Day 4 - Batey Lima

Facts and Feelings

Today we went to the Lima Batey (bah-TAY). The bus ride is about 45 minutes each day (so far) but the distance is only about 15-20 miles. Our bus driver, Yuya (or Frank) is an expert at navigating the dirt roads and mud puddles. Today we crossed a concrete bridge barely the width of the bus and the creek was up to the bridge. There's no safety rails, which made it look just like the bridge on the gravel road where Gary is from in Morgan county. The landscape was more hilly and I over heard the comment, "It looks like when you cross the state line into Tennessee, but we are NOT on I-65!"

I rode both trips in the seat with Crystal, who is a 28-yr old Haitian and her role is registration of everyone who comes in to the clinic. We made great use of the iPhone Translate app, taking turns speaking into my phone. "Llama" and "llama" do not mean the same thing haha. She was born in Haiti, and has graduated from school, but cannot attend 'University' because she is Haitian. She wants to be a nurse. 

The stats report for today is:

• 38 water filters installed and all of the families were prayed with by our team, including one woman who stopped them in the street and said, "I know you're out of filters, but will you pray for me?"
• 77 patients seen at the clinic (double yesterday's count). This does not include the children who get anti-parasitic syrup and a dum-dum sucker when we first arrive on site 
• 12 children at VBS in the morning who heard the parable of the lost sheep
• 26 children at VBS in the afternoon who heard the story of Jesus washing the disciples feet. 

At the end of the day we are hot and tired from the 88 degree weather with 68 % humidity. (By comparison, it was 38% humidity in HSV today. I checked.) We enjoy a home cooked meal by TaTa and the sweet kitchen ladies, three times a day. She serves a fresh fruit juice in ice cold gallon jugs on the table each night - mango, passion fruit, lime, cherry. Truly a cup of cold water in the biblical sense.

 But my favorite time of the day is the team meeting after dinner. Because we are a small-ish team, we can each share our favorite thing of the day. It varies from each person and their assignment for the day, clinic, VBS or water filters. We laugh about and respect our strengths and weaknesses (clinic vs. VBS). But the commonality and community we share with one another, the growing together as our entire focus is here and we are not encumbered or distracted by work or school or errands, is most meaningful for me. We are a small piece of the story in this much bigger story of the work here in the DR, and with the three other teams overlapping with us this week. Your story, our story, God's story, coming together in the Republica Dominica!  

Lynn Hogan