Future is Looking Bright

What an EPIC day today!  As you would have read from yesterday, there was free eye clinic being run in a very, rural community. A little boy from one of the orphanages needed his eyes checked and unfortunately, yesterday the line was already to long and we weren’t able to go. Today we made sure that we were there early so that we would be first in line for the registration. Our 6:00 am wake up call was worth it!  Once we arrived at the location safely (the road was quite a roller coaster ride) we had some time to kill so like monkeys, we found a very sturdy tree to climb with the two boys that came with us. It was a lot of fun!

Once the people that were running the clinic arrived, they invited us to help distribute eye glasses. We were helping in the  “glasses room” our duties involved setting up all the glasses in correct prescription piles so that it would be easy to find that right pair for the right person.  The organization partnered with an optometrist from the US and an ophthalmologist from Canada to test people’s eyes. The optometrist had grown up in Tanzania and was returning to start a clinic in another village. The other staff there were some local nurses, two Tanzanian optometrists who specialized in cataracts and severe eye issues, along with many support staff running the registration.  Once we got started there are very few words to describe how we felt when people tried on glasses. As a person who is visually impaired without glasses I know how it is to not see anything. To have been able to witness people being able to see for the first time in their life was amazing. The smiles on their faces were priceless. As for our little boys, the one did not need glasses (yay!), however, the other needs a more precise prescription then what they could do at the clinic (he needs two different prescriptions for either eye). Even though he could not get glasses for free, one of the Tanzanian optometrists pledged to donate a set of frames for him from her shop which makes it a lot of cheaper.  All in all it was an amazing day and it was nice to know the reason for his sight issues and hopefully we will be able to get the glasses he needs as soon as possible.

-Alix and Stefany