Reflections

So I've been thinking...it's really hard to try and summarize the past 2 weeks in a few short stories. In conversation, people have asked me how the trip was, and I fell like I haven't given it justice saying that it was great, awesome, or whatever descriptive word I choose. Here's my feeble attempt...

We stayed in a town Juan Dolio, about 20 minutes away from the capital city, Santo Domingo. Every day, we'd load up the bus and van and head into either small, poor sugar cane villages or churches in big towns and set our little clinic up. We had about 5 doctors each week, 2-3 PT's and lots of PT and med students, a handful of nurses, a pharmacist, and others to do evangelism. We saw tons of patients each day, sometimes not getting to eat lunch till about 2:30 or 3 and getting back to the hotel till 6.

For now, I've decided pictures will do, with a few stories thrown in the mix. Here goes:
This pic is taken at the hotel we stayed at, SCORE hotel. It stands for something like "Serving Christ our Redeemer Everywhere," I think... Pretty sure this was day 1, and we were getting used to sweating at all waking hours!

Just call me the Triage girl! I had taken automatic BP cuff machines for granted!!! This was day 1 and I wasn't smart enough and got a little dehydrated. I bet if you look close enough, you'll see sweat beads on my forehead!!

Taking a break one day at the beach and walking on the rocks! We were about a 10 minute walk from the beach, so we took full advantage of it!! I think we walked down there about 4-5 times while there!
These sweet brothers entertained me for about an hour, I HAD to take a picture with them! This was probably one of the poorest sugar cane villages we went to, but I was amazed to see the little things the children loved! They were all about our balloon animals and LOVED when the boys played baseball with them, and couldn't get enough of the piggy-back rides! (I started thinking it was a mistake after the 20th kid I trotted around!)
Week 1 roomies! Katherine, Julie (we call her Hulia) and me. I was sad Hulia left us :(
They let me play pharmacist!!! That was by far my favorite thing to do! I learned so much! (Please note the scrubs are rolled up, def a daily occurrence!)

Street of the Ladies! This was in Santo Domingo on our day to be tourists!! The break was wonderful! Heather and I got some real Dominican bananas!!! Mine was splendid!

Well, apparently that's all the pictures it is going to allow me to post right now! It was funny, one of the guy's joked with me that I'd bring a child home because I was always carrying one around or playing patty-cake or making faces at one. I did realize through this trip that children truly are my passion, and working at Children's wasn't just a random decision, it's great to see the Lord's provision over my decisions.

I'll leave you with a couple stories: Day 1 we were in a church in a big town. One man accepted Christ, but it was so late in the day we didn't have any more Bibles. Our Leader, Bobby, told him to come back the next Monday (we were coming back to the same church) and we'd give him one. He remembered and came back, just for a Bible! Another story: We were all eating lunch in a big room of another church and this little girl about 11 or so came up to Bobby and asked for a Bible. When we found out that they had one at her house, he explained that we didn't have many. She said she wanted one of her own to take to church with her and read it during sunday school and church like her mom and dad. We gave her one and asked her if she had a favorite verse. She quoted the gospels saying that "And Jesus grew in wisdom" was her favorite verse. She was so sweet and later I saw her proudly reading her new Bible in the corner! Through these experiences, I was convicted about how many Bibles I have and how little I read them!

More pictures and stories to come!

Back on US soil!

The Dominican Republic was amazing. We got back tonight about 8:30, and what's the first thing I wanted? Chick-fil-a. Like I had my HEART set on it. Too bad it's Sunday and it was closed :( So I settled for a wrap at Wendy's. It just wasn't the same. Oh well.

We made it back safely will all our luggage and no passports got stolen or lost! Thank you Jesus! I did however get stopped and my carry-on got searched because I had a pair of hemostats and trauma shears in it from days we were in the clinic. It was kinda funny though, guess I looked mean and up to no good in my flowy black dress and pink sweater, HA!

I will post pics and tell my crazy stories at a later date. For now, I will take a shower where I can drink the water and go to sleep for a LONG TIME in my comfy bed with my personal favorite pillows!!!

Beach Fun!! :)

Had lots of fun at the beach!!! I'm a little slow at getting pics up.. It's hard when my gparents don't have wireless!!! I actually was brave and tried new food! I like the fried crab claws, grouper, crab cakes, and some seafood dip. The only thing I'd actually order myself would be the grouper...it had this really good sauce that went with it! YUM!

I did lose 2 pairs of sunglasses and a contact :( and I'm a genius and didn't pack any extras, so that explains all the pics with my glasses on!

It was sooo great to just wake up whenever and lay out at the beach ALL day, just relaxing! Man I sure did need that!!!

Here are some photo highlights for y'all, got home and realized I didn't really take many!

Me and Tracy one day out on the beach getting our tans on!

Waiting to be seated at the Red Bar!!
Clay and Jonathan at Red Bar

Group shot of us girls
On the way to the outlets to get our shop on!

Leaving for the Dominican on Sunday and I promise to take more pics to post! We'll be gone for 2 weeks, so it'll be a while before another post!! :)