Skinned Knees and Bright Smiles: Clinic Days at Northern Academy

Monday morning it was time to get our game on. Our team drove north to the provincial capital of Polokwane (also called Pietersburg). We drove right past newly built Peter Mokaba Stadium, scene of several World Cup matches in 2010.

We were going to Northern Academy, where we'd been invited to do eye screenings and exams on their students in grades 5-12. All 800+ of them.






They had names like Precious, Blessing, Diamond, Rejoice, Welcome:



We worked four days at the school. Each morning, as the car pulled onto the cobbled grounds, our team was met by a line of kids waiting at the door:


We quickly got to work setting up our work stations in each corner of the gymnasium.

Mark did intake, helping the students fill out the forms that they'd carry with them from station to station around the gym:


Karen tested their vision:


Ollie gently placed drops in each kids' eyes:


Armed with the unwieldy Retinomax, a machine that gives a starting point for an eyeglass prescription, Leslie measured each eye:


Greg and I worked behind curtains, to dim the natural light and allow a better set of eye readings:


Once the eye measurements were taken, the kids were sent off to dispensing. Lisa and Beth patiently explained how to care for their new spectacles:


Janice, Hilda and our young local volunteers gave out homemade cloth eyeglass cases:


Naturally there was some fooling around while they waited for their turn to be tested:


Leslie showed them pictures of wintery Kentucky:


By day three, I noticed that fewer boys were in the mix. I asked a girl in the higher grades where had all the boys gone? "Ma'am," she said, "it's because the older boys get kicked out for breaking the rules."

Northern Academy appeared to be a good school. And these were smart kids--savvy and hopeful. But we learned there wasn't a strong chance that many would finish college. Despite their hard work and proper manners, it's still expensive for many young people to get a college degree in South Africa.

This didn’t stop them from dreaming. Several girls wanted to be lawyers, others planned to work in business or accounting. One boy thought maybe he’d like to be an eye doctor someday:




On Thursday we said our goodbyes.




We were tired after four busy days of clinic but happy to have helped these kids, in our own small way.