Day #6 Guajabo

Today was a better day. People were more grateful and we saw a lot more kids that were actually sick. The pastor and his family were a huge help with crowd control and keeping everyone at a distance. We got to be outside in the back because they had a nice patio thing out there. It was really nice to have the fresh air. Our team is so fantastic! Seriously. Everyone is so great. They are easy going but work hard and have fun while doing it.
A lot more people spoke Creole today than yesterday. A majority of the people that live in the Bateys are from Haiti. They flee from there for a "better life" here, and the sugar cane companies are convinced that they are giving them a better life. Sure, it's better than what they had, but it is by no means a "good life."
This boy is 8 years old. That's right. 8. He has some type of genetic disease so he doesn't really age.

The cool kids


So cute

The houses they live in. Two families per house, no running water.

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Have you ever seen someone so happy about a bag of vitamins? :)

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Day #5 Palo Bonito

Today was a wonderful/rewarding/frustrating/hard/fun/exciting day. Really. There were so many emotions to it. We left early and loaded up in our taxi vans and head for our first Batey of the week-Palo Bonito (pretty stick). We just shouted out the windows that there would be medicine and doctors for the kids at the church. We pulled up to I think an evangelist church and went to find the pastor. He let us in and we went to work setting up. The kids were so excited to see us and they were so stinkin cute! They loved getting their pictures taken so we did that for a little while. Then we began the line up.
I was assigned to work as the interpreter with Dr. Sara Daly. She was great to work with. Pretty much everyone would say "Tengo gripe, fiebre, dolor de cabeza, dolor de variga, y no puedo comer." Most of the kids weren't too sick, and we could just give them over the counter medicines if anything at all. We did see one little baby girl who was super lethargic. Her mom said she had been like that for a month. Sara prescribed her something and then after the mom took her way, Sara told me she didn't think the baby would make it much longer. It was so sad. In the states we would take a baby in that condition to the hospital and get IVs started, etc. But they don't have the same luxury here. We were surveying a lot of the families to get a feel for living conditions. Most people talked to had lost 1-3 children. That's a super high death rate. It hasn't been that bad in the states since the 1800's. But that's part of life for them. It shouldn't be though. People started hopping the fence and trying to glimpses of what was going on inside. At one point we got pretty claustrophobic because so many people were trying to get in.

At the end of the day we went outside and the kids just wanted to play some more. They were so loving. Children are so loving and innocent.

Day #4 Higuey

At 5:30 am we got up and checked out of our sweet resort so we could go catch the bus into Higuey and meet up with the team. The $3 dollar bus ride sounded super appealing compared to a $70 taxi. So we threw all our bags on (at this point we still have our carry-on bags and two check in bags each with 50 pounds of medicines and supplies). This wasn't a nice traveling bus so we just had to throw all the bags in the aisle and watch as more and more people crammed on. It definitely brought back memories of the buses in Guatemala. Just as we pulled into Higuey it started to pour and pretty much rained the rest of the day. But we made it to Don Carlos, our slightly ghetto hotel, with plenty of time to walk to church with the others.

Church was fantastic!!! I loved every minute of it. I made a new friend named Jacquelin. She was so sweet. She has a little 8 year old son. The members were so welcoming and appreciative to us for being there. It's the only ward in the whole city with only 2 missionaries, so they have their hands full. There was a confirmation of a man who had been baptized the day before. What an incredible experience to see that ordinance take place. I went up to congratulate him after the meeting and asked how long he had been meeting with the missionaries. He said he was actually from a different city and had met the missionaries there. He believed and wanted to be baptised but his wife didn't want anything to do with it. So he decided to leave and move to Higuey. He got all choked up and began crying about how he had moved here three weeks ago and was all alone, but now he has a family in the church. It was so touching to see the sacrifices he had made to come unto Christ. What a great example.

After church we grabbed some food then went to see the Basilica. It's a cathedral that holds a painting of the Virgin de la Altagracia which the Spaniards brought over in the 1500's. I guess in January tens of thousands of Pilgrims visit the cathedral.That evening Emily and her group showed up. It was fun to have a familiar face there.
This is the A team. There were over 50 of us so we were split into 2 teams to go out to different Bateys each day. These are the interpreters. We met Sunday night at the church to get organized and understand a little better what was going to be happening that week. Basically every day we would be going out to a different Batey. Bateys are housing communities that the sugar cane companies have their workers live it. They pay them about $3 a day depending on how much work they get done. There's not running water and only some houses have electricity. It's pretty much slavery and was heartbreaking to see.
That night we sorted suitcases full of medicine to get ready to take out the next day. This is just one of the bags full of Tylenol.

