Lynn Hughes group - April 6, 2011

Today, We got up early and went to the local school's flag rasing.  This tradition is similar to when schools in America would say the pledge of allegance.  The students all lined up in the school yard and  the principal gives a morning prayer - from what we could understand he was praying covering over each of the students and giving thanks and honor to their savior, Jesus Christ. They raise their dominican flag, the american flag, and the canadian flag.  Once the flags are raised the children sing their national anthem and then their school song.  It was touching to have been invited to their flag raising tradition. 
There were no GYN cases scheduled for today so we decided to go out into the community.
We had the opprotunity to go out with the local doctor - His name is Victor and he is in charge of the Infant Nutrition program which is sponsored by Solid Rock.  Through this program he provides infants with formula, well baby check-ups, and gives moms education about important infant milestones.  Since this area is so poor he has over 160 + kids in the program.  This number is actually quite astounding considering they must be under the age of 2 to be enrolled.  The program is structured to try to provide the children with the best possible chance of having a strong nutritional development.  He requires them to see him on a schedule where he takes their height and weight - If the children aren't growing appropriately, he can restructure their nutritional needs, but he also does this to ensure that the infant milk isn't being sold on the black market.  If he finds out that the milk is being sold they will remove the children from their homes and ensure they have enough to eat.  Victor has such an amazing heart.  He is very well educated and truly cares about each of the patients he sees.  If the parents can't get the children to the clinic he will make house calls.  Today he took us to see several of the children in their homes as well as the clinic.  The most heartbreaking/touching story was of this family where the mom is about 32 years old and in a forced marriage to a much older man.  She now has 12 children and doesn't have any money or really food to provide for them.  We got to go into her home which was nothing more than some sheet metal for walls and a thatched roof.  It was probably no more than 300 sq feet divided into two rooms.  The one room was the bedroom for all 12 of the children - there was just a pile of clothes on the floor for the baby to sleep on - Within the pile of clothes were some chicken eggs that the chicken who also stayed in the room had laid.  There was also a small room outside of the shack which served as the kitchen - basically just an enclosed fire pit - There was absolutely no food for this family - so we all gave them our packed lunches and any snacks and water we had with us.  To see the children's faces when they received a bottle of water or a half drunk pepsi was priceless.  The one child - who was probably 6 years old - took a sip of the pepsi - pointed at it - started jumping up and down and had the biggest smile on his face.  We know the meager things we were able to provide won't last long but we pray that it gives those children and their mom a day or two of not having to worry about where their next meal is coming from.  Going around with Victor and being able to visit in the homes of the people opened my eyes to the actual level of poverty that some of these people are living in.  We are not sure you could even call it poverty as these people truly had nothing - It was astounding that the children were actually growing and alive in such conditions.  Following our check-ups with Victor - We returned to the compound and gathered all the little gifts we had brought for the children in the barrios right around the guesthouse - We had millions of silly bands, McDondonalds happy meal toys and loads of candy.  It was so sweet to see how excited over the small gifts we had brought - They also kept yelling "mi hermano or mi hermana" - meaning some for my brother or sister.  Given the chaos there was no pickering or fighting between the children - and they were so greatful to have the gifts that most of our American children have interest in for about 5 minutes.  Last night we had dinner in the city at a Dominican Restaurant - It was a good meal and great to have the experience of eating where the locals eat.  For dessert we went to an ice-cream place - There was a little boy about 7 or 8 who came up to me and in spanish told me he was hungry - We didn't have any food on us since we had unloaded our stash with the other family with 12 kids - So we bought him some icecream - He was such a sweet little boy - Its so hard for us to think that this icecream which cost less than $1 US money was such a monumental treat for this fella.  As we have reflected on this week and all we have done - our prayer continues to be that the people of the Dominican will see these acts of kindness not as coming from the Americans but from Jesus, their savior.   We pray that they will feel His love for them and know that the people and supplies we bring were set up under His master plan.

Anesthesia Needs

1. adult masks (desparate need)
2. circuits (desparate need)
3. Oral Airways
4. syringes and needles (bring as many as you need for the cases you are expecting)
5. sanitizing wipes
6. tape
7. drugs - need for cases for the week
8. Iso, sevo and halothane vaporizers - need more voltaile bottles
9. suction tubing and yankuers
10. EKG stickers
11. Batteries for the nerve stimulators and AAA batteries for the air conditioning controller.
12. disposable "napkins"
13. head rests

Surgical Needs

Pediatric and General surgical teams needed