medical teams and roadtrips

last Saturday a medical team arrived from jefferson city, missouri and we have been working with them all week in different communities. their first full day here we were out in nazaret at the clinic, sorting drugs, writing labels and a couple artists on the team were painting an incredible mural on the main wall in the clinic. later that afternoon we had the 1 year anniversary of “Centro de Salud Danica”. it was an awesome party with balloon hats, a million homemade desserts (from momma d), homemade, freshly squeezed and chopped fruit juice and a ton of people.
on monday we were out sorting drugs again in nazaret and i took groups of people around down to meet some families and invite the kids to a grande fiesta (big party) we were having up at the school in the afternoon. the strangest thing happened that day though – the kids showed up half an hour EARLY for the fiesta, they just couldn’t handle the anticipation. so we ended up doing face paint, playing different beach ball and “little kid birthday party” games, telling stories, having a colouring station for the younger kids, and all the kids got a cup of dirt and planted a tomato seed in it to take home. it was awesomely chaotic – like most things end up being when you are talking about over 100 kids in the same place at the same time.
for the next three days we had mobile medical clinics in a couple different locations (one in la monteada where we went to the infamous SPORTS DAY - at this particular clinic a local barber decided to come out with us and give free haircuts, which was the coolest thing). in the clinics it was fantastic because i got to sit with and help translate for one of the nurses, in between two fantastic doctors, so i learned so much and got to help with a lot of cool things like ‘lancing’ an abscess on a poor little boy’s leg (he didn’t love us after that), but the team has seen and treated so many people and not only helped them with medical issues but also in taking the time to sit and talk and play with them and their kids is worth more.
yesterday i ended up getting the day off because i had been up at 730 every day all week working with the team, so i went with some friends and people from sadrak’s church on a roadtrip to samana, a city about 4ish hours away (that i happen to be flying out of on august 16th L). we were supposed to leave at 5am but one particular person made us all wait an hour in the bus as he slept in, showered and wandered over – oh the Dominican. on the drive there the guys were all singing and playing their guitars, and we picked up random tourists and Dominicans as if we were a real guagua (so funny) and when we finally got to samana we did a little bit of walking around and then went to a natural water spring? (i don’t know what it really was) but it was so nice, and we were the only people there. after lunch though it had filled up and i was apparently the only white person they had seen in awhile because as Sadrak, lardwin and i walked in, every person stopped talking and stared – it even made them feel awkward next to me haha – so that was fun as i quickly jumped in the water. but then as i was swimming i felt someone grab my feet and up comes a boy who was obviously dared by his friends to grab the white girl as they all stood laughing in the corner... anyways around 330 we were leaving but of course the bus decided not to change into gear. we ended up driving so slowly for an hour until we reached a city called nagua, where we found a mechanic. so then we sat in the bus and hung out for about an hour while he tried to fix it until finally we climbed off and they decided we should probably get a guagua back because the bus wouldn’t go anywhere. so after a little sing-a-long a guagua came for all 18 of us, plus the two guitars and other baggage – wasn’t the most comfortable ride of my life as i shared one fold down seat with someone else and we were squeezed beside the two biggest people in the bus, i had a buckle up my butt and my knees were too long to fit behind the seat infront haha. but that only lasted for an hour or so when we unloaded and hopped in another one. everything was going well until we get taken on a back, dirt road detour past a cow farm in the pitch black. but finally we made it back after about 6+ hours of adventure and i can happily say this was one of the funnest adventures i’ve been on.
anyways, the medical team is leaving today so we will be spending some time with them and then tomorrow KYLE comes and then this week we will be starting to prepare for hero holiday, who come the first week of july. crazy crazy!

p.s thanks again for all of your love and support. please keep praying for the dominican and the things i am being called to do here and also for health because i have recently developed some strange ‘boil’ issues that the doctor things i might need surgery on when i get home, and my wisdom teeth are coming in – uh oh!!!

Love you all!!!

