Healing of the Sick

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  Pimentel, Dominican Republic
Monday, February 20, 2006

Hola Caballeros y damas.

In my third month in site, and my sixth month of being in the DR...which I can hardly beleive!....I have started to take on new responsibilites. One of the main ones is reading Harry Potter, which my very good friend Nancy from the US was nice enough to send me books 1 through 5. I have found myself engrossed in them... as there has been some tension in my family host family, and have been trying to avoid it as much as possible by keeping myself engrossed in the goings on of Hogwarts, when I am not doing my diagnostic, that is. It seems as thought there is some bad blood I cannot discuss, between my host family and my project partners with whom I work. I have been thrust unvoluntarily in the middle, atop of other tensions in the house which I cannot discuss. This next month, I will be able to move into my new house...that is, if I find one before March. Wish me luck!

ON the bright side, I was able to be a part of something really enlightening just last week. Teams of doctors come to the DR throughout the year and perform surgeries for free on those who otherwise could not afford it. They often commission PC volunteers to translate for them. This month, there happened to be a medical mission in the Capital to help those needing plastic surgery for maladies such as harelip, disfigurement or burn scars. I took some of the fliers to post around my community, speaking with several people along the way, when a man brought his son to my house. His son was four years old and had been in a very bad fire, burning him from head to toe. His hand was also disfigured from the accident. I phoned the girl working with the medical mission, who told me that there was one spot left for a surgery that week, and the next would not come around until the following year. I told her that a little boy was on his way. The man brought his son the very next day, and they were able to operate and fix his hand, promising that the following year, they would operate on his face to repair the horrible scars that had disfigured his face, all free of charge. The boy´s father could not thank me enough, though I told him it was none of my doing, and that is the direct truth. I had just finished reading a book called ¨ Good news about injustice¨, which discusses how God uses us and carefully puts us in positions to help those who have suffered unjustly. We can chose to use the tools he provides or not. I was so honored to have been used as a medium for God´s work, but it is those doctors, whom have been sent like angels to do this work, whom should be praised as well. Shortly after the boy had his surgery, the town heard about it, and the next thing I knew, people were coming to me asking when they too, could recieve surgery to help them with this malady and that malady, to which I tried explaining that I don´t think the doctors did that type of surgery, or could help that. But all in all, it was a very positive outcome.

Alas, in other ways to keep me busy, I have taken on some new projects with the Red Cross. One of them is working with their desaster preparedness team, to go out to the campos and find out what risks and capacity exist in the communities if a hurricane were to come. Though it may sound interesting, I must say that it is very dull work, and thankfully only did it for two days. The other work I will be doing soon, which I am very excited about, is a program with the department of Public Health of my province. The infant mortality rate in the DR is one of the statistics which puts it in near third world category. Therefore, there will be a program starting soon to educate teenage mothers on nutrition and prenatal care and give them a sort of ¨Big Sister¨to see them through the pregnancy and moniter mom and baby up to one year after birth. I have been commissioned to find the moms and volunteers to do the consulting, and also hopefully do some talks on nutrition and prenatal care. Finally, I can use my background in health as I had hoped!

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