Days 9-11

Well the trip is winding down. Tomorrow is our last day on the sites. We are all sad to go. But we praise God that we are all now feeling better. We had a bit of a scare with a bit of the girls being sick. Last night (Wednesday) was outreach night so we mushed with Bethel then split in half. With the first half going to El Caljone to do a prayer walk and the other half going to a volleyball tournament. I went to the volleyball tournament with Beth G and I as sound people, and Caitlin, Makensie, Brittany, and Karissa. On the way there we got stuck in election traffic. We also got stuck in election traffic yesterday morning on the way to our clinic sites. The Dominicans take their elections very seriously because once you lose you can’t run again. The election is on Sunday and churches are moving church to Saturday because of it.

One of the candidates for mayor came to the hospital yesterday for nurse’s day. There was a special mass. We came late to the mass because our prenatal check-ups were taking a bit long. Anyways, the candidate interrupted after the sermon to congratulate the nurses and that she left them a present in the back.(It was a TV for their break room) The Present was wrapped in brown paper then stuck with her sign for mayor. The election laws are very different here in the DR.

Well tomorrow will come to soon and we have been taking video of people’s thoughts so it is not just me saying things but we leave in just a day.

Prayer requests:

Continue health for the whole team

Guidance for those who are at the fork and they help to where to go for next year.

Mas Picturas!

Kids waiting for Makensie and her dentistry skills
Makensie at her Dentistry site
Becca, Haley, and Jordan at the art site
Jordan at her art site

Becca with the kids at the art site

Haley and Jordan with a mural painting
Makensie on the truck to her site.

Jordan, Becca, Haley, Patricia, and Lindsay

Day 6-8: Its rainy a lot

Day 6-8
Well…. It has been a hectic past few days. Several of the girls caught a bug and two of them had to go the clinicdad to receive medicine ad treatment. Dr. Fernando was also sick in the clinicdad with his daughter, which I thought was funny or maybe ironic. So because of a lot of people being sick and Fernando being sick Caitlin and I got to go to different sites Monday and Tuesday. I chose to go to physical therapy which was pretty cool and Caitlin went to art on Monday then physical therapy on Tuesday. Brittany was able to participate in a three on three volleyball tournament Monday night with her sight leader. She had a lot of fun. One Monday we learned about servant leader and learned about when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples. Our sites are going great! Hopefully I will have time to do more pictures soon!

Prayer:
Please continue to pray for the continued healing of the members of trip. The ones who have been sick the last few days are still felling a bit weak.
Please pray for the increased health for all of the GCU members and the Bethel members at the SI base because the stomach virus is going around Jarabocoa.

If you would like to comment you can!

Day 5- we survived!!!!

Haley was so worried about some of us going white river rafting because she had heard that one of the SI workers had hit her head rafting. From that rafting injury the girl was unable to move her arm for six weeks. Well we came we rafted and we conquered. Rafting was an experience! My raft was interesting; it consisted of Karissa, Caitlin, Beth G., me, and a random person from SI (students international). Our raft only had a few major bumps in the river. Beth fell in 6 different times plus an additional one when she was coming back in a boat then fell again. Mackenzie, Brittany, Nancy, and Lindsay were in the other boat. Both boats flipped. But we were well prepared with helmets and life jackets! The guides took us to a nice are were we could take a break. There was also a 32ft cliff that every body could jump off. After much encouragement and watching the locals everyone but me jumped off the cliff. I had enough water after the boat tipped over. The rest of the trip was uneventful; they even sold us pictures of our excursion like Splash Mountain!
The other girls went a waterfall. Beth N., Becca, Haley, Jordan, Patricia, and Christina. We also went shopping on the town and had dinner in town at Francisco’s restaurant/gallery. It was pretty cool. We all got tons of souvenirs.

Prayer requests:
Please pray for some of our members. Some of them are getting sick from dehydration, so please pray for the touch of healing on them.
Please pray that we will be able to evangelize to the people at our sites next week.

Thanks again!

Day-3&4- Its Freezing!!!!

