Our Chief Patient

By Jason

Today we had an unexpected visitor to the vision clinic.  The chief of Bedaasi showed up late this afternoon.  We were actually getting ready to shut down for the day when he popped in with a few other people.  Mary and Vicki had to unpack the equipment and reboot the computer but thankfully it wasn’t packed in the van yet.  Before I go too far let me back up a bit and fill you in a little more on what happened yesterday.

We took a tour of the village yesterday after the vision clinic and while we were walking around we came upon the chief’s house.  He had just come back from the fields and wasn’t ready to greet anyone just yet so we waited outside for a few minutes.  When he came out he was wearing a polo shirt and shorts, not the ceremonial attire we see in the movies.  There is a certain protocol for meeting the chief, you don’t just walk up and say hi.  Chairs had been set up for us in a semi-circle in front of him and the local caretaker of the church acted as interpreter.  We walked up to the chief in a line and greeted him individually, then sat down.   The chief then walked around and greeted each of us.   He welcomed us to the village and explained that he had been looking forward to meeting us and was pleased we were doing this work in his village.  Todd said a few words along with one of the other pastors with the group.  Once this ceremony was completed we got up and said goodbye to him and filed out.

So, it came as an unexpected surprise to see the chief come to the vision clinic today.  Turns out he needed some reading glasses.  Todd and I helped to test him and got him fitted for a nice pair of readers.  He chose the style he wanted from the selection we had that worked for him.  As I was cleaning the readers for him I asked Frank (the church caretaker) if it would be appropriate to ask the chief for a picture.  I just wanted to get one of him in the new frames.  The chief loved the idea and said he would do it only if it could be a group picture and if he could wear his ceremonial clothes.  I took this as a great honor and said “of course”!  He went home and returned a few minutes later ready for the pic.

He also requested a copy for himself.