junio is coolio

ay ay ay. it has been rather busy this last little bit – a medical team from missouri arrived last saturday so i never got a chance to write about the week before. anyways here we go back to the week beginning june 14th...
i don’t know if i have been talking much about it but scott (oldest son of momma d and p daddy) and now josh (my roommate from last year) have been playing beisbol on team nazaret, the village we spend the majority of our time in. incase you were unaware, i kind of LOVE watching /playing beisbol so i have gone to every game/tournament – sometimes they say one game and it turns into 5 with a trophy, lasting until 1am – i’m die hard... so most sundays they actually have tournaments and scott was told to be there for 8am but there was nobody there... so we thought maybe they were just staying true to their culture and started playing in the field a little bit ourselves and then around 9 a couple men showed up and started cleaning up the diamond a little bit and then around 10:30 teams started arriving. turns out they were going to start thinking of getting ready at 8 and scott just didn’t get the secret code. luckily my 3 year old best friend, nano, came with his dad who is on the team, so we swam in the river and went on adventures all day, since beisbol lasted until 6. beisbol has been such an amazing addition to this year because i am getting to know some dad’s of the kids i spend so much time with (usually they are working), and i think it shows them that we aren’t just going “to work” for an hour or a couple hours but are wanting more than that and care more about them than that. and i am learning so much about the dominican culture, and falling more in love with it. everyone is just so friendly and relaxed – sometimes a little too much though when someone in the field pulls out their bottle of rum in the middle of the game but it makes it more entertaining.
a couple days later when i was walking through town with amy, we bumped into snotball’s (widline’s) 15 year old sister who had promised to get me a phone number so i could reach their grandma that snotball is living with in haiti. so jean-wisline (jon-wisleen) took us back to her 18 year old sisters apartment. we wandered down a back alley where a man was making a fire to cook his dinner, past some ladies getting their hair “did”, past some naked kids laying on the cement to stay cool – it was like a whole different world just a block away from the centre of the tourist hub in sosua. they invited us in and it turns out that their older sister has the cutest baby boy ever. amy and i quickly made ourselves at home on their bed while we just hung out with 5 girls that we have seen around town working as prostitutes with a baby almost as light as us, making it rather obvious that he was the son of a foreigner – but none of that mattered as we were all just talking and joking like we were old friends in an apartment only big enough for a double bed and a toilet. we eventually started talking about widline (snotball) and how she is doing in haiti. they told me that their grandma is struggling to take care of them both but they both went back there because here the dominican government won’t offer any support since apparently haitians aren’t people...? but the way she told me wasn’t as if they were just looking at me as a bank. money never even came up except that she said she was trying to send them support in haiti. one of the coolest things about this was that they were calling me widline’s godmother and were saying how they appreciate that i would come look for her year after year. this was by far one of my favourite times, ever – we didn’t want to leave but figured the girls might need to start getting ready for their night.this week we also started doing a garbage program up in nazaret. it was our first attempt so amy and i decided not to do a lesson but just see how many kids would actually come join us. we set out with a pocket full of grocery bags and a box of fun blue gloves, and in less than 10 minutes we had a crowd of about 20 kids and had filled up and run out of bags. we had to start using rice sacks that we found in the ‘gutters’ but then couldn’t go too much further. basically garbage day was a SUCCESS and we are going to start doing it every week and talking about why it’s bad for your health etc.

A message from Sadrak

The other day I spent a little while helping Sadrak write a letter to send to different people and groups about his father and I thought I would post it here because it gives some updates.

Hi, it’s Sadrak Jeremy. How are you doing? I hope you are doing well. I just wanted to let you know that my father was in a motoconcho accident two weeks ago and he broke his knee and femur, two ribs and dislocated his jaw. He was on his way to visit his mother when a truck came out of a side street without looking both ways. It ended up driving right into his bike and a jeep from behind also collided with them. The driver of the motoconcho was taken to a clinic in Santiago. My father was taken to a private clinic in Puerto Plata and was expected to die but by a miracle he is alive after 4 different operations – they had to put pins in his leg. My family and I are taking care of him now that he is back home. We have already paid $250,000 pesos (around $7400.00 USD) with the help of people from our church and other friends from all over but we still owe the clinic $92,000 pesos ($2700 USD). My father’s name is Victor Vasquez. He is a pastor here in Sosua, Dominican Republic but will be without work for 6 or more months. I would like to ask you to pray for a speedy recovery and also for my family, and if you are able to make a financial contribution we would also really appreciate it. We are praying and trusting that God will provide.
If you are able to make a donation you can do it in the Popular Bank to the name of Sadrak Vasquez Cabrera, account # 743 769 432.
Muchas Gracias y Dios Te Bendiga
(thank you very much and God Bless)

