Back in the USA, Part Dos

As promised, here's the next installment.

Most of today's blog will be about the 2 houses our construction crew built. You've seen some pix of what they replaced.

I told you yesterday about the rains that hit in the afternoon as we left the 1st neighborhood for lunch at the church. We were drenched -- I thought it felt great! I didn't mention how hot & humid it was. We were fortunate enough to have some electricity where we were. Sometimes we had a fan. But the stickiness was really hard for some of us. Okay, probably all of us :) I was so overwhelmed with everything the first couple days that I didn't even notice how green and beautiful the countryside was. I just kept thinking that it was the rain (it rained every day, I think) and humidity that made it that way. Here are 2 of the roads we saw. Yes, I guess that our Midwest is looking a lot like this. The pix don't do it justice -- you could've white-water rafted. It's also an extra challenge when the roads are just dirt to begin with.

Here's a great photo of the coordinator of the trip. His name is Ramone and he is really cool! He was a Martial Arts champion and also did Ballroom Dance! He was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to Puerto Rico before moving to the US when he was 17. We gave him a REALLY hard time about his white shoes! He had a difficult time keeping them white with all that mud!

This is one of our triage nurses (and Assoc. Pastor's wife) at our last clinic. It was in a little nicer neighborhood and we set up in a satellite church of the one we stayed at. The hardest part for me during each of our clinic days was when we could no longer take numbers because we were leaving in an hour or so and needed to get through those patients who were already there. We would close the doors of the church and the people would just pound on the doors and look in the windows begging to get in, or the kids would ask for more toys when we were out of them. On this day, our construction crew was with us, having finished their houses. Poppy & Cory did crowd control. Bob the Builder helped with the medical team, having been a corpsman in the military and a respiratory therapist. Andy, Cory, and Poppy would much rather have been building another house. I told them that this was way smoother than the first couple days!! PSean & Andy played football (American) and baseball with the kids. Our childcare angels played with the kids in the scorching heat.

Poppy took this picture. He swears that the little boy was smiling right before he took it!

Before the cement was dry in the first house, one of the kids walked through it.

Did I talk about the demolition of the first house yet? Oh wow, that was definitely not as much fun as I thought it would be! The young girls & I went with the construction crew to tear down the old shack, since the medical team went to tour a hospital and to see if we would be able to help some of the people we met down there with very difficult needs. More on that in the next blog, I guess. Anyway, yikes-a-malooney! (that's for you, Carly) When we took the walls apart, which were made of corrugated steel, all kinds of critters came out -- huge cockroaches, spiders as big as taratulas but nowhere near as pretty, that kind of thing. When Poppy took one of the walls off the wooden poles, a huge "volcano" of ants came up out of the ground about 5 inches high. We all started stomping our feet and Amber & I did a tap dance and the Charleston. Those watching really enjoyed that! I went around spraying everyone's legs with bug spray. By everyone's, I mean except mine. Oooh baby, I had lots of bites!

Here's part of the crew working on the second house.

PSean & Andy found out how hard it is to mix cement without that really big truck that usually does it!

This is how a lot of the houses got electricity -- illegally. Dangerously, too, I might add!

This is the outdoor "cucina" that Bob the Builder and Poppy made for Ursula at house 2. The old one is to the left. When they moved it from the old house to its new location, it fell apart, so they made her a new one from scraps. The stove itself is pretty cool. They built a wooden platform, lined it with metal from the shack, and poured concrete into which they set some rocks to support the pan for cooking. The cement held the heat in well. Ursula's neighbors all came to look at it!

This is the crew with Ursula and her daughter Anna. I have to say that at first, the people didn't trust us. The first day at the clinic, when I would write their physical complaints, they would try to read it because they didn't believe that I had written down what they told me.

Later on, I got to meet Ursula myself. She was so excited to meet the wife of one of the construction crew -- she gave me a big kiss & hug! There's a picture of Michele (one of the nurses), Ursula and me in her new house on Thursday's blog. Here she is in front of her new house with Pastor Carlos & Ramone.

