Focus on glasses.....see what I did there? :) One of the projects that we do with the CNFA medical trips is provide reading glasses for those who need them. Glasses are collected as a priority donation item. We do not take old prescription glasses as we are NOT ophthalmologists/opticians or any other professional eye specialist team. We know anyone can go into the drug/books store  in Canada and try on all the glasses they want until they find the right one to be able to read, so we collect glasses and bring that experience to the villages. Religion plays a very large part of many people's lives here in Kenya, in many of the small villages the local church is truly the cornerstone to the community. Part of that means being able to read their chosen bible....imagine not being able to participate with ease in something that is a foundation of importance to you? Together with a Kenya nurse, of one our team nurses goes daily to the van where we have the allocated glasses set up , people line up and I mean LINE UP in hopes of getting one of the coveted pairs. The people try them on one by one and try reading the bible, if they work, they belong to them. We try to allow people to choose a pair of their liking but sometimes fashion is not priority, owning a pair of readers is. Our goal this year was 800 pairs, we fell just short of that , leaving approx. 50-60 pairs each day. It is a really heartwarming experience to be part of glasses distribution because if you wear any kind of eyeglasses prescription or readers you know exactly how wonderful it is to finally be able to see clearly again, if you don't, its not hard to imagine how great it is just by looking at the smiles as they grow across faces. S

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o we know glasses make our patients feel like new people, today I asked our team for one word to describe how they are feeling at this point in the trip. Lets see how that check in went.Fantastic, Superstars, Dynamic, Gratitude, Emotional, Nourished, Grateful, Chaotic , Stirring, Hot , Fulfilled and perhaps the most powerful.....Nyumbani (home in Swahili)......, its amazing how quickly a new land can feel like home, so many beautiful words to describe an experience and emotions that often feel vastly indescribable. The team is tired, we have had some restless nights with thunder storms, generally noisy nights and very hot busy clinics but we will persevere, we know that  the village's needs are greater then our fatigue.Until tomorrow when we visit Kigama, its sleepy time here. We wish our loved ones a wonderful day, we can feel all of your love and support. Usiku mwema