So it is freezing. Friday morning we woke up to our room being 63 degrees. That’s not too bad if you are prepared. But I only brought thin sheets thinking this place was going to be like Florida. So are all starting to pass out the blankets that the organization has stashed aside but it takes more than two to be warm, but enough about weather!
For The Healthcare site: We saw a full C-section, a D&C, a burn bandage change (the poor guy didn’t have any pain medication) a closed reduction (with no medication either) And we have been able to practice several of our nursing skills.
Special Education: Beth has been busy with her site she got a table dropped on her toe and was bit on the same day. The site is really nice the ratio is 6 students to one teachers. It is a private school just for special education. Beth is the only one from our school but she is partnered with several students from Bethel College.
Dentistry: Mackenzie is doing great! She has been able to assist in root canals.
Physical Therapy: They learned how to pop the lower vertebrae.
Sports: They get to play with the kids then go to the river with them and go swimming!
Preschool: They get to take a nap during the siesta with the preschoolers.
Art: They are started painting and making masks for others. They have led a couple little classes.

Day 2- Its really Hot! But we don’t care!!

Its Day 2 and at our various sites we had great fun! For health care Dr. Fernando Gonzalez taught Caitlin, Beth, and I how to perform pap Smears and how to read the results. We went to a clinic out in Buena vista which is a rural clinic where Dr. Fernando gives his services for free. His actions there really showed me how to use my nursing skills while sharing Christ. Before he started helping his patients that were lining up he read a couple verses and prayed for them all. It was pretty nifty.

Becca and Jordan’s first day: They went to Don Fransico’s art studio and organized a closet and prepared material for the projects of the next two weeks.

Karissa and Brittany are at Woman’s sports.

Makenzsie is at Dentistry,

Nancy and Christina are a physical therapy.

Beth G. is at Special Ed.

Tricia and Lindsay are at a preschool.

Pictures

Haley and Jordan at the Miami airport.
Beth N. Nicole, and Caitlin at Buena Vista a rural clinic.
Public school outside of the special education site.
Karissa, Beth G., Caitlin, and Fernando en route to sites.
Nicole at the Miami Airport.

Its Hot, Humid, and then its freezing and rainy

Day 1- May 4, 2010

Today was the first full day in the Dominican Republic. We arrived last night after a long day of travel. We are here at the Student International camp in Jarabacoa with another US school called Bethel College. WE came in to hot and sticky with a slight breeze. The missionaries said it gets cold at night but we didn’t believe them. Grand Canyon Girls (there is 14 of us) are in a whole cabin, and after we unloaded last night we all turned on our fans to full blast like any other hot Arizonan, But little did we know that in the middle of the night that the temperature would drop several degrees and it would rain extremely hard. Needless to say, we all woke up freezing; tonight we will not be having the fans on high.

This morning we were oriented to the camp. After lunch we all went to our different ministry sites to be oriented. Caitlin, Beth N. and I are all working with a Obstetrician and Woman’s health doctor who is willing to teach us a lot of different skills that we would not be allowed to do in the US. We are all very excited. Beth G. is the only one from our group who is at the special education site but from her orientation and Haley’s remarks it sounds like a pretty cool place, where everyone there receives one-on-one attention.

After our orientation we had free time when most of us slept, then we had dinner to which our table called DR hamburger helper over rice. It was ground beef with potatoes in a sauce over rice with a salad that was tossed in vinegar. It was very good. And how could we not top it off with out a refreshing ice coke straight from the bottle? It is pretty good too only 75 cents.

Quote of the day:

Leader: “Under no circumstance will you guys be riding motorcycles while you are on the island. Motorcycle accidents are the number one killers here in the DR.”

Ten Minutes Later…. Beth N. “ Oh my Gosh those motorcycles look so cute I want to ride one so bad. I will totally break the one rule.”

Its time to leave!!!!

Well i leave for my trip in t-8 hours. I am mostly packed and are very excited to go. The trip to the DR is through Students International.

Please pray for safe travel for our team.

I will try to keep you updated as much as possible!

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Welcome to my mission's blog! This is where i will blog about my mission trip and post pictures. Please comment as much as you can!