Friday, June 14 Becca
Becca
Hi everyone! I am a part of the medical/health team which has been an amazing experience. Our mission as the medical team is to most importantly spread the word of God and help people with their sicknesses. Nurse Katie said that if we heal their physical bodies, it's just covering them with a temporary band-aid to cover the real concern in their lives: having their souls saved by Jesus Christ.
Me, along with Mrs. Burgner and three other high school students have been following around an amazing doctor/nurse combo, Fernando and Katie. Everyday we have been going out to different parts of town and setting up a "clinic" in a local church or building. Our jobs are to take the patient's blood pressure and pulse and then walk them to the doctor and get the medicine that they need, according to Fernando's examinations. Then, we sing a couple worship songs with them and give a little devotion. After the examination, we get the opportunity to pray with the patient, either in English or Spanish. Going into Spanish 4 next year, I have been pushing myself to use Spanish with the patients as much as possible. You might assume that a clinic like this would be chaotic and stressful. But I can't even begin to tell you how relaxed everyone and everything is in this country. I am so used to getting things done, checking them off, and moving onto the next person. But here, the mindset is more of "if you get it done, you get it done. But if you don't, that okay too." Another example of this is when we are driving around the towns. Building after building, you see people simply sitting out on the porch, watching everything around them; and they will do this for hours. It's a really refreshing outlook on how we should be living our lives, just relaxing and simply talking to the people around you. On Thursday, we were waiting outside of a woman's house for her to come home and the neighbors saw us standing around and immediately decided that that was not okay. So they invited us, being complete and foreign strangers, over to their porch. They found every last chair in their house for us to sit in. They did not rest until every last one of us was sitting with a cup of coffee in our hands. So to thank them, we took their blood pressures which is something Dominicans are very fascinated by. Also, side note... the coffee here is seriously AMAZING. Not only does it help keep us awake, but it tastes like a cup of heaven. Also there's this policy here called "no sugar shaming" which helps a lot knowing that I can put as much sugar as I want in my coffee.
My high of the trip so far was when I was taking this little girl's blood pressure, just barely getting by with Spanish and a little English. But at the end, I looked at my cheat sheet we were given and I said "God bless you" in Spanish and the once emotionless, quiet little girl got the biggest smile on her face and thanked me. This really encouraged me to continue pushing myself to speak Spanish because even me speaking a few words in their language looked like it made her whole week. Another high for me was today when me, Sophia Dalton, Landon, and Colin got "corn rows" in our hair in order to support a Dominican student's college tuition. This lady came to our site and was raising money and we decided to help chip in. This trip has been amazing so far and I have made incredible relationships with my classmates, other students here, and the supportive leaders at SI. See you all soon!
-Becca:) (hi mom and dad) (and Mandy;))
Hi everyone! I am a part of the medical/health team which has been an amazing experience. Our mission as the medical team is to most importantly spread the word of God and help people with their sicknesses. Nurse Katie said that if we heal their physical bodies, it's just covering them with a temporary band-aid to cover the real concern in their lives: having their souls saved by Jesus Christ.
Me, along with Mrs. Burgner and three other high school students have been following around an amazing doctor/nurse combo, Fernando and Katie. Everyday we have been going out to different parts of town and setting up a "clinic" in a local church or building. Our jobs are to take the patient's blood pressure and pulse and then walk them to the doctor and get the medicine that they need, according to Fernando's examinations. Then, we sing a couple worship songs with them and give a little devotion. After the examination, we get the opportunity to pray with the patient, either in English or Spanish. Going into Spanish 4 next year, I have been pushing myself to use Spanish with the patients as much as possible. You might assume that a clinic like this would be chaotic and stressful. But I can't even begin to tell you how relaxed everyone and everything is in this country. I am so used to getting things done, checking them off, and moving onto the next person. But here, the mindset is more of "if you get it done, you get it done. But if you don't, that okay too." Another example of this is when we are driving around the towns. Building after building, you see people simply sitting out on the porch, watching everything around them; and they will do this for hours. It's a really refreshing outlook on how we should be living our lives, just relaxing and simply talking to the people around you. On Thursday, we were waiting outside of a woman's house for her to come home and the neighbors saw us standing around and immediately decided that that was not okay. So they invited us, being complete and foreign strangers, over to their porch. They found every last chair in their house for us to sit in. They did not rest until every last one of us was sitting with a cup of coffee in our hands. So to thank them, we took their blood pressures which is something Dominicans are very fascinated by. Also, side note... the coffee here is seriously AMAZING. Not only does it help keep us awake, but it tastes like a cup of heaven. Also there's this policy here called "no sugar shaming" which helps a lot knowing that I can put as much sugar as I want in my coffee.
My high of the trip so far was when I was taking this little girl's blood pressure, just barely getting by with Spanish and a little English. But at the end, I looked at my cheat sheet we were given and I said "God bless you" in Spanish and the once emotionless, quiet little girl got the biggest smile on her face and thanked me. This really encouraged me to continue pushing myself to speak Spanish because even me speaking a few words in their language looked like it made her whole week. Another high for me was today when me, Sophia Dalton, Landon, and Colin got "corn rows" in our hair in order to support a Dominican student's college tuition. This lady came to our site and was raising money and we decided to help chip in. This trip has been amazing so far and I have made incredible relationships with my classmates, other students here, and the supportive leaders at SI. See you all soon!
-Becca:) (hi mom and dad) (and Mandy;))
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