The next picture takes a little explanation. The shacks all had a bag hanging by them and we didn't know what was in them -- ignorance is bliss! One day, a lady was carrying one of these bags. She tripped and as Andy reached out to help her, the bag sloshed over and hit him on the side. He noticed really smelly slime running down his side from the bag. Yep, it's where they dispose of their fecal matter! We called them "Andy bags" from then on :)

Sunday, our team was responsible for all the children's Sunday School at 9am. We found out that we would be doing that on Tuesday night, along with doing the Sunday night service. I have to admit that I was upset that we hadn't prepared for that in advance. I figured that we could have worked up something really nice back home (I knew that I would be overwhelmed once we got to the DR). When my Sunday School partner, Mary (an ICU nurse) asked me for ideas, I couldn't for the life of me come up with even a song to sing. I had to say, "I got nothin'." Fortunately, little Natasha, Pastor Carlos & Teresa's daughter was playing with 2 of her friends, and Mary & I asked her about the songs they sang. It was a lot of fun and got me out of my funk. Then Mary was going through some kids' Bible stories that we had brought in Spanish and English and had the genius idea to do the story of Jesus washing the disciples' feet. Brilliant! We started out the Sunday school for the 7 to 11 year olds with some music and puppets "lip-syncing" to a song. It was supposed to be "Joyful Joyful" but ended up being some other hymn --can't remember which one. Then we split up the boys & girls (just a few feet away from each other on the back porch). One group,led by Heather & Nell (nurses) made those cool bracelets or whatever that use beads to tell Jesus' story. I still want to get one of those. With our group, I was able to read the Bible story in Spanish. Mary, the Doc, and I washed the students' feet and prayed for each one. It was really cool! BFF, you know that as soon as she suggested the story, I thought of Chip as Peter and Bill as Jesus! We had a translator (Marbin, who really was one of the team!) to help us. What a great experience, as we explained that we were there to serve the Dominican (& Haitian) people and they were also to serve those around them.

We also ministered in the Sunday pm service. PSean, Nell, & I did some worship songs (in English, but they liked them anyway, I guess). We did Trading My Sorrows, which some of our translators (who, by the way came to Sunday School to help us without being paid!) sang. When it came to "yes Lord" we sang "si Señor." I sang "He's Been Faithful." It's kind of okay that it was in English, because I felt that it was more for our group and for me personally. Two of our members gave their testimony which was translated by Pastor Carlos.

Monday, we had a typical "tourist" day. We took a bus 2 hours or so away and went on a catamaran trip to a private island and had lunch, then took a speedboat back to the main island (Hispaniola), then the bus ride back. It was a lot of fun. I said that we should only show a couple pix of the clinics, the shacks & the work and only show the last day's pix so more people would want to go. Maybe the next blog will be about that day.

The next photo was taken just before we left for the airport on Tuesday am. These people are all such heroes to me, for different reasons. God really put this team together. That sounds really church-y, but if you had witnessed it first hand, you would totally agree with me.

We had 7 wonderful nurses, who in AZ and CA work in the ICU or for hospice, or a school, or in their home. Our Doctor was a Family Practitioner with a successful practice. Our Dentist was recently retired and came with us even though he was not part of our church (we called him Jack the Ripper). Our childcare workers were both students, one 14 years old and one 18 and just out of high school. Our construction crew consisted of a landscaper/business owner, an Associate Pastor, a retired Asst. Chief of Police, a remodeler, and a financial consultant. They are all heroes to me now.

BFF, you asked me if I would do it again and I can't believe it, but YES, I will! It was the hardest thing I've ever done but I really miss our team and those involved in the ministry there.

I hope that I've been able to give you an idea of how things were, but I know that these photos and my writing don't do it justice.

Back in the USA

I'm really trying to do some justice to our Missions/Medical/Dental/Construction trip to the Dominican Republic. Poppy and I went with a Doctor, a Dentist, 7 nurses, 2 childcare workers, and 4 other construction guys. Processing this trip will take a while, but I know you've been patiently waiting for the pix.


