Villa San Francisco

We did not have nearly enough glasses this week. It did not really hit me until I saw the dispensary the first day. Normally we have at least double this many boxes. However, God provided most everything in those boxes that people needed this week. There were some people we could not adequately help through such a brigade system...people that need to see Valerie in Tegucigalpa to get a more thorough exam, and people that just had prescriptions that were way off from the normal we carry in the Lions Club glasses. Normally we send those prescriptions to our friend Bryan who as God would have it is involved in his ministry called God's Eyes (www.godseyes.biz) at least a little bit from a trip here with FAME a few years ago. We send him those funky, huge, or otherwise needed prescriptions and he gets us lenses and frames for patients that need them. He has been here this week working with the FCO group, learning a little bit more about retinoscopy and in general being a big help in the brigades, and unfortunately needs to get back to his work in the US tomorrow after working in the morning with Valerie at the clinic. It was good to have him here again!



Today was our last brigade for this eye group. It is hard work...good work if you can get it. We ended up seeing over 210 patients...and more important than that arbitrary number was the outreach done. Our medical student Darwin was working there for part of his service/studying, one of the first things he told me was that we need to plant a Church there. Hmmmm. Intriguing idea, if we were not so in over our heads with the Churches we are working with already. So much to tell about that, so little space here. Sometimes it is important to remember that this is all in God's timing, not ours. I just wish I could do a better job sometimes of sharing the needs here so that the work could advance even more, but I am also content to know that this is above and beyond me in every step, and just continue to give thanks we could be here and be involved in the first place.



I had people thanking me just for taking their chief complaint. There were people who were struggling with the effects of diabetes...old eye injuries, needing checkups on botched surgeries, just regular good ol' needing help reading, ladies such as this one that have allergies, more pterygiums than you could shake a stick at, and several people with the aforementioned wacky prescriptions. They had needs God met through us, and it was obvious by their thanks, their hugs, and the watermelon given Valerie they were thankful for the effort. We pray God would bless the work done, grow the seeds planted in their hearts and grow us from the experience.




Care to guess how to pronounce this name? Give it a try.



Her first chief complaint is one that is extremely common here. I have never written BURN, RED, TEARY and DUST so much in my life. Dry eye and allergies are extremely common.



By the way....that is how her parents spell Janet.

Ah yes, and here comes the audience participation portion of the blog posting. This "water bug" was spotted in the man cave this week. We have been doing some construction down there, and still have some spots to seal up for small bugs and such. As it is called the man cave...men are not supposed to worry over a few bugs (in the shower...these do not venture out into the sleeping area.)



However, the three burly men I was sharing the man cave with on Monday night were...extremely cautious around this particular bug which has already taken on mythical qualities...extremely large pinchers like that of a scorpion...only without the stinger, the ability to infiltrate the vitreous and take on the seemingly innocuous form of floaters, being one of the most poisonous vermin around (much more so than the daddy long legs...which by the way if you have heard that story...they are not poisonous at all) and the ability to gut and feast on larger than life cockroaches. Not only all this, but the ability to grow in size at the will of the story teller.



So, can you identify this deadily creature for us? I was so scared I got close enough for a few pictures, and was horrified while I was brushing my teeth to walk normally to where it sat and quickly and easily step on it. That has not stopped the myth from growing to include resurrection from the step.