Dominican Republic- Day #1 - Saturday, July 2, 2011

Saturday after no sleep, we started our day with an optional prayer and worship time in the courtyard of the compounds we stayed in. I must note some of the rules of the compound, which were also the same throughout all of the places we went in La Romana. No toilet paper can be flushed down the toilets. All toilet paper has to be placed in a wastebasket, and if by accident it did end up in the toilet, it had to be fished out with tongs. Also, the toilets could not be flushed after just urinating. These two rules were in place because the pipes were too small for toilet paper to fit, and there wasn't enough water to flush after everytime one used the bathroom. We could not drink the water, and had to use care when showering not to swallow any water or to use the water when brushing our teeth. Clean water was provided for us in each of our dorm rooms and in the dining room of the compound.


After prayer, we had breakfast. All the food during the week was made by some wonderful women who offered their time and abilities to providing and cooking very tasty food three times a day for us.


After breakfast, all the groups split up for the day which we did everyday. Our group of 82 split up into 7 groups. Team A1 which was a construction team who I believe spent their time at the hospital- El Buen Samaritino Hospital- the Good Samaritan Hospital- which the group had helped build over the last few years and now has 2 completed floors. Team A2 and A3 were at Elza Phanord's church (the wife of JeanLuc Phanord- the man who started alot of the mission work in LaRomana, who passed away in 2001, in a plane crash) and at a church member's house. Team B was a larger construction team who spent everyday on Batey 50, one of the poorest bateys that this mission team works with, and in which we have our 50 for 50 project, in which we rebuilds the homes of the people there. The Med Team, which I spent the week with, was a group of doctors, physicians assistants, advanced practice nurses, registered nurses, and others who provided health clinics in the bateys daily. The Fulfilling Smiles team provided food and clothing to the people of different bateys daily. The teaching team provided games and activties to the children of the bateys and the evangelism team preached the gospel and prayed for the people in the bateys daily.


Saturday, all the teams went out to a batey to do their work except the med team. We stayed back at the compound to sort and organize all of the donated medications. This year we had many new practictioners who would be providing care, diagnosing and prescribing medications so we did some role playing so we would somewhat know what to expect. As a nurse, I would be diagnosing and treating anything that came into the clinic on any given day.


This was terrifying at first but as the week went on it became easier. Saturday afternoon, we all met at the beach for a few hours, which was a nice way to start the week, especially because we really began it with a sleep deficit.