Eye Clinic

Here we are at the eye clinic screenings. As you can see, people come and wait for us to arrive with the first patients actually having seats! The gentleman in yellow vest is the retired police officer from Minnesota who does a lot of the driving and manages crowd control. He is quite the driver in this crazy traffic and easily holds his own against massive trucks! I tell you, you don't want to get in his way! :-) He also does a great job of crowd control and is here telling the crowd, through the interpreter, what the day will go like. It actually works! (contrary to my experience in Lebanon, these folks stay in nice rows.)

 This is the national trained eye specialist who checks through people in the line and points them to different areas ie possible surgery section for cataracts, tumors, etc. ; possible need for glasses will be referred to local Drs., or to receive teaching and educational materials about wearing hats, sunglasses, eating right foods, etc. to take care of your eyes. Overall, it is a well run clinic that meets 2x/week in the villages as we screen for people who need surgery on board ship.

 This is me standing in yellow vest with the group getting "educational materials". I was impressed that everyone who came that day got through this group and all were pretty attentive. It was hot in the sun and I got a good tan but was glad to help out as the translator, wearing blue and standing, did an amazing job and did it with great joy and enthusiasm inspite of saying it again and again to about 20 groups at least that day! We saw about 350 people with 35 getting "tickets" to come to ship for possible treatment. ie surgery

 I love this picture because it shows the variety of hair styles. :-) The lady with head dress has matching dress which is traditional and beautiful, the gal with white shirt and black type shirt is a school girl in uniform and has pretty braided hair, the gal to her left is in Western dress and her hair more Western as well. Beautiful weaving of life and culture and traditional ways of people here in Congo. No one "usual" dress or style!