Work Day 3

Construction - Jeff Spencer: Work on the house in Batey 106 continued today. Our focus areas were digging footers around the house so that we can lay block and pour concrete later in the process, completing the final fill of dirt into all of the rooms' floors in preparation for concrete slab to be poured, and sifting more sand for more mortar to complete the block laying and the application of "stucco" on surfaces of all interior and exterior walls. There were lulls in the work from time to time allowing us to spend more time with the kids and teens in the Batey. Our youth played several games of basketball - I believe Trinity's team beat the 5th graders but lost badly multiple times to the 8th graders. We and several of the local kids climbed to the top of one of the hills overlooking the Batey after lunch - it's a beautiful view. We also left a bag of toys (football, kickball, bubbles, jump ropes) with the teacher at the school in the Batey. I am a retired engineer. All of my career I'd been focused on leading, planning, organizing and executing work. I've learned on mission trips (international and local) that if that's all I do I'm missing out on much of what I believe God wants and expects of me. Instead, I remind myself every day to look for opportunities to engage with the kids, teens and adults in the bateys, Perry County, and the Salvation Army kitchen. Here in the DR, my Spanish and Creole is basically non-existent but there are other ways to see and appreciate the wonderful people here. Today, I set up a makeshift seesaw out of a long board and a rock. Four little girls had the time of their lives on it and I felt blessed to watch them.

 The Kids Love to Play

 Andrew and Jacob Digging Footers

 Daniel, Keith and Ashley K. With Help Sifting Sand

VBS - Sarah Cooley: Today I worked VBS. I've been on this mission trip several times and I know that VBS will be chaotic or will eventually devolve into chaos. Each kid wants their snack or wants help on their craft or wants something else. The children talking eventually reaches a dull roar and that makes it hard to hear. But nevertheless I have fun with it and I love helping all of the kids. I started out the day giving the de-worming medicine to the kids. This was something that we did in every batey and something I knew how to do. Each kid took their medicine and went back to doing what they were doing before, except for one kid.  As I filled up a cup of medicine to give to this about five year old, David, the interpreter helping I was helping, pulled out the marker to mark this kids hand to let us know that we had given him medicine. The moment he uncapped the marker, the kid ran away screaming.  Eventually he was pulled back and realized it was just a marker. Then after that was done I talked to some kid a little younger than me with Ashley's help. They then did something very touching: they gave me one of their bracelets. Let's just say I'm not taking it off. Ever. Then we moved on to the actual VBS portion and I read the English portion of the story to the kids while Estella translated. The story was about Jesus and the children. We then moved on to the craft and it was this ribbon with paper attached that said Amor or love and at the top it said Jesus me amor or something similar which means Jesus loves me. And of course it involved glue which can sometimes make things chaos, which it did. Once everyone was done I played ball with some kids and this one teen boy, until our ball popped about five minutes in. I then went inside the clinic for a moment until I went back out to paint some nails with my grandmother. That also devolved into chaos with each of the polish going in different direction and kid quickly messing their up so they wanted a new coat. The teen from earlier at one point painted my nails. We then went inside for lunch. Then we went back outside to do the story of Joseph and his coat. We were just about to hand the glue out for the craft when Estella stopped us telling us that it was going to rain so we had to finish. We started passing out snacks with the help of some of the older girls and passing out pencil pouches. As each kid wanted their own thing, things went to chaos. But eventually every kid got a snack and pencil pouch and we were almost done. We pulled some of the older girls into the church and then handed them the hygiene kits as we were packing up. I love seeing the hygiene kits happen because it's such a great thing for these girls. We then packed up and headed back to the mission house.

 Sarah, Teresa and Corrie Doing VBS

Water - Ashley Rehage: In today's batey, I worked on assembling and distributing water filtration systems. I have been doing VBS for the past two days, so this was a new experience for me. VBS was chaotic because the kids were running everywhere and eating the glue, but the filter distribution was even more chaotic because we had to fend off full grown adults trying to take the buckets. We gave out about 14 buckets before lunch, and during lunch our interpreter (who was basically running the whole distribution and demonstration process) informed us that he had to leave and would not be there to assist us in the afternoon. He gave us a list of people who had signed up to receive the water filters that we had left and then introduced us to a very nice lady (batey health/water coordinator) who could gather them all up at her house behind the church. After lunch, we transferred the buckets from the bus into her small home and began the whole process again, but this time with a new interpreter and a much smaller and less chaotic crowd. Earlier in the day, I got the opportunity to hang out with some girls a little bit younger than me. they gave me a bracelet that matched all of theirs, they practiced their English on me and I practiced my Spanish on them. It was really nice to see that even though they didn't speak English well and I don't speak Spanish well, we could still communicate and create a friendship between us. Overall, it was a hectic but great day in the DR.

 Explaining How Sawyer Filters Work

 Chuck with Happy Customers

Clinic - Tammy Owens: Day three of our work in the bateys and today I was working in the clinic. I started off in the pharmacy area, a fast-paced, frenzied site at the front of the clinic. Since I was the least experienced in this area, I was also the slowest. As I tensed up trying to stay on top of things, my back started aching. I got tickled at myself and thought it's good I never felt the calling to be a pharmacist in everyday life! Sometimes God puts us in vulnerable situations to humble us a bit! After lunch I took blood pressure, and through this experience I came face to face with people whom I found unexpected common ground. One muscular teenage boy was laughing as he held out his arm and hand. His fingernails had been painted as a joke by one of our VBS workers. Just yesterday, two boys in our group had painted each others fingernails as a joke. A young woman who was pregnant smiled broadly as I put the blood pressure cuff on her. I remembered how happy and proud I had also been when I went to the doctor for checkups during my pregnancies. We are all people looking for connections, and today I found those connections in the clinic!

 Tammy and Susan Filling Prescriptions

 Painted Nails!

Pharmacy Looking Out to Waiting Patients