felicidades - congratulations

woops. it’s been a little while eh? so as you have seen the parents were here last week which was awesome. i loved showing them around my island (ha) and getting mom on a motoconcho – i couldn’t believe it. mostly i loved introducing them to everyone down here and seeing them start to be friends with my Dominican friends and family.
since they were here we’ve had a few big events. first was that josh (my roommate from last year) and kirstin, his girlfriend, came down so i have moved in with them to our old apartment from last year for the month until another friend kyle joins us.
tambien (also) sunday june 7th was the one year anniversary of the clinic in nazaret that i work in; but they decided to wait to have a fiesta (party) until a medical team that was here last year returns again on the 20th of this month.
hoy, (today) was the 2nd annual graduation for the kids of nazaret that i see todos los dias (every day). we went up this morning to help decorate and set up and make refreshments and such and then at 430 we went back for the actual ceremony. it is so cute because only the kids in kindergarten are actually in the ceremony and they get all the kids an escort. hoy (today) there was a boy wearing a tux and all the girls were in their ‘poofiest’ white dresses to walk the graduate in the parade around town and then to their seats. it is such a fun production with dances from the older kids and graduates, an award section and different speeches. we also had a special surprise rain storm today just near the end – it wouldn’t be the Dominican if it didn’t rain at some point during the day.
on a more serious (sad but encouraging) note, el sabado pasado (last saturday) my friends dad was in a motoconcho accident where a truck pulled out and one way or another both the motoconcho driver and my friends dad ended up in hospital. his dad is a pastor in town that i have known for four years now and he is always so welcoming when we come to the church or to their house. i went with his son the other day to check on him in the hospital after his 4 operations. he ended up in a full left leg cast after two operations, plus he needed a procedure on his hip/pelvis area and one also on his face (jaw perhaps?). first of all it was a miracle that he was in such good condition because here the motoconcho drivers are the only ones that “have to” wear helmets (because how often do you expect to see people walking around here with a helmet just in case they might need a drive somewhere) but they usually don’t either. so that was quite marvellous (the thesaurus wasn’t very helpful, sorry), and that he was able to talk to me and move, for the most part, his other body parts was awesome. we got a chance to pray with him and encourage him which was great, and i got the meet the family and other close family friends (kind of awkard timing though). the unfortunate news is that the 4 operations are going to cost his family around $230,000 pesos or around $7000 USD which his family definitely doesn’t have. so please be praying that we will be able to help them figure something out. sadrak (his son) was telling me that he knows that after such a challenging time for his family (which this whole year has turned out to be) that God must have some big blessings waiting so he is just living in faith, which is such an encouraging attitude, especially when faced with such a real, overwhelming necessity that his family cannot handle on their own...
love you all, thanks for being so great.

we're home

(From the mom/ Lisa again)... We have arrived home safely from our trip to visit Krissie. What a wonderful experience we had. I can't get over how friendly the people are down there. Not to mention the hospitality of Donna, Phil, Scott and Jimmie (Missionary's Krissie works with under "Servant's Heart Ministries"). They welcomed us into their home with open arms and it was just a joy to spend time with them and all the people they serve. It really helped to make this holiday unique for us, in that we had family and friends who knew what they were doing and where they were going. It saved us so much time and effort to have them as our tour guides and hosts.

So as you might guess, Krissie kept us busy each day we were there. It got easier each day as I got more used to how things worked, not to mention the weather. The temperature never went down, so either the humidity was less or we just got used to it, but it was much more bearable later in the week than at the beginning.

During the day on Wednesday, Phil and Donna generously lent us their vehicle so Krissie could take us on a personal tour of what she had been doing over the past few years. We went way out into the country to see the very first school she helped to build in the early years. Later, while Darren helped the others at another school (framing walls etc.) Kris was able to take me to visit "Mustard Seed" which is an orphanage for disabled children. I was delighted to see that the facilities were quite substancial and well kept. I was happy to greet the children but soon learned that because I couldn't speak the language it was very hard to communicate with them. So a smile and hug was all I was able to give. They have around 18 children there with 12 staff.

Later that evening, Krissie threw us and her friends a BBQ at Phil and Donna's. It was so fun. We enjoyed burgers and potato salad and some wonderful homemade desserts...oh yes, and watermellon (Krissie and my favourite). The highlight of the evening was when Kris's Dominican friends pulled out their guitars and started playing and singing. They are so talented. It was really enjoyable to sit and listen to them sing in both Spanish and English. (I like the Spanish songs the best!)

As the days quickly flew by our time in the DR rapidly came to an end. But before we left, we were able to see the site of what they hope to be a future clinic, in a poor area, near the airport. Perhaps next time we go to visit that clinic will be up and running and serving those who desperately need it.

All in all we had a wonderful trip and made some great new friends. It has been a lot to process. As I said in my earlier blog, it is hard to constantly flip back and forth from beauty to poverty, I found that really difficult. Always in the back of your mind is what you know is there. The need, the hurt and the pain that poverty thrusts on people. But what I do know is that God is greater than poverty. He is greater than our deepest need and He is faithfull. But He does require our hands, our feet and our mouths to do his work. As I return home to my house in Ancaster I am aware of and grateful for the great blessings that we all enjoy here in Canada (and more often than not take for granted). I am reminded that to whom much is given much is required. And I have also learned that when people have so little, they tend to appreciate so much.

