First day of the mission. Up and out by 9 am this morning. (We got an extra hour to sleep in due to our late arrival). Wonderful breakfast in the hotel with fresh pineapple, guava juice, eggs and pancakes, and very good coffee.
We had an hour drive to University of Guayaqul Hospital which included a switch of busses alongside the roadway when our bus broke down. We had a very warm greeting by the local Rotarians - they all lined up a shook everyone’s hand. It took us about an hour to get the clinic setup and our equipment unpacked.
Once we were up and running, Ralph, Ken, Ken’s daughter Andria, and Joe’s daughter Katy were in the visual acuity testing area. Joe was in the eye health evaluation area all day. We have 6 optometrists from Denmark on the mission. The Danish eye docs refract but they aren’t medically trained like American optometrists.
Today we saw 205 people - mostly adults but some children. Many needed glasses, especially reading glasses for the over-40-year-old people. The people were extremely appreciative and showed their gratitude with handshakes. Dr. Amy even got hugs and kisses.
We worked past 6 pm since we had a late start and were quite exhausted by the end of the day. I hear we had people lined up outside for a long distance. Many had to be told to come back tomorrow.We got back to our hotel around 7pm. 14 of us, including the Etown group, walked a couple of blocks to La Canoa for Ecuadorian cuisine. Sea bass, fried plantains, and Ecuadorian cerveza were some of the items consumed. Our walk back took us through a park inhabited by large iguanas who were sleeping in the trees.
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