look at the ambulance parked across the street and could tell that the ambulance driver was wearing a red shirt. this boy has never owned a pair of glasses and has not been able to see anything beyond basic light and shapes through his one good eye. I'm sure that this will be quite an adjustment to this boys life view all the new images that will becoming in to his world.

Bahgat showing off the small fortune of money that he collected from us to have exchanged in to Cordoba. He didn't want to give it back but he relented when we told him we wouldn't let him off the bus until he did. ;-)

Day 2

Smooth and steady can describe our second day of clinic Nicaragua. We have had two days to acclimate to the humidity and adjust to our new surroundings. The kinks of the previous day have been effectively smoothed out and we opened our clinic doors bright and early at 8-am.The numbers we saw jumped from 700 to 1150 and VOI had 30 referrals for cataract assistance.

Christina running one of the four auto refractor lines.
Janet getting some quick practice on the auto refractor. Alberto makes a great Guinea pig.
When the patients get their eyes tested, the last stop is dispensing where they get their glasses and have them fitted correctly.

A couple of our local volunteers that interpreted for us in dispensing. Interpreters were through the clinic assisting all of us.

Out of all the people through the lines one woman stuck out for one of our team members. Melanie was working at the station righting out scripts when a woman in her mid thirties with a very high prescription of -12 came through. She decided to hand pick the glasses for this woman. This is a classic success story for OneSight as she describes the look on the woman's face when she tried on her glasses for the first time. The fit,color and prescription were a perfect match and this woman was able to walk out of the clinic doors able to see clearly. It is stories like this one that make all of the effort, long hours and perspiration worth every minute.

All of us in dispensing for the day. Adventually, we will get a chance to work in every station.

We could not go this mission without giving acknowledgement to all of the community volunteers through the Lions Club that provide us with lunch and ample drinking water through out the day. Also, some of the most needed help is what we get from the interpreters. These people stand next to us all day long and translate to the recipients through out the day. To all of you we would like to say thanks.Your community commitment is truly appreciated.

Long day but lots of smiles.

In close I would like to state that the day didn't go completely with out kinks. We all found out the hard way what happens when you flush the toilet paper in Nicaragua. We had a slight flood in our dining room today. Hopefully that is something we can go the next two weeks without repeating.

Day 1

The use of an alarm clock is not a necessity at clinic Nicaragua. The 5:30 am church bells from Guadalupe across the street from Hotel Granada took care of our morning wake up call.We arose to a buffet breakfast of a tasty concoction of rice and scrambled eggs. The coffee was strong but got the job done and the needed caffeine intake to start the day.

We loaded the bus at 7-am sharp to begin the hour long ride in to Rivas where our clinic is being held. Pulling in front of our building the first thing we saw was about 200 people who were already waiting to be one of the first people through the clinic doors.

In order to have an eye clinic of this magnitude succeed, organisation is a must. There was a lot of work still to be done to make that happen. The morning was spent unloading equipment,setting up the different stations and deciding the best way to have the patients flow through the clinic with the least amount of congestion. After a lunch hosted by the Lions Club of Rivas we got our positions for the day and the doors opened at 1-pm. Even with the shortened first day we saw 600 people go through our clinic doors, and 20 people will be getting cataract assistance through VOI(Vision Outreach International). Tomorrow we will be opening the clinic doors at 8-am, it will be a long day, but one assisting very deserving individuals. At the end of our two weeks it is estimated that we will see about 15,000 people go through the clinic.

Since their is such easy access to the internet here you will be getting lots of posts updating you on our progress. Check in everyday and thank you to those who have already commented. Your support is really appreciated.