Mike and I had an amazing experience to be able to go to the Dominican Republic and help out a Dental/Medical team give service to Dominican and Haitian children.
My older brother served his mission in the Dominican Republic and has since come in contact with an organization that goes down each year to give service. He goes every year and is always looking for volunteers. This year, he twisted our arm to go! Mike was our ticket in with his ability to speak Spanish. So, Mike translated and I helped out where needed, like cleaning dental tools and aiding the Dental Hygienist.
We flew into the capitol and spent a few days there and then headed to the opposite side of the island to Higuey, where we would do our service. Haitians go to this side of the island and work in the sugar cain fields. Dental work is badly needed becaus
e they just chew on raw sugar cain all day.
We were worried our trip would be cancelled because a hurricane was passing by. Our first day was crazy weather!
We went to see the temple in the capital and even got to stay in the MTC for a night.
Some of our group. The MTC is the building to the side.
Mike took this picture one evening and I think it is beautiful!
(zero editing here!)
We got to go to church at one of the areas my brother served in. We met many people he baptized!
It was a neat experience.
We traveled to Higuey and spent the evening doing prep work for our first day of work in the Batey.
We organized medical supplies, sorted vitamins, etc.
The dentists even made their own developing station for x-rays!
All of our supplies!
We had to donate our two checked bags to bring the medical supplies over.
So, we lived for a week plus out of our carry on!
We traveled deep into miles and miles of sugar cane and came to Batey Magdalena. We work until our supplies run out. This year we worked for three days, two in Magdalena and one in Batey Campo Nuevo.
People would start to line up each day to ensure their child/children would be seen.
Getting his shoes cleaned after working.
Sorry, I know it is graphic, but look at the size of these extractions! Crazy!
My brother doing triage.
After our three days of work, we went to Punta Cana to a resort.
This is a very shortened overview of our trip. Overall, it was a fabulous and eye opening experience!
We are so grateful for my brother pushing us to go with him and grateful for Grandma and Grandpa for watching Jack! We hope to be able to again someday.
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