We left the NGO and after lunch, we headed to an orphanage in Phnom Penh.
About a week before we visited, Parker had arranged for a optometrist to examine all of the orphans' and workers' eyes. None of them had EVER had an eye exam. When the neighbors heard that a doctor was coming, some of them showed up for exams too. Out of 39 people, it was determined that 13 needed prescription glasses.
We picked up the prescription glasses and brought them with us to the orphanage to pass out.
This little girl is 11 and she hopes to be a doctor some day.
This boy is also a red cross scout. A couple of the other boys at the orphanage are boy scouts and they ran in and put their unifoms on.
Don't they look great?
The children sang some songs for us including "I Am a Child of God" and "Children All Over the World"
Yes, I cried. Luckily, the kids had been told that when people cry at their singing, it is tears of joy....not because they are bad singers.
All of the children performed some traditional Khmer dances for us.
The teachers and neighbors received their glasses.
We made lots of new friends!
The boys exchanged email addresses with some of the older children.
After paying for the 13 pairs of glasses, Parker was able to leave enough money for follow-up exams and glasses for six of the children who were "borderline." The optometrist will come back next year and re-check them.
Aside from picking Trammell up from his mission, this day was definitely the highlight of our trip. It was absolutely fabulous!
4 comments:
My husband loves the picture of your son with the other scouts! That is neat!
I love the picture of your husband with that little boy.
I'll say it again, I hope you send these pictures to the Boy Scouts national organization! This is by far one of the most amazing projects I've ever seen done.
the photo of the scouts in uniform sent me right over the edge with tears.....how meaningful that they went & got their uniforms on! this is really something special, gina. thank you for sharing this with us. it has really been uplifting to see your sons learning how to be great men! your sons are good examples to moms like me who worry about worldly influences on her boy. your sons are obviously some of the most well-rounded young men I've "known". :) and I know they didn't get there by themselves, so good job Mom & Dad.
I love how the other scouts ran and put their uniforms on, and I'm so impressed that he arranged for eye exams ahead of time. They really should make a Mormon Message out of this, or at least put it in the Church News!
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