Friday

It's another beautiful day here in the Dominican Republic sunny and low to mid 80s, though we had a brief midday rain.

Today our teams worked only the morning. Julia and Lindsay went with the ESL team today and the remaining members of the two CE teams combined forces. We had a very good morning with our group of 15 girls in ESL--it was much quieter without the boys!

Our group leader, Dick, picked the ESL team up at 11 am after we finished our morning session so we could go to Semillaro (a very poor shanty town up the hill from Gaspar-Hernandes) where the CE team was having Bible school until 11:30 am. It was quite an experience and one that I'm sure none of us will ever forget. We saw living conditions that no human beings should ever have to endure--tiny lean-to shacks of one or two rooms, dirt floors, occasional washing machines on the porches, garbage, dogs, cats and chickens and roosters all over the place. A number of people were doing their laundry and the soapy water running down the hill made it very challenging to make the trek up the mountainside. We saw the stream where many of the people get their drinking water--it's the same stream that all the sewage runs into. Mission groups that have been coming to the area for a number of years have installed outhouses and a water purification system, but not everyone takes advantage of them yet. The children were adorable and really enjoyed going to the little church at the top of the hill for Bible school. They all wanted their photo taken!

Our nurse, Judy, has had a very busy week. Thank you all for the donated medical supplies. Judy has put them to good use. She has seen some very difficult things here--elephantitis, severe infections, people with tumors, anemia, parasites and cancer. Some days she held a clinic where people sat and waited for hours to see her. On the other days, she went up into the more remote areas where people were too sick to leave their houses.

After lunch at the pastor's house, we had a meeting with the pastor where he shared his vision for the church and the community.

We returned and had a couple of hours of free time to go for a swim in the ocean before dinner. After dinner, we went to church for a special service where the church offered their thanks to God and us for this week. We were presented with certificates and gifts, prayers and lots of love and hugs. It was a wonderful time for all of us. Jeff, our team member who has been sick all week, was prayed for during the service.

Tomorrow, we have a day for sightseeing. We have invited the pastor Osvaldo and his wife, Rosa, to join us. We're looking forward to a day of relaxing before coming home. It will be hard to leave because we've all been so blessed by our time here.