Day 6 of the Mission - Through the woods and Over the River...

The last day of the mission took us to a small river village named Sao Paulo.

We traveled west along the Jequintinhonha River about 45 minutes and then we had to leave the bus and take the team, equipment, and supplies across the river by ferry. The ferry was essentially a flat barge which could carry one vehicle and a few horses (or an entire Rotary mission team). As we crossed the river, the team discussed the possibility of the daily torrential downpours on our return trip in the late afternoon.

The river is about the width of the Susquenhanna. Once we arrived on the far bank, we had to trek, on foot,  uphill into and through the village for about a mile until we arrived at the school. With the sun shining and humidity still high, needless to say we were rather drenched and spent by the time we got to the school. Fortunately, our Brazilian army escorts took care of lugging all of our crates.

We had a very productive day seeing close to 300 patients in the eye clinic. The dental clinic was busy also. There were quite a few of the school children that were malingering (faking poor vision) to try to get glasses. We had to rely on our "magic glasses" - a pair of glasses with no prescription. For the most part, the docs know how a person should see by measuring the reflection in the eyes (retinoscopy). So when we see a minimal prescription and the child can't see the big E, then we put on the magic glasses. When they read all the way down to the bottom of the chart, we confirm our suspicions. We then ask the interpreter to tell them that they see well and don't need glasses and that we need to save our glasses for the people that really can't see.

  We were blessed to make the return trip across the river before the rain came (there were dark clouds on the horizon). We attended the Jequintinhonha Rotary Club meeting on Wednesday evening for dinner. It was supposed to start at 8:00 pm, but we were delayed prepping all of the crates for our return home (everything needs inventoried and documented for customs). The meeting started around 9:00 and after a lot of speeches and recognitions, dinner was served around 10:40 pm.

We break camp on Thursday and begin the "cultural" part of the trip as we will travel to the Iguacu Falls on the Argentina/Brazil border for a few days.