Progress

Tuesday was filled with progress on many levels.  With a group of 22 it is hard to know where to begin but can say that this is a hard working group.

Today the Medical Team saw about 100 patients in Batey 4.  Biff Dickerson saw a 95 year old patient who he described as extremely sharp and fit – absolutely amazing.  He also shared a picture of the cutest baby ever that was a patient.  Foundation for Peace helped prescreen the patients for the medical care this week, cardio and hypertension – covered by Jim, orthopedics – covered by Biff, and general – covered by Ryan.  Tim has been handling triage and blood pressures.  Joyce and Beth support the team by giving shots, supplying medicines and anything else needed!

The Construction Team today consisted of Wilfrido, Donn, Hal, Bob, Roger, Steve, Kelly, Hugh, and Paul.  They worked in Batey 7 all day on completing the wiring of fans and lights, installing windows and doors, concrete floors for homes in the batey, and they started moving concrete block to the second story of a storage building beside the church.

The Vision Team started again in the garden outside the clinic of Batey 7.  PCUSA Missionary, Mark Hare, was there to help translate so that the young men, Clinton, Alberto, Ruvio, Leo, and several others in charge of the garden that we met yesterday could divide our group into three different work teams.  Mark Kemp, Jacky, Gwen and Richard worked on digging the soil and cutting more tires.  Joanne and Christy hauled manure from areas nearby over to the garden.  Suzanne and I helped cut and haul branches from trees, cut the branches into smaller sticks that covered the bottom of the tires, then sifted sand and manure to making a rich soil to fill the tires.  The hard and challenging work made the morning fly and there was a lot of discussion that time was not the only thing flying around.  The young men complimented our group assuring us they appreciated the hard work.  The afternoon vision screening was several miles down the road at Batey 8.  We set up in the medical clinic and screened about 60 people.  The last man we saw was 78 years old and named Victor.  He sat patiently reading a pocket size bible.  The glasses he received helped him read the tiny print in the bible and he was very grateful.  He said in Spanish, “God Bless you all!” 

I missed the group time tonight because of wrapping up a discussion with the doctor and nurse from Batey 7 who were kind enough to spend over an hour with us after their long day in the clinic.  PCUSA Missionary, Jenny Bent, helped arrange the meeting. Jenny along with her family stayed to also be a part of the discussion and Kristen Hamner, with Foundation for Peace helped translate.  The goal of our time was to gain a better understanding for a long term medical and surgical teams.  Speaking on behalf of WPC, the time together tonight was extremely helpful, we learned a lot in a short amount of time and clarifying many questions.