If you’re heading for Maxwell between now and Thursday for free eyecare, here are some things to consider… Some patients decided to ambush be there from as early as 4:30 or 5:00 am, but do make sure to carry sunblock, have a large water canteen and two sandwiches plus a folding stool. Be prepared to spend essentially all day there, it may be free – but you pay in time spent.

Luckily, I had a water bottle – you were not handed water until you actually got on the grounds of the south coast resort. The sun is mean, I’m feeling it on my forearms all now, but I did realise to wear a cap which minimised some solar damage. Taking kids should only be an option if they need glasses too, because it can be extremely boring for kids with 20-20 vision. Saw two such cases, one child needed glasses and the other had perfect vision – both got bored out of their gourds by 5:00 pm or so…

The queue was about a 1,000 strong by 8:05 am and as the sun got stronger, quite a few departed – especially because security allowed gate crashers to rule and push from the wrong side. Lining up was from towards Bouganvillea resort side not from the main road or the angle from Maxwell Del Mar (formerly Croton Inn).

The iCARE crew, which originates from both Canada and USA, were invited through the Sandals Foundation, they’ll be here for the next three days. They are a mix of very young (like early 20s) and senior professionals (50 onwards), according to Google, there are mostly good reviews and help has mostly occurred with Jamaica – the original home base for Sandals – a resort chain which has its own challenges, probably why they chose to do this outreach.

In all likelihood, they probably did not expect the attendance to be so intense (Bajans love a freeness), by around 1:30 pm they started doing triage on the remaining queue, offering tickets to guarantee their presence for Tuesday – for those past a certain headcount. Being in the batch that was there from early morning, barely prevented myself from being culled.

The team while thorough had an exhausting and excruciating method of processing patients in a style not unlike musical chairs, get up and move along one seat as each patient had their blood pressure, blood sugar, eye pressure and all other requirements taken…

The young dude who was in charge of ascertaining your face width for getting frames then informed me how, no, they only do bifocals. So I asked for a Progressive prescription which I’ll fill myself and get new frames out of my own pocket. If you only need readers or have one strength required for visual acuity, then the time wasted spent is a good ROI or return on investment… But in my view they could warn people up front what exactly they really offer?