Alright I took a day off from blogging and now the guilt has gotten to me 🙂 Tuesday and Wednesday were both busy days. To bed early Monday night and up with the sunrise Tuesday morning. Gordon had packed up what glasses he thought we would use since the “plan” was to do around 40 screenings at Adziwa. The priority was care givers and teachers from the school on site as well as students who had been recognized as having sight issues. We took the long walk after a hearty breakfast and decided to bring Sai along with us for translation purposes. The three of us chatted along the way and this gave Gordon a chance to get to know Sai. He had some language questions and Sai was just the man to help him! Gordon wanted to learn some simple greetings and also a few words that he knew from his experience would be helpful. I think the walk was longer than Gordon had anticipated, but he kept up like a champ. Once we arrived at Adziwa James and the crew had everything set up for us in the main hall. This is an indoor/outdoor space in the middle of the community so it was perfect for the screenings. Since the sun was shining we had to move our eye chart a few times to make sure there was no glare on it. Finally finding a good spot we were able to set everything up and begin taking names. I was amazed at how many people showed up right away. Most of the care givers were there and some of the other members of the community. Gordon began with a short screen for Sai and one for James. Then it was Moses’s turn and he was given the first pair of glasses! We had officially begun.

As I was organizing people in line one of the care givers took my hand and wanted to talk to me. I knew her last name was Marunga but couldn’t remember her first name. She said “do you know my friend who gave me clothes?” And I responded with a “Yes! It was Dena!” She then asked where she was and I told her she was in America, but I knew she had been thinking about her and praying for her all year. Mrs. Marunga had tears and clasped her hands saying “thank you thank you” hopefully Dena will see this post and know how much she was missed at Adziwa this year.

We carried on taking names for the screenings and eventually realized we would need to cut off the line to avoid people waiting all day and not being seen. We cut the line at 50 and told everyone else to come back the next day. I learned that doing 50 screenings all in row with no break was a quite a job. That first day we gave about 66% of people who came a pair of glasses. It was neat to see them get their glasses and a few had really awesome reactions.
Once we had seen 50 people we packed up and took off down the road back to our village. We ate our lunch along the way and talked about the success of the first day of screening.
When we arrived back in the village Gordon was keen to take a short rest and asked that I wake him up when the staff started arriving. Before we had left for our screening we had agreed to screen 20 of the employees here on the farm at 3 o’clock in the village. Sure enough right at 3 people began arriving. Lots of them were people I have known over the years here. Some workers from permaculture, some farm workers and few of the lodge staff. We set up a little outdoor screening area under the big tree and again off we went. Gordon of course is doing all the hard work and I’m just watching and assisting however I can. He keeps telling me I’m a good “manager”. He also laughs when I let him know the stats from the day 🙂 some wouldn’t think I was organized, but when it comes to these kind of things I am good at keeping track of progress and such. We ended up screening another 17 people which brought our total for the day to 67. Never having done this before I asked Gordon if that was an average day or a slow day or a great day. He said it was up there with the great days. 67 screen was doing very well he said.
Dinner in the village and some internet and then we went off to bed. I think it was only about 8pm, but we were both tired and knew we had another long walk and long day ahead of us on Wednesday.
Wednesday morning seemed to run very smoothly since we knew what we were in for. We got the supplies together and set out. Gordon seems to enjoy the walk and meeting all the kids and people going here and there along the way. The bridge is also a highlight.
Chimwewe who works at Adziwa has been helping me with the check in process so she can learn how to do it on her own if we aren’t there. She was set up when we arrived and ready to go. We were asked how many we could take and again we said 50. Taking from what I learned the day before I decided to tell Chimwewe to not only take the peoples name, age, gender and contact info, but to also put a number in the top corner of the index card. This way each person would have a number and that would be their place in line. The day before the line had been confusing and some people were upset when the line was cut. Nothing I could do, but I did want to avoid it going forward. This system worked well when we screened in the village so I thought we would give it a shot.
Screenings seemed to take a little longer on Wednesday and I think it was possibly due to the age of the people needing  to be seen. On a side note when we arrived I asked James if he has received any feedback from our visit the day before. He told us that one of the caregivers had come in the early morning to find James. She had wanted to tell him how thankful she was for her glasses and let all of us know that she had been able to read her bible for the first time in many years. Seems like a simple thing, but when you really think about it it must have been a special moment for her. That filled me up with good feelings and allowed us to push on knowing that we had done something really good the day before.
As the morning went on we saw all kinds of people. Some with eye problems that we just couldn’t fix and many others with corrections needed that we were easily able to accommodate. It’s fun watching kids who can’t see the chalkboard finally able to! They leave with shy smiles while sporting their new glasses. Most of the older people are in need of “readers” that will allow them to do small hand work or just be able to read again. There have only been 4 people so far that we have given exams to and they need glasses that we don’t have. Some quite strong prescriptions. I’m going to try and contact a vision clinic run by the Lions Club here in Lilongwe and see if they can help me provide those 4 prescriptions. Fingers crossed I can work it out before I leave on the 10th.
Just about the time we had hit number 35 James came and asked if we could go over 50 by “a few”. Sadly I had to hold my ground and say 50 was the limit. We may be back there Friday to screen again so I let him know this. Thursday we are headed to Kauma primary school to take care of screen the teachers there and some students. I’ve told Aaron the headmaster that we can do 50. We won’t be starting until 10am because I decided to give us a late morning 😉 the village was booked with a group so gordon and I have been moved to the lodge for the night. I knew that sleeping in a warm cozy “indoor” bed would make it hard to get up and going by 6am.
Yesterday afternoon when we returned to the farm we walked right up to the lodge instead of to the village. We took the driveway up since I knew that was the most direct path. It’s a long uphill walk on a dirt road. I told Gordon that of we took the drive way our chances of hitching a ride were good. If we walked the path through the trees we were on our own. I said I had a good feeling and didn’t think we would have to walk the entire way. We had already walked about 3k back from Adziwa and it was the hot part of the day and we were both worn out! Backpacks and tired feet we slowly made our way up the steep drive. After about 10 min I heard a car so I turned and gave the Malawian hand sign for “stop I need a lift”. The car stopped and said they were going only as far as the permaculture center, but they could take us that far. We jumped in! As we were driving Gordon realized just how much time and how much hill this lift had saved us. My guess was about 35min of walking. Lucky us! We had only a few 100 yards to go once dropped so we were in great shape.
We both went straight to our rooms once we checked in. I was SO excited for hot shower!!!! The evening was relaxing and we both kind of did our own thing. I was in bed by 9 I think. Up now at 6:30 and ready for the day! Ill blog again tonight. We will be back in the village;)
Love to all who follow!