Dateline: Esteli, Nicaragua June 2004

Well were back and had a great trip. Two weeks back to back were pretty intense with doing around 200 physicals the first week and then 112 eye exams the 2nd week. The first day we referred everything that fell out of 20/20 range at 20 ft. Dunia said that they do the exam at 15 ft. Where do you all do them. I thought 20 ft. was part of the definition.

Anyway- here are the statistics: 112 screenings, 44- fall outs (somewhat skewed by the 1 st days fall outs 20/30), 8- no shows for exam by Dr. Dunia, 36- seen by Dr. Dunia, 25- needed glasses, 6 of those also needed further exam and Dunia was going to check with Dr. Perez to see if he would see them. One of them is a 12 year old girl blind in one eye from an injury that occurred at 2 yrs. old. Dunia took the frames and prescriptions to Matagalpa and was going to wait for them and pick them up today and take them back to Esteli and fit the kids to make sure everything was ok. What a wonderful women and a godsend for us. She brought her son with her and he helped the whole day. They were a great team! They even came back at night for the church program and Bible school the next day. I think she and Martina formed a bond and the start of a good friendship. Dunia said she would come back again next year. We felt it was well worth the time and had enough help that we were able to do physicals on the kids as they finished their eye exams. The rest of our team added on a room to one of the members houses and started building a basketball court and an office at the church. Pretty good for a weeks work that also included arts and crafts all week and ended with Bible school!!!!

We spent an hour or more with Jesus Padilla from the Esteli Lions Club and got a honorary Lions vest to pin on. He had coffee and cake for us and told us of all his work in the club. His proudest possesion was the eye machine VOSH bought for him. I got a photo of him with it. I think the meeting went very well and he offered the discount at the local store but we were able to do so much better through Dunia. He's looking forward to your visit in November. He said he would also like to see services for the adults as well. There's a tremendous need especially for cataracts. The hospital doesn't do intraoccular lens implants so they still rely on the glasses or contacts.

We also met with the hospital administrator and a local Dr. who were very nice and said we can visit or use the hospital at any time. They have very limited equipment but do have electricity and running water. Do you have anyone in VOSH that does or is interested in doing surgery? We can arrange for it through this contact. They just need to send a copy of their license 3 months ahead and get approval from this administrator.

When you go in November, will you have any extra room either by bags or weight to carry any supplies to the hospital if I can get some together by then?

They are desperate- even for simple things like sterile gloves, suture, specimen containers , test tubes, dressings, lancets , etc. I would love to send some down with you guys and that would help us as well to get some surgeons in there in the future. I think that's about it for now. If you dont need the completed forms back we thought we'd keep them for next year.

Kathy

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