* We've hosted the biggest group(s) in Solid Rock history the past couple weeks in the guesthouse. This week we have 50 med students from ONU staying with us and they are doing FOUR barrios a day! Whew! Can you imagine how many patients they will be able to see in the next four days?? Thanks to Nicole Eby and some awesome group leaders, we are hoping to have one of the most organized and smooth Monday's ever!
* These weeks have been a TON of work, but we've had some really great times too! A few people from the group stayed for a couple weeks in a row and we spent the weekend going out to eat, seeing an AMAZING concert by some of our friends, and going hiking up in the mountains.
* A couple women last week came down with the purpose of conducting interviews about health around the community here in San Juan. The talked with nurses, doctors, community leaders, water purification plant owners, herbal healers, health department employees, etc. They hope to use the information that they gathered to create a health education curriculum to bring down with them next year to be implemented in the barrios and health clinics in the areas that speaks directly to the issues that are most concerning and pressing to the Dominican people. LOVE it! Way to go ladies- thank you for all your hard work!
* I have met my new favorite person in the DR and his name is Bam-Bam.
Bam-Bam is a taxi driver that took a small group of us into town for a tour of the local hospital. In a culture of even the poorest of the poor doing everything they can to look their very best, Bam-Bam stands at about 4-11, rocking a saggy pair of grey sweat pants and a stained t-shirt that doesn't quite cover his protruding gut. Once at the hospital we were surprised when, instead of dropping us at the curb, he hopped out of the taxi and shuffled into the building after us. It got even more hilarious as Bam-Bam proceeded to slowly take over the tour. Before the doctors could respond to any of the group's questions, Bam-Bam was there with the answer (whether it was the correct one or not). While the rest of the group shyly peeked into patient rooms wondering what condition they might have, Bam-Bam wasted no time guessing and simply walked up to the patient and lifted the sheets to examine their swollen foot. A-mazing.
He then sealed his place in our hearts later that evening. The group had gone out to dinner and ice cream in town, and just as we were starting to take loads of people back in the bed of the truck, the sky opened up and it started raining... hard. We were just starting to wonder how we were going to manage to get 45 people back to the guesthouse in the cab of a truck, when (dah da-da DAH!) Bam-Bam pulls up, out of nowhere, slides the door of his taxi-van open and we piled in like a clown car. haha- he's the best.
* As of 8:00 last night, Dan is down 3 wisdom teeth. We have an oral surgeon down this week who offered to take care of them for him! He's a little loopy on drugs this morning, but otherwise doing great- What a HUGE blessing!
* Jeff and Kamanda are leaving us this week :( They've been here with us for 8 weeks now and become part of our family here at the guesthouse. We're bummed they are leaving- it will feel so strange not to have them around anymore! There is no way that we can thank them enough for all the help they've been this summer as well as just being awesome people and great friends. We love them lots and are hoping they will be back again next summer???
* We have so much to look forward to this fall! We have a small break coming up that we are hoping to fill by spending lots of time with our friends here in San Juan, as well and doing a little bit of traveling here on the island with Nicole. My sister will be getting married in October, so we will be back in Minnesota for a couple of weeks, then we'll be blessed with another visit from Dan's folk's for Thanksgiving. We've also had a few friends who have expressed interest in coming for a visit sometime this fall. Woo-hoo! We LOVE visitors and we have so much great stuff to look forward to!
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