Wednesday's clinic ran very well

We had a little less wet weather overnight Tuesday and the church grounds were a little drier.  We were able to get setup in record time, with the exception of the lock on the footlocker with our tools and other essentials not behaving.  Every team member gave it their best shot at the combinations that we know, with all the other members chiding them on.  Finally, we were able to get our groundskeeper, Aloise, to come up with a hacksaw blade, which made short work of it.  We have extra locks, so it was no big deal.  Even though we trust our volunteers, it is better not to tempt anyone overnight while we’re away, since all of our supplies and equipment are needed to run the clinic.  We don’t bring anything 8,000 miles that we don’t really need.

The clinic ran at a steady drip, drip, drip like a well-oiled machine does once every kink is worked out.  All of us worked in multiple parts of the clinic as the need arose and many of us are familiar with two or more jobs.  I believe that all of us worked at least for a while helping with backups in triage, helping people with their eye problems, praying over them and witnessing to new believers and seekers.  By the end of the day we had seen 385 patients and now we have referred 11 people to local hospitals for cataract and other surgeries.  One little boy, about 5 years old, had been hit accidentally in the eye while playing with a friend.  There was an obvious scratch on his pupil.  Our doctors were able to determine that an $80 operation was needed, that it wouldn’t heal on its own, so of course we agreed to help. 

We were blessed to have dinner at a Brazilian steakhouse that had all of the usual meats and crocodile and some other exotics.  I swear I’ll never eat again!  Well, time for bed and some rest before we do it again.  This clinic has been a wonderful blessing to the people and to us as well.