Dominican Republic- Day #6 - Thursday, July 7, 2011- Batey Reguelito

So.. Thursday we went to Batey Reguelito. As we arrived, the kids didn't seem to run up the bus as much as the kids in other bateys. They were quiet and watched and then slowly approached the bus. I wonder if this was because many groups don't go that community often. A mother brought her little girl to us as soon as we got off the bus. She had an infected abscess to the bottom of her chin.

We said that she would be one of our first patients once we were set up, but then another mother brought her son to us. He had a laceration to his forehead, maybe about 2-3 centimeters in length and he was bleeding. The ground was very rocky in this area, and he had fallen and hit his head that day. We took him right into the church that was opened for us to use for the day. We assessed him and realized he needed sutures. We pulled out our wound bin, while others were unpacking all of the other supplies and medications and setting up the clinic, and gathered materials to suture his head wound. He was crying alot and was scared. I felt bad because I knew he couldn't understand anything we were saying to him. We gave him a local lidocaine injection to numb his forehead and while a number of us held him down, one of the doctors in the group sutured his head with some not so great sutures. He did so well!! While he cried and screamed the whole time, he really did amazing for being a 6 year old child. After we were done, we bandaged his head and gave him a lollipop.

No sooner than we had finished and covered his wound, a large swarm of bee came out of the walls of the church right above where the doctor had just sutured the wound. Lots and lots of bees just kept coming out of the walls and ceiling from both sides of the church. It seemed as so there were hives in between the walls and the sheet metal on the outside of the church. We all evacuated the church, and wondered where we would go next to set up the clinic. After realizing there was no other place to set up, the pastor of the church smoked out the bees and then we went in and began our day. We couldn't help but give God praise for holding off the bees until the doctor had finished suturing that wound. Had they come out not even 5 minutes sooner, we would have been trying to hold down the kid, and suture the wound with bees swarming around the room. That would have been bad. Again, God showed Himself. The timing was impeccable. With all the screaming and crying the kid was doing, you would think that it would have disturbed the bees and they would have come out then. Nope, they came after everything was done.. ONLY GOD!!! :)

I was in the pharmacy on Thursday. The nurses in the group alternated so that we had one licenced clinician working in the pharmacy each day. It was so busy. I missed the one on one contact with the people though. I filled the prescriptions and then the interpreter would tell the patients the instructions. Because many of the people are illiterate, we applied stickers to the medications that have pictures signifying the time of day, and we marked at what time they should take it- in the day, afternoon, evening or night.

During lunch, I had alot of time to spend with the kids and people in the community. The kids loved to get their pictures taken and they many of them wrote their name on a piece of paper so I would remember them.

Iris, Majelis, Bealni, RoseMari, Javier, Lovely, Elenita, Bacheco, Vanessa, and Francois

Vanessa and Francois

Diego

Vanessa and Francois's family

Francois and Vanessa- Loved them!!

 I loved how excited the kids were to take the pictures and write their names. They were such happy children!
It was another good day. I didn't love being in the pharmacy. I really missed the interaction with people. The clinic saw 130 patients that day and gave out alot of medications. It was so good to share about our experiences with others from the group. That night, we had a team share time where I told the group about how God worked through us by bringing us to that batey that day, where we were needed and how He held off the bees until we were done with the suturing.. God is Good all the time!!