June 20, Tuesday

I woke sometime after midnight, as I often do even at home. Fred asked me to check the temperature in the room – it was 80°. Then he asked me to check his temperature. I said I didn’t bring an oral thermometer, and asked if he was feeling sick. He said that he’d been shivering, and he never shivers in a room that is 80°! He tried to get more sleep, and I prayed for him until I dozed off again.

In the morning, we told the rest of our teammates. Vonda suggested that we stay back at the camp so Fred could rest. However, Fred and I both felt it would be better to go with the team. If we stayed at the camp, and he got worse, we had no way to call them and let them know we needed help. I don’t know enough Spanish to communicate what he might have needed to the guards at the camp! So, we went with the team to have breakfast.

This year, all the cooking for the team was done in the kitchen built by last year’s team, so we had breakfast at the school. Millie and her team prepared a delicious breakfast of eggs scrambled with onions, jugo (juice), bread and jam. Fred tried to eat a little, but couldn’t eat much at all.

After breakfast, we drove over to the church. We discussed whether I should stay with Fred, or go on the home visits. When I was in the DR last year, I’d bonded with Juanita, and she had been anxious to watch over me and take care of me. She’s a very caring person, with several grandchildren, so I thought she would be willing to take care of Fred. Especially since he just wanted to sleep. He’d taken a Ciproflaxen at breakfast. She was more than willing to do so – she seemed happy to be asked.

Knowing Fred would be well looked after, we set off for the home visits. One of the homes we visited that day was Alejandrina’s home. We’ve visited there in past years, and her home is easy to remember. She has a very nice garden, and she has decorated a plant in her yard by putting blown eggs over the tips of the leaves. It is very festive! She remembered me from our visit last year. We had a very nice visit – she and her husband, who works in Santo Domingo, have ten children. Three of their children attend the University in Santo Domingo.

After some home visits, we walked back to the church to check on Fred. He was sitting up, and had taken another Cipro. Juanita had brought a mattress for him to lie down on. She’d also brought an oscillating fan, and had it blowing on him. Someone had loaned a bandanna (I think it was Carol), and Juanita soaked it with cool water and put it on his forehead.

We re-read the directions on the Cipro, and realized we had misread the directions – he was to take one every 12 hours, not every ½ hour! We all discussed that, and decided to see how he felt later. The Cipro had stopped one of his symptoms, and his fever also seemed to be down. It was hard to be sure, though, as we didn’t have an oral thermometer there.

Since he didn’t feel like eating, we left him in Juanita’s capable hands while we had lunch at the school. I think we had chicken, with vegetables and fruit, but I don’t remember for sure. We were delayed in getting back to the church when it rained – a real gully washer! Throughout the rest of the day, we had downpours alternating with light rainfall.

Calvin, the youth pastor, stopped by the school while we were there. He said his father had been injured and couldn’t work, so he was driving cab to help the family. (His father raises cacao.) His father is getting better, though, so Calvin thinks he can go back to school in September. He wants to be an attorney. He is also on a multi-church committee of pastors trying to put together a Christian library for the community. He’s pretty excited about that!

Fred was still very sleepy. Vonda said we should wake him every 30 minutes to make sure he drank some water to avoid getting dehydrated. I didn’t have a watch with me, so I borrowed Karyn’s watch for the afternoon. Before the rest of the team left for the construction site, we all gathered around him and prayed for him.

The team didn’t stay long at the construction site, as it kept raining. Almost everyone ended up helping with VBS.

When I checked back on Fred, Yulisa and Fredi were helping Juanita. Yulisa is a doctor at the hospital in Yamasa, so she checked him over. She brought a blood pressure cuff, and found his blood pressure was elevated. He was still quite out of it when VBS was over, and said he was achy all over. Martires, Vonda and I decided it would be a good idea to take him to the hospital in Santo Domingo.

The only vehicle we had was the truck, so Martires needed to get the team back to the camp first. I also needed to go to the camp to get the travel insurance paperwork. We left him with Juanita, and drove back to the camp.

Since there was a chance that we would need to stay overnight in Santo Domingo, I packed a change of clothes for each of us, as well as our medications and toiletries. Vicki and Arianne made sandwiches for us to eat on the way . Carol got the insurance card for us, and Vonda unlocked our passports. On the way back to church to get Fred, Martires, Vonda and I stopped at a clinic to ask about an ambulance. They didn’t have any available, and suggested we check with the fire department. We decided not to take the time.

Plan B: We drove a route that would take us past Calvin’s house. His cab was there! So we stopped, and Martires ran inside to look for Calvin. He must have been told Calvin was visiting a little ways away, and pretty soon, Calvin and Martires came running back. Calvin followed us with his cab to the church, and carefully helped Fred into the cab, and made sure I was buckled in safely.

Then off we sped to Santo Domingo, with Vonda and Martires in the truck and Fred and I in the cab. There are many twists and turns, and a fair number of bumps in the road from Los Botados to Santo Domingo! Shortly after we entered Santo Domingo, Fred became ill in the cab. Calvin’s compassion showed again, as he patted Fred’s back until he was finished. Then we sped on to the hospital.

Once Martires explained the situation, Fred was whisked into a bed in the emergency room. The internist who initially examined him could also speak English! That helped matters substantially, and took some of the load of translating off of Martires. Fred’s temperature was 38° Kelvin; I asked and learned that 37° is normal, so his temperature was not high. They took a blood sample, and determined he was dehydrated. His stomach was hurting, too, and he was achy all over. His blood pressure was still a little high.

The internist consulted with the floor physician, a woman. While they were consulting, Fred and I talked and came to the realization that he probably hadn’t digested Monday’s blood pressure medicine before getting sick, and had not taken Tuesday’s medicine. When the internist returned, we told him and he said Fred should take the medicine. He also had the med tech start an IV, and give Fred an injection (through the IV) of something to help his stomach.

We told the physician about Fred taking too much Cipro. She asked, through the internist who translated, why he took it at all. She said that Cipro is a preventative. (When we told Rick that, he said, “Sure, it prevents you from breaking your ankle racing to the bano!”)

It was warm in the ER, so I stepped into the hall for a while. Martires and Vonda were playing a competitive game of double Solitaire to pass the time! Luis of Food for the Hungry, and his wife and youngest daughter came to see how we were, too. His wife and daughter are both very beautiful.

Fred improved rapidly after that. The doctor wrote two prescriptions for him, verified he could be up and about without being dizzy, and said we could go. Martires took care of paying the hospital bill, since we didn’t have any pesos, and Jose Almante drove us back to the camp. At one point, I noticed the speedometer needle was at 100. I was briefly worried, but then realized it was KPH, not MPH! Whew!

Vonda and Martires stopped at his house to see his wife and children briefly, and then found an all night pharmacy to get the prescriptions filled.

We got back to the camp at about 1:00 a.m. I wanted to let Carol know that we were back, and Martires and Vonda would be back later, but didn’t remember what room she was in. So, I ended up waking Karyn and Jenny. Karyn was very surprised to see us, and extremely happy that Fred was okay. She said they’d been praying intensely for Fred that evening. While I was filling Karyn in, Vicki heard me, and came out to give me a hug. We woke Carol to let her know, too. They were all thrilled Fred was okay.

While Fred and I were getting settled in to sleep, Vonda and Martires pulled in (about 2:00 a.m.). Knowing everyone was safely back at camp, I slept like a log (for what was left of the night)!