I was honoured to be able to glance very quickly into the world of missions and humanitarian relief and applaud those who do it full time with joy and passion.

Blessings to those who use their gifts and get the job done!

Dios te bendiga - God bless you

Hi, it's the mom...Darren and I are visiting Krissie for the week. Wow, what a joy. We are really getting a good taste of what she does and it's great. So far the above is the extent of my Spanish...but it's still early. So Krissie has taken us to the clinic and school (both at the same location) in the hills, in the heat, in the beauty of the countryside and also in the midst of the poverty. It is such a tug of war between beauty and suffering! It is really hard to switch back a forth from going "oh, isn't that beautiful - a child's smile or a beautiful flowering bush - to an impoverished sight of pain, suffering and want.

We were also privileged to go to Antera's home for lunch today. (She works in the clinic.) We enjoyed a typical Dominican meal of rice, salad, fried cheese and plantains. It was awesome and so special. The adults sat around the table while the kids waited patiently in the other room - about 3 feet away. There were maybe 12 people in her house that would be about 8' x 8'.

Last night we went to church. It was really great. All in Spanish of course so we were a little lacking in understanding, but still had a great time. It was a big Dominican mother's day celebration. The most amazing thing I would say about the DR is the friendliness of the people. They have so little (most of them) but they are so happy - always greet you with a smile and a warm Hola. Darren is pulling on my arm wanting me to go into the pool with him, so got to run. Splash!!
Out of the pool but it is still 32 in the shade so I'm hot again. And the mother who is always on her kids to use sunscreen has a slight burn on her shoulders (don't tell Jackie).
So today Krissie made me ride a motoconcho down from the clinic. So there was the guy (driver) me in the middle and Darren on the back. Hmmm - Now I know what the icing in an oreo cookie feels like. I had to chuckle to myself as Krissie was haggling with the motoconcho drivers. There are Darren and I standing in the 42 degree heat because we were in the sun and about 6 black guys on motercycles were circling around us and Krissie and Amy (her roommate) to see who could drive us (well, really the girls!)
So after we get down the hill we have to catch a guagua (another name for a bus that carries 22, yes I said 22 people). It is the size of a mini van. I had to count how many of us were in there and yes, it again there were 22. Well, one guy was hanging outside, 4 people in the front and so on.

But here we are and we arrived safely.

Earlier today we went to Arroyo Scco where Krissie helped build the school. (her very first project here). It was awesome to see. Quite substancial - much more than I had imagined. So we hiked it down the road to see if we could meet any of the locals. And of course out they came as we were walking. A little girl came running out to see Krissie, did I mention she knows everybody! They are all so pleased to see her coming. She is introducing us to everyone which is really great. So we hiked off the road (Krissie is never one to stay on the beaten path) so into the hills to a beautiful grandma’s house. She offered us the best she had which was 3 chairs to rest on. Her little grandchildren sat and stared at us as only Krissie could communicate with them. Grandma thought Darren looked really strong!! I think so too. Ha Ha...Anyway that was one of my favourite stops so far. It reminded me of Grandma Sonnenberg and how she would be. Rustic and country and peacefull. I'd love to go back and sit with her and chat, now I know why Krissie keeps coming back.
So Krissie is reminding me to tell you all about the talent show, fund raiser she took us too. It was really good. They are such talented musicians. So there we were enjoying the show along with about 300 young adults when the power goes out – completely! So out in the streets are lots of other people milling around and there we are in a building which is almost pitch black. Hmmmm...pray now! Then the lights came back on in about 3 – 4 minutes and we were good to go. The show was amazing.
The first day we were here I realized I had not packed enough cool tops so Krissie said she’d take us out shopping for some clothes. Now that’s a first. So off we went, Kris grabbed us a publicar (a “taxi” where you fit in as many people as you possibly can). After it broke down on the side of the road for a minute or two I thought it would be a good time to open my pop – yes, I said pop. At a time like this you are not fussy about your liquids – just happy you have some – anyway, as it turns out it was not such a good time to open it as Kris and I found out. Apparently the roads are a little bumpy and it sprayed all over Kris and I and the driver and his car. O bother. But alas I had a wetnap in my pocket and made the most of it. Nothing a little extra tip to the driver couldn’t fix.
So we are having an awesome time. Hope I didn’t bore you with my ramblings. Hope to write again before we have to leave. Cheers, Lisa

estan aqui - they're here

the padres (parents) are here. today i am going to show them some of the schools i have helped build and work in over the last couple years. mom is going to write a blog before they leave too. dont worry rana, we're on it.
thanks everyone for prayers and support.