Rotary Eye Clinic

Rotary is involved in many humanitarian projects world-wide.
Our motto is "Service Above Self

Our First Patient

Our First Patient
Dr. Carl Whitehouse and Salome Huinac

"We would like to thank all of our friends, families and other members of our community for their generous support in donating glasses, knitted booties, medical equipment and other supplies towards our mission. Your kindness is most appreciated"

Friday, April 16, 2010

Thursday April 15th - More than 60 patients today

Today's blog will be mostly pictures from the village.

Here is a drip irrigation system in use. This simple but ingenious system of a bucket and some piping provide the opportunity to irrigate a garden with one bucket of water a day as there us much less evaporation and the water goes directly to the plant. These systems were brought to the village last fall by Carl Whitehouse and Melissa Ekdom-Delorrne when the came to Guatemala on a recognizance visit last fall.





This is Chris Hale and a local standing by one of the new green houses that are under construction. These help extend the growing season which is so very important for their food supply and livelihoods.

Overhead of this group you will see some piping which is part of the Ryan's Wells project. Pure fresh water is being brought to the village from the top of a near by hill ( a VERY LARGE HILL) through a series of pipes. When Chris Hale asked to see the source of the water a contingent of the villagers were only too pleased to make the long trek up the hill. They are so very pleased and proud of their new water system.

Each house now has an outdoor sink and running water.
This not only provides safe water for them to drink it saves many hours of travel to get water by the bucket from local streams.












We were invited out to lunch at one of the local houses and the group made their way through the mist as the cloud often envelope the village any time after 11 in the morning.




We were offered a nice lunch which included a boiled egg, some beans and fresh hot tortillas.




On the way back from lunch I stopped in to have a look at one of the stove that the Guatemala Stove Project built in the village.



We also visited with this little girl who is being held by her Mom. This sweet thing had a hole in her heart and it was surgically repaired thanks to the generous donation by one of our wonderful sponsors. Clara, who is on the left explained that before the operation this little girl hardly had the energy to walk. Now she's running around just like the other kids - amazing and so very touching.





Here's a peak inside the local church. Note the huge sound system, we're not sure how they powered it as there is no electricity in the village - perhaps the have a generator somewhere they are able to borrow or they run a very long extension cord to the neighbouring village.



This picture is of the villagers that were waiting outside the clinic when we returned from lunch.


We completed about 60+ more patients today with about 25% getting glasses, some referals for cataract surgeries and dispensing of medicines. Each family received a hygiene pack with soap tooth brushes, paste and some bananas.
We ran out of cream for scabies, we though we had lots but there were several large families (one with 7 kids) who needed treatment. One of our Rotarians donated $200 on the spot so that more cream could be purchased so any who needed it tomorrow would have some. And that's how it goes, the generosity of those who helped us get this far has been amazing and the dedication and generosity of our volunteers is overwhelming.

Tomorrow is our last day at this village and Monday we move to a second one.

This last picture is near our hotel and shows the rain which was just teaming down. I wonder what this will do to the roads into the village that we will be driving on tomorrow morning? 

Stay tuned for more - thanks to those who have provided comments and word of encouragement.

2 comments:

  1. Good morning Bill, thanks for keeping those of us following your travels up to date and well informed. Its particularly great to see some examples of the earlier work that was done. You are going to have a fantastic set of phiotos and it will be good to get some of those so that we can show our club memebrs more about this great projects - or I guess I should say projects! All the best to the group! Terry

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  2. Hi Y'all. Very much enjoying your blog. You left one world and overnite entered another. You should be considering future uses of the blog it is very good . Last nite (Sat) CTV ran aone hour program (W5) on Canadian Companies in Guatamela operating gold and nickel mines. It showed Cdn's as the villian and showed riots and civilian deaths resulting from civil unrest over the mines, Disturbing program especially as you guys are there. The Cdn flag for those in transit may not be as popular as it once was. Stay safe and keep up the good work .. Love to all Mom and Dad Brown

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