DR (days 4-6)

day four: this day was quite rough. We set up the clinic at a woman's house named Nancy. She asked if a couple of us girls could go over to her father's house to help bathe him. Her father was very old and close to the end of his life. He was completely skin and bones with no use of his limbs and could not speak because of his disease. He also had sores all over his body from laying in the same position day after day. It was very overwhealming at first, so much so that alison had to leave the room and ask someone else to come help. However, the hardest part was understanding Nancy and her mother as i tried to help them. They talked on and on and knew no english at all. Alba had told them that i spoke good spanish so they just kept on going. At first i was lost, but then words and phrases began to come back to me and i could understand almost all of what they were saying to me. That was such a relief. God once again showed me that He can use me just the way i am. Jen had a hard time with other things that day:) That night we ate dinner in the community with a family that Alba knew. Mayra cooked mangu (mashed plantain) and chicken in this amazing sauce that we mixed with the mangu. After dinner we played spoons to see who had to wash dishes. Mayra's sister lost. As we were waiting on our ride back to the base a car drove by that was blasting music and we all started dancing in the street. That night i also learned that if a kid wants your attention they always tap your butt. That happened a lot during the two weeks.

day five: On this day i realized that the crowing rooster here is like God...no beginning and no end! Throughout the day one of the songs in morning worship stayed with me. It went..."may the words of my mouth, and the meditations of my heart, be pleasing to you, pleasing to you, my God. I desire to be your servant, i desire to be a blessing, in your eyes." At the site today i really got to talk a lot with the kids which was fun. I had a misunderstanding with a woman though. I thought she was asking me to take her daughter's blood pressure so i told her that i was not allowed to take the pressure of anyone under the age of 18. She started to get very upset with me and i kept saying "im sorry im sorry, talk to the doctor." Finally she reaches over me and grabs a number to see the doctor, puts it in front of my face and says "teeket" (ticket). I pretty much felt really stupid. That night Jen was all about getting in the shower FIRST. Ha. To her surprise, about 2 min. into her shower she was greeted by a little friend, who she claims was a big friend, but come on jen we all saw it:) So she starts screaming "ahhh thaaahht soo grohhhoos! ahhhhh ah ah!" basically a scream/cry/laugh... quite hilarious if ask me. At random moments the rest of the night someone would start laughing we all knew what it was about. Jen would just say "shut up you guys it was not funny!" Boy was she wrong:)

day six: white water rafting day! Well as ellen told everyone in church on sunday, our trip was quite the adventure. Our guide was very onery and would try to get us thrown out of the raft. During the first 2 min. of the trip, my mom and i went out at the same time--feet over our heads right into the water. Later on mom fell out in the middle of a rapid and hit a big rock. At one point we stopped and there was a big rock about 30 feet high with another ledge about 20 feet high. Most of us jumped off and it was a lot of fun! That night we went shopping in Jarabacoa and ate dinner. That was the first time i had seen little boys begging on the street before and it was so sad. I gave one of them part of my coke and some other boys about half of my waffle
cone. I wish i could have given them so much more because it made me really sad knowing that i never go hungry and our group may have given those boys the only meal they had that day.

days 7-9 to come!