Day #3 Ocean Blue Resort

What a BEAUTIFUL day!!! It was sunny the whole day and we took full advantage. After a much needed nights sleep we made our way to breakfast then off to the beach. We played some volleyball, drank pina coladas, and even did some water aerobics with the most hilarious guy at the resort. Apparently all of the DR thinks Americans are still in the early 90's so we were treated to more amazing music like "Boom boom boom. Let me hear you say way-o way-o."

Day #2 Still Flying

Half way there. We can make it. Hopefully. The morning started off bright and early when we could no longer take the annoying music blasting so we went to check in for our flight. We headed of to Puerto Rico and finally got some sleep on that flight. Too bad it was only a 2 hour flight. Our layover in Puerto Rico was supposed to be a short one so we rushed to our gate. But as they brought our tiny little plane up near the terminal they let us know there was a problem. Something about a broken bathroom door? I'm not really sure what that means or why that would delay us, but they had to find a new plane for us. So 2 hours later we walked out on the runway, up the stairs of our tiny plane, and safely landed in La Romana, DR an hour later. After a fiasco with all the taxi drivers fighting to take us up to Punta Cana we were finally on the road. Our driver was funny. He spoke English pretty well and wanted to practice it. He also LOVED American music. So we had an hour and a half drive jamming out to "Pump, pump the jam, pump it up" and the Back Street Boys. I didn't have the heart to tell him that music's not that cool any more. We made it to our all-inclusive resort and went straight to the dinner buffet since we hadn't eaten since Tampa. Then it was straight to bed.

Day #1 Let the Journey Begin

One of the deciding factors of coming on this trip is that I found an AMAZING deal on plane tickets. The reason they were so cheap was probably because of length of time it would take to get to the DR. At noon we left happy valley ready to get this adventure started. Salt Lake to Dallas, then to Tampa with an 8 hour layover there. Don't worry, the airport made sure to make sleeping there as impossible as they could. The chairs all had armrests that didn't budge, the ground was hard, and the air conditioning was so cold I thought I might freeze to death. So what did we do to make it through the night? Let "The Office" season 1 begin.

Bye Bye Technology

As you can tell I never made it to the internet while I was in the DR. I did email my parents for 10 seconds half way through to let them know I had made it there and was alive, but that was it. No emailing, no phone calls, no texting. IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!!! I didn't think I would love being so cut off from my life, but I really loved it. Don't worry though. I kept track of the whole adventure, so I'll be posting each day on here. Enjoy!

Dominican Republic Here I Come

I leave today for the DR. I'm not sure how much access to the Internet I will have (if any at all), but I try to keep my blog updated if I can.

So Prophetic

"Make no mistake about it, brothers and sisters, in the months and years ahead, events are likely to require each member to decide whether or not he will follow the First Presidency. Members will find it more difficult to halt longer between two opinions. President Marion G. Romney said, many years ago, that he had 'never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional or political life..'

"This is hard doctrine, but it is particularly vital doctrine in a society which is becoming more wicked. In short, brothers and sisters, not being ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ includes not being ashamed of the prophets of Jesus Christ. . . . Your discipleship may see the time when such religious convictions are discounted. . . . This new irreligious imperialism seeks to disallow certain opinions simply because those opinions grow out of religious convictions.

"Resistance to abortion will be seen as primitive. Concern over the institution of the family will be viewed as untrendy and unenlightened....

"Before the ultimate victory of the forces of righteousness, some skirmishes will be lost. Even in these, however, let us leave a record so that the choices are clear, letting others do as they will in the face of prophetic counsel.

"There will also be times, happily, when a minor defeat seems probable, but others will step forward, having been rallied to rightness by what we do. We will know the joy, on occasion, of having awakened a slumbering majority of the decent people of all races and creeds which was, till then, unconscious of itself.

"Jesus said that when the fig trees put forth their leaves, 'summer is nigh.' Thus warned that summer is upon us, let us not then complain of the heat."

From "A More Determined Discipleship" by Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Presidency of the First Quorum of the Seventy. An address delivered at Brigham Young University, 10 October 1978.

Confession

I have a confession......................I don't love hot chocolate. GASP!!!!!!!!! I know. Am I crazy? Probably. I don't hate it, it's just not my favorite. I'll drink it when social occasions call for it, but you probably won't catch me drinking it at home. I guess you could say I'm a social drinker ;).

Here's my beef with hot chocolate. I always burn my tongue on it so I can't taste anything for the next three days. It's super sugary so my mouth feels gross, then my stomach feels gross. It makes me get too warm on the inside so my cheeks get flushed. But for some reason I always accept a cup of hot cocoa. I know I'm not going to be happy with it and I'm going to feel weird when I'm done drinking.