Many of you know how I felt before we went. I don't think I've ever felt more unprepared and unqualified for anything in my life. About 2 weeks before the trip, I had a dream that I was supposed to sing with a major female singing group (along the lines of Destiny's Child) that night, and no one was giving me any music to prepare with. That really sums up how I felt. I wasn't worried so much about the travel or our safety or health, but I didn't know what exactly I'd be doing or how well I'd be doing it. I also didn't speak Spanish. My friends and DR teammates did their best to make me feel better, but nothing was working. Cissy bought me a book about a month before the trip -- Spanish for Dummies (no reflection on me, of course) and that really helped. Speaking of Cissy, she and Rosebud saw us off on Saturday the 31st. What a wonderful surprise that was!! I cried of course. They had been to the library and copied Spanish for First Responders and 1 page was all really bad words!! LOL!!

The trip there went well, all the flights were on time and we all got our luggage! We landed in Santo Domingo at 6 something pm and took the bus to Hato Mayor, about 1 1/2 hours or so away. We had dinner & discussed a few things (don't ask me what, it's all kind of a blur).

Monday morning we had devotionals at 7:30 am. My first missions miracle was that I slept all night!! I was so worried, we were in bunk beds (don't really know how Poppy and the Doc were able to manage that, at 6'5" & 6'7") and I don't do well away from home. The accomodations were luxurious from a Dom Rep standpoint, clean and well taken care of. It was designed as an orphange, however, so everything was small. I didn't have room in the bathroom stalls, and again, Poppy had an impossible time going to the bathroom with the stall door closed. We were fed 3 wonderful meals a day, almost always including fresh pineapple and fried green bananas (tasting kind of like french fries) and friend ripe bananas -- yummy ba-gummy! Poppy's a little tired of rice & beans but I liked them a lot. They even made pancakes for breakfast twice. I think the second time was because I went so crazy about them the first time. The pastor's wife was one of our kitchen angels -- they were all wonderful.

Okay, I know you want to know about what we did --

Tis is the first place we went to. It was on the outskirts of Hato Mayor (big hill).

These are some of the people living in the 1st house that was replaced by our crew. There were 7 children and 3 adults living in a house smaller than our bedroom.

When we arrived at our first site, the new house was already framed up.


We set up a clinic in a small church on the outskirts of town -- I think. The people were lining up to see us before we got there. It was the start of the hardest day I think I've ever had.



This is the corner of the church where our dentist was set up. You can just see his gloved hand over the mouth of his young patient.

My job was to give the people a piece of paper with their name, number, age, and complaint so they could go to a triage nurse and then the doctor or dentist. They were so desperate! They quickly figured out that they needed the paper ("papel") to get help. It was just overwhelming.

Cissy's Spanish book came in very handy -- although I had a translator, I was able to do some communicating. I stepped away from my post when I heard a small boy screaming. He had stepped (barefoot) on a broken glass bottle and the doc was stitching him up. I held his knee so he would stop thrashing it around. After this photo was taken, I turned around to keep him from being able to see his foot. Poor doc had my butt in his face but I don't think he knew it. Ramone (from Minneapolis who coordinates these trips -- a fantastic guy) held one hand & we both said "no mira!! mirame!" -- don't look! look at me!!. He was really brave & did okay. His mom was very stoic.


Here's another angel. She's 18, the PK, just graduated high school and was the mission trip veteran of our group. She and a 14 year old girl played with the kids during the day. What a great ministry that was. I got to play with them too, when I was done taking numbers.

Here's Poppy (the one with pants on LOL). He was working on a house across the street (such as it was) from the church.

This is Cory, who lead the trip along with his wife Joyce. They did a great job.

Here's Cory again, on the ladder NOT purchased from Home Depot or Lowe's! Marbin, one of our translators, is to his right. He was fantastic and was really a part of the missions team.




