Well 'ello again!

Last night we had our 3rd team meeting and I think the reality of logistics hit everyone (or at least it did to me!). There's so much uncertainty...what 'space' will we be doing testing in, how long will each exam take, who's going to do what, how will we overcome (or at least manage) the language barrier...first things first: kudos to Drexel for all her hard work thus far in obtaining glasses and supplies, communicating with Samaritan's Purse, TEARS, and the Lions Club, booking accomodations and travel arrangements, and leading us as a team. I'm now getting an idea of how much work she has done, and how much more work we all have to do in order to prepare to go...in 6 weeks plus a day!

After the formalities of planning, discussing, and making to-do lists, Matt facilitated an intro Spanish lesson for us about 'Mandatos', commands that will help us through the eye testing process, such as 'sientate':sit down, 'callete':shut up (just kidding, we wont be using that one!), 'leelo':read that, etc... with practice we should all have enough Spanish to break the silence and create a friendly place for our guests; after that we'll let the translators do the work!!!

Drexel brought some extra glasses and eye testing supplies to the meeting, so we took the opportunity to practice testing each others' eyes...I think we tested Mat's eyes at 1.0 off of the actual prescription....which is a LOT, so we've got some more practice to do...

I took home some screwdrivers and practice glasses to get some practice doing repairs. We even will have a little hot salt bath to heat the frames up to bend them!

There's so much more that I'd like to share, and so little time. Please feel free to comment to the blog (link at the bottom of the post). If you have family and friends who would be interested in hearing about the trip then please pass the web address on to them as well!

In Christ, Stephen