2005 Dominican Republic Trip: August 15

We were told to be ready for breakfast at 8:15, and to leave shortly thereafter. Our doctors wanted to get everything organized for the medical clinic. Well, here in the Caribbean, “8-ish” sometimes becomes “9-ish”. So, the clinic did not begin at 9 as planned, but at about “10-ish”.

The doctors, along with Dr. Chavez from Food for the Hungry, and another Dominican doctor, examined and treated about 100 people. Thanks to the generous donations of medicines, they were able to send almost everyone home with the prescription they needed. If the patients had been required to pay for the medicine, they would most likely have gone without, as they could not afford it. Only one person had anything that needed another medicine to treat: one woman had an amoeba, which can easily be treated with Metronidazole. Without Metronidazole, the prognosis is not as good.

Part of the team began work on the kitchen. The Dominicans had already dug the trench for the foundation. However, it had rained overnight, so the first task was to empty the trenches of the brown, muddy water. The team formed a bucket brigade, and emptied the water into a holding tank. When the tank filled, they emptied the water into a nearby stream. The crew bent rebar to form the reinforcement towers for the corners, then laid brick and mortar to form a strong foundation.

While they were hard at work, Susan, Roxy, Andres (interpreter), Kelvin (the youth pastor), Luis (FH coordinator) and I walked up the gravel road from the school to visit some homes.

At the first house, we were offered chairs, and I noticed there was something in my chair – the color bracelets that were made in one of the 2003 VBS craft projects. Tom K. had planned that lesson, using the “color book” to explain the story of salvation. I handed the bracelet to the mother, and one of her children put it back on. Three of the children had bracelets! I thought it was so neat that they still had them after two years.

At the second house, one of the children brought out a letter from her sponsor that had a picture – Laura J. from High Point Church! We were happy to be able to share with them that her sponsor is a prayerful, devoted Christian, and a very caring and loving person.

At the fourth house, we introduced ourselves, and the family introduced themselves. One of the children said his name is Rafael. My ears perked up – we began sponsoring a child named Rafael this year! His mother shared that two of her children are sponsored – Rafael and a younger child. We asked them what was the sponsor’s name. They couldn’t remember, but Rafael ran to get the picture. Out he came with the picture we took of our family at Christmas! I was delighted – I thought this was the Rafael we sponsored, but wasn’t absolutely certain until he brought out the picture. Rafael’s mother sent someone outside who came back with a fresh coconut, ready to drink. Susan and Roxy thought it would be too risky to drink it. I drank one in 2003 with no ill effects, so I accepted it enthusiastically. It was very refreshing! Rafael’s mother really wanted to give coconuts to Roxy and Susan, so they were able to communicate through Andres that they would be happy to take a coconut with them for later, but they didn’t want it cut open.

When we rejoined the team, they were bending rebar. I asked if I could give it a try. I used my weight for leverage rather than using muscle and was able to bend the rebar in the right places. Only problem was, during subsequent bends, the first bend has to be held level, and I couldn’t quite do that. The guys on the team had to fix that for me. Since I didn’t want to slow the project down, I decided not to do anymore.

I spent a few minutes chatting with Jesus (Hay-Soos), another of the interpreters, while waiting for everyone to be ready to head to the church for lunch. While we waited, Victor asked if I wanted to eat my coconut. I said, sure! He had someone with a machete prepare it for me – they cut it in half, and sliced off a piece of the hull to use as a scoop. Then, I scooped out the soft insides. Instead of being dry and hard as we are used to, it was soft and sort of like a pudding. There wasn’t much, but it was good!

The truck was stuck in the mud, so we all got back out. Most of the team surrounded the truck and tried to push it out. We prayed for help getting the truck out, and someone put a handful of gravel behind each of the wheels. There was plenty, as it was being used to make concrete for the kitchen. The team and several of the Dominicans were able to rock the truck loose, and back onto the road.

We drove back to the church, and ate lunch at about 1:30. By that time, a combination of the heat and eating so late had me feeling a bit rough. I must’ve looked it, too, as many of the team helped me get back to normal. JB used her necklace fan to cool my face. I put a packet of Spark into my water bottle, and another team member got more water for me. After rehydrating, eating, and resting a while, I felt much better.

VBS was scheduled to start at 1:00. Fortunately, the children hadn’t arrived yet, because we didn’t finish lunch until around 2! Roxy, Susan, Kelvin, Andres and I started getting the day’s materials together. Susan is an excellent organizer, so when the children started arriving at 3, we were ready. One of the teachers from the school started the children with some Christian songs. There were about 20 children when we started, and they continued to arrive throughout the afternoon, until there were about 40 children.

I started teaching them to sing the Spanish version of “Every Move I Make”. Andres was a teach in the English Academy for a few years, so he worked with them on learning the words. Then he read the lesson for the day in Spanish, and explained to the children that there was going to be a drama next. Rupa – who was on the team last year, had prepared a terrific lesson plan for the week, emphasizing the love of Jesus for us. Monday’s lesson was “Let the Children Come”. Our church loaned costumes to the team. Kelvin played Jesus on Monday, wearing a white robe with a twisted cord sash, and was quite convincing! Susan and Roxy represented the disciples, and we had the children sit on the floor in front of “Jesus”. Then I started reading the story in English so that the “disciples” would recognize their cues. Kelvin played Jesus so well that I stopped reading, because I could see that he had already gotten the message to the children. After the disciples tried to shoo the children off, he opened his arms wide, and the children all rushed to him. It was a beautiful experience – and not one of us were ready with a camera! We showed them the craft for the day, and the rest of the lesson was spent doing the craft.

One of the toddlers in attendance had fallen asleep, and the Dominican teacher who was holding him signaled that her arms were getting tired! (He was a bit plump, especially as compared to the other children, who are typically quite slender.) I took him, and sat in the doorway of the church. It had started raining, so I just sat there for a while, enjoying the opportunity to cuddle a baby, and praising God for the cooling rain. (I felt the song “Healing Rain” going through my mind.) He eventually woke up, and I was glad that he did not seem frightened to be with a stranger. After he joined the other children, I helped put away the rest of the VBS materials.

After VBS, we had a very nice visit with Juanita, a woman who lives near the church and helps Millie with the meal preparation and cleanup. We enjoyed that very much. She showed us the mops she makes and sells, and demonstrated how she uses her machete to trim the bark off of the wood to make the mop handle. We also discussed politics in the DR, both under Trujillo who was a cruel dictator, and under the current system.

The rest of the team arrived from the worksite, and we piled into the truck, for the ride back to the camp. Juanita came over, and tried to talk me into going into the church to get out of the rain. When that didn’t work, she indicated I should at least cover my head. So, until we were out of sight, I did. Truth is that I was very grateful for the rain!

Supper was at about 8 p.m. Some took showers, and we all got to bed by about 11. A few hours later, I woke up to visit the bano, and then could not get back to sleep. I finally gave up, and decided to go out and enjoy the night air. Susan asked the time – it was 4:22 a.m. I went to sleep again a little later. I think I got between four and six hours of sleep.