Update – Monday-Wednesday
After an eventful weekend, each of us went back to our ministry sites.
Sites
At Education, on Monday, we had a very chill day and just planned for the week ahead. This week, Mark, Spencer and Sofiya are leading all the activities. On Tuesday, we taught the kids a lesson about Jacob wrestling with God. We arm wrestled each other and played games inside because it was raining. On Wednesday, we had a slip-n’-slide and water balloons. The kids were very excited to be splashed and we had to refill several 5 gallon water jugs for them. We did not get on the slip-n-slide because we were filling water balloons, but the kids got all of us wet. Mark had to chuck his phone across the yard so it doesn’t get wet. When it was time for water balloons, the kids had to answer a Bible question correctly to get a balloon popped over their head. They got very disappointed whenever they did not answer the questions correctly and had to get in the back of the line. After water balloons, the kids split up into two teams and played tug-a-war but the catch was that the rope was soapy. Mark and Spencer joined the teams and Mark’s team won twice. But no thanks to him. He said he didn’t even pull on the rope.
At Medical, Monday, July 3: Harpreet and Cheyanne went to the hospital clinic in which they saw about 10 patients. On the first patient, Harpreet got to feel the head of a baby in the womb at 33 weeks. Additionally, they both used the ultrasound to see the heart of the baby, hear the child’s heartbeat, and saw a pap smear. Cheyanne assisted in birth control implant removal. During the afternoon, after having lunch in the plaza, we had a home visit to a mother in the community and two-year-old’s house who was super sweet and gave us candy and repetitively said “please don’t leave, I don’t want you guys to leave.”
Tuesday, July 4: In the morning, we visited a student international clinic in the mountains where we saw patient’s from the village community in the mountains. Harpreet and Cheyanne did check in and blood pressure and heart rate. We also had lunch there made by the owner’s wife who made extremely delicious food – plantains, beef stew, rice, and salad. During the afternoon, we toured the local hospital and clinics.
Wednesday, July 5: Today we visited the second student international clinic in the community at Dr. G’s church, where we saw a few patients due to the immigration control officers being out in the community. Cheyanne and Harpreet got to distribute medications to the patients today. After lunch, they visited the local hospital clinic and saw a patient in which we removed another birth control implant. After clinic, we went shopping in the market to buy Sofiya souvenirs.
For the media site, Alyssa visited 7 different sites in the span of 3 days to get as much video and picture content they could for the end-of-the-week video presentation.
• Baseball where she got to watch the kids play a Baseball game!
• Special Education
• Mata Gorda Education Site where she tried a chicken foot and met the cutest little girl named Brini
• Assisted Technology where she met the cutest little bunny ever
• El Callejon Education Site where Mark and Sofiya played charades with the kids
• Volleyball
• Medical site where their lead physician led worship before checking in patients and Cheyanne gave a devotional.
On Tuesday she started editing her recap montage that she’s going to present to everyone Friday and it looks so cool! She is having a BLAST with media 🙂
At Volleyball, we were very hands on. I wasn’t really sure what to expect for the site, but we really just got to play volleyball with different kids ranging from 7 to 19. Depending on the practice we would be assigned different tasks. With the girls varsity we practiced with them and it was like we were just a part of the team. On our second to last site day, we got to coach the Jv girls and I made them do some conditioning with wall sits. It was a mix of a setting drill and conditioning.
The boys team was always trash talking us girls. Don’t worry we talked to our site leader to learn our own DR slang to throw at them. In the youngest girls, there is a 7-year-old girl, N, who is so spirited and just a big ball of mischief and wonder. She would have us all high five her and then she would charge us and try to tickle us. She did this every day for two weeks straight. Despite that, she was always so dedicated and always wanted to learn, even if it was on her own time. I completely adore all of the tiny gremlins I have served. Over this mission, I haven’t been too sure of why God sent me here in all honesty. After loads of prayers, worshipping and simply spending time with the community, I realized that just being here is enough and having the opportunity to teach these kids and spread the word of God to them is like nothing else. It is so cool that even with a huge language barrier, with volleyball and the Lord, we don’t need words. God simply shines despite that. We also got DR ice cream today, which was more like a popsicle, but I will always accept an excuse for sweets. (Jordynn)
Activities
On Monday after dinner we had a poverty simulation game. Everyone was split up into teams which represented families. Each family was given different amounts of money and had to make ends meet here in the Caribbean on different incomes. Women worked in cleaning, men in agriculture or construction, and children in shoe shine or for an extra fee went to school. Before each round ended, each family member had to eat and drink, families had to pay rent and draw a life happens card which could be good or bad. There was also a CDC where families could get benefits. Alyssa and Harpreet’s families ended up losing their house because they could not pay rent. Cheyanne and Spencer were in a family together and did pretty well. Mark let his youngest kid die because they could not afford food. Jordynn’s family did illegal stuff to survive. Sofiya’s family stole money from Mark’s family so one of their kids could eat. Technically they could’ve paid it back later because they ended up doing not all too terrible, but they forgot. It was a lot of fun and we learned a lot and would like to keep helping our sites here so they can minister to the community here.
On Tuesday, we had a 4th of July party! We had hot dogs for dinner and then went outside to play volleyball and corn hole. There was music playing and Mark was the DJ. A fan favorite. There was a very pretty sunset which we got to see from the lookout tower. We came back down and Cheyanne and Jordynn were dancing to “Firework” when two little girls ran over to them and took their hands to dance together. It was very cute. After sunset, we had sparklers and glow sticks and a bit later we had a private firework show just for us. We partied it up to everyone’s favorite music and finished the night on a very good note with “I Thank God”.
On Wednesday, we had a worship night where everyone could spend their own time with God. There were candles lit and worship music playing. We were reading our Bible, journaling, painting. Everyone was praying for each other and singing along to the worship music. In the end, everyone got in a circle and worshipped and we again ended the night with “I Thank God” which has become kind of like a theme song for us. It was such a blessed time with the Lord and we all were spiritually filled for the last couple days of the trip and as we had back home.
Thank you for your prayers and support. Please pray for us as we wrap up our time in the Caribbean and especially for there to be no delays getting back to Sacramento in the next couple days.