This is the next day. It rained every day, but that day was the worst. We were warned that we might have to walk part of the way, carrying the medical & dental supplies, but somehow the truck made it through.

Just a fun shack picture.
This is the truck we rode in. Yeeha! We thought we were cramped until we saw about 60 people being brought to Tuesday night church services in it!

Okay, to talk a little about our first day -- it reminded me of M*A*S*H. We treated 150 patients in one day and gave out 2 or 3 times that many prescriptions. We were very worn out and very --I can't come up with words. We felt that we were not doing a good job, everything was just so overwhelming. The people were so desperate. They hadn't had a clinic there in at least a year and of course they didn't know if there would ever be one again. We knew we were being taken advantage of in that many of them were just making symptoms up to get free drugs - to hoard or to sell, maybe. We hadn't figured out how to pray with them. I felt that they were so desperate, that if I tried to pray with them, they would not be able to accept it -- they wanted only to see the doctor and they would not accept anything else. I hope I'm being coherent here. We did come up with a much better plan for the next day, where I do the "intake" outside with them so that the church wasn't so crowded. They were prayed for as they waited at the "pharmacy" when they were much more calm and happy. We also did some educating after that 1st day on preventing parasites (very common) and on boiling water before using it.

This was the next place we went to, after 2 days at our 1st location. The construction crew stayed behind to start another house and we went to a village called Guayabal (pronounced gwah-jha-val). The people here had been ministered to quite a bit by the church where we stayed. We still saw about 130 people, I think. I got to play with the kids a little again, and one of them remembered my name when we returned from lunch. Her name is Maria and she's 10 years old. When we returned on Sunday, she was there and I got this picture with her and some other kids.

This, I think, was one of our proudest moments. The church had not let them know we were coming the next day, because we were running out of meds. Ramone went and bought some more so we were okay. However, it was much more remote and we were going to go there in the morning and "drum up some business," as they put it. It meant going shack to shack to tell people that we were there from our church to have a clinic for them. I was majorly freaked out. I had seen enough machetes and I realized that we had the drugs that they wanted. And they were desperate. So, we drove up there (10 miles through really fun -- by fun I mean I thought we were going to die-- roads) and we saw this "shelter" where we were going to have a clinic. It was full of dung. And it's not a building. And there are no chairs. And we have drugs.

Well, since we were coming back for the clinic, we could get chairs. Pastor Carlos & Ramone got on the bullhorn & told them that we were here as servants of Jesus Christ to give them medical and dental care. Within 10 or 15 minutes we were accepting our patients! Someone brought some plastic chairs, one of our translators, Manolo, was sweeping the poop into the 6 foot deep trough that ran through the middle, the milk crates (I think they're for mangoes) were set up for dental equipment and the pharmacy, and I got my clipboard & started taking names. What an incredible team we had. Everyone was just as freaked out as I was, and yet, they got to work and did what they had to do. We saw 70 patients in the morning, went back & had lunch, brought the construction crew with us (they had just poured the cement in one of the new houses), and saw another 50 patients in the afternoon. There were several Haitian refugees and I was able to speak some French and some Haitian Kreyole. We were happy to have the construction crew there, as some of the men from the village were hanging around the drugs.

My next blog will talk more about the construction crew and the last places we went to, but here's a sneak peak at the finished product.

This is house #1. You've already seen the kids in the shack it replaced. Here they are enjoying lunch (rice & beans) the day after they moved in.

This is one of our nurses, and the Doc's wife, posing with me and the very proud recipient of house #2. Her name is Ursula. More about these houses later.

On a very personal note, we just received an email from Ramone that the Pastor's daughter, Natasha, pictured below on the left, is sick. They're concerned that it may be Dengue Fever, something like Malaria. Please pray for her. She is just precious, 10 years old. She drew me a picture while I was there and it was already on my fridge yesterday. The Pastor's wife, Teresa, is 4th from the left.

Okay, I'm really tired and probably getting less & less coherent. I know I'm not typing very well. I will post more tomorrow.