Dominican Republic Day 5-Monday

Monday morning Roy and I went to the preschool class and taught about safety around dogs. (No photos--although the kids were really cute and they loved their coloring books that we brought them.)

Meanwhile others of us were treating animals that we hadn't gotten to the day before.

This calf was getting treated for joint ill (an infection in its joint)

Dan and a little mute boy watching the calf recover.

Isn't he cute?

Here Wayne is getting ready to float a horse's teeth. (File down the sharp points of the teeth.)

Bill, Peggy & Sandy are getting ready to spay the missionary's dog.

 Finally as we were getting ready to leave, it started raining. I'll spare you the picture of the boys taking full advantage of it and taking a shower, soaping up in their underwear.

Waiting while the rain clouds are coming.

 After we packed up, we went to a second village for the afternoon, La Riconada. Once again, we went door to door introducing ourselves and then treated animals as necessary.

I'm making friends with one of the dogs.

Bill's giving advice on a puppy through Kike, one of our translators.

Our translators were awesome! I enjoyed seeing them work with the people to not only give instructions for taking care of the animals, but they also got to know the people and even took the opportunity to share the gospel on their own initiative. They have a huge ministry to the villagers and have a great heart to see them saved!

3 of our translators: McNelly, Kike (Key-kay) and Daniel

Did I mention this was cowboy area? Here's a group of horsemen stopping on their way through the village. 

 While working at the church an ice cream truck stopped by. One of our leaders, Jeff bought us all ice cream. What a treat!

Roy & I enjoying our popsicles on the hot day.

Lots of folks stopped by while we were at the church...some with animals in tow.

 

 This following calf was in pretty rough shape. It was found in a swamp and when no one pulled it out, our team brought it to the church and treated it.

 It was pretty out of it at first, but with a little sunshine and TLC it started to perk up.

Here we are giving it some oral fluids to rehydrate it.

 I'm  not sure if our calf ended up making it or not, but we sure did give it a fighting chance to survive.

Roy and Kike bringing us some refreshing water on a hot day.

After 3 days in the villages and 2 nights sleeping on church benches we were ready to head back to the SCORE headquarters for real showers, AC and a nice bed. On the way home we passed several Major League Baseball training camps.  These are AAA affiliates where local Domincans are groomed and discovered to play in baseball in America. (Can you tell that is Roy's comment? :-))

 

 Home sweet home! We slept super good this night!

Dominican Republic Day 4-Sunday

I woke up bright and early on Sunday morning. We had been invited to a house during milking time and I didn't want to miss it. (Thankfully milking time in DR is about 7 AM and not earlier :-) )

Dan, our dairy farmer and Roy milking a cow.

Normally they stimulate the cow to let down her milk with a calf, but sometimes they used an injection of oxytocin.That was a new one for me. 

These guys were Latino cowboys and used their horses and ropes to round up the cows and horses.

 Since we had church the night before, we didn't have a service on Sunday. We had invited people to come with their animals to be treated at 8 AM, and so by the time we got back there were owners of chickens, pigs, goats, horses all waiting patiently. First, I became a chicken doc.

Ethical dilemma of a vet. Treating a chicken that they use for cock fights. That was a first for me. While I don't agree with it, it was one way that these villagers made an income. Cock fighting is legal in the DR.

Then I went back to my Iowa roots and became a pig doc.

What's wrong with your pig?

Then I became a goat doc and treated this nasty ol' wound on this goat. We were happy to find that the leg didn't seem broken, and that the infection didn't go into the joint.

Meanwhile others were teaching on horse hoof care, and visiting dairy farms and advising on things like planting corn (It's best to put 1 seed per hole and not 5!).

Teaching about horse feet.

Overall, the animals seemed to be in pretty good shape. Those that seemed to be the worse off were the nursing mothers. We did a lot of teaching about the importance of feeding these mothers more to meet their nutritional needs. This pig was pretty run down. Here she's licking up her dewormer in a slurry of local soda.

The patient isn't quite recovered from surgery. Don't worry, that's what a motorcycle is for!

Took this photo for my nephews, Ben & Luke. The kids were having the time of their life pushing this motorcycle around with the motor off!

 

 That's the way our day went. Lots of animals! And then a night of sharing with our teammates & translators followed by sleeping on the church benches.

Dominican Republic Day 3-Saturday

Our third day in DR we headed out to our first village, San Juan for a 3 day/2 night stay. It wasn't a long trip, but for DR, this is considered the "end of the road."

Pastor Craig, a missionary with SCORE had been living at San Juan for 3 years with his family, starting a church, preschool, a small health clinic and also a water project. Most of the community did not have outside jobs. Many are ethnically Haitians. Their families came into the country to work in the sugar cane fields (where they make about $1.50/week), and many have been born in the DR, but don't have the necessary documentation to be Dominican. This leaves them with no access to hospital services and other needed resources like higher education. Craig wanted to work in the most needy area of the country and this was one of the sites which qualified.

Pastor Craig with some San Juan villagers

The government had given young animals at different times to the villagers, and some villagers have successfully raised these animals and become farmers. A gift of calves led to several families now owning 20 cattle each. They milk them and then send the milk into towns to be sold.

A boy getting ready to milk his cow.

A recent gift from the government was young pigs, and so we saw some of these too. These folks made their living from their animals, so it was a great village to minister to.

Roy making friends with a pig.

Once we arrived we went door to door and invited people to come to the church to bring their questions about animal care and we looked at some animals along the way too.

Bonnelyn talking to Pastor Craig about a villager's horse with photosensitivity.

We were thrilled to have 12-15 people show up at the church for our animal health lesson. We found out about how they currently treat their animals if they are sick, and that many of their animals are free-ranged. They do treat on their own with some drugs from a shop locally, and the government has one vaccination program for the pigs. Another problem they have is animal theft. We talked about deworming, mastitis (udder infection) in the dairy cows, and why they might want to spay or neuter their dogs and cats. After visiting about the animals, Jim, our hoof trimmer/pastor shared with them the love of Jesus and that we were there because we cared for them and that Jesus loves them too, and invited them to church which was to be held later that evening.

Bonnelyn and our translator talking with the farmers under the church veranda

Our church service was joyful. Here we are singing together in Spanish, being led by their praise team.

When we arrived that morning the electricity was off, but it came on by the time for church service.  The church is young and growing, and Craig is discipling a couple of young men who have started a new church in a nearby village. It was fun to be a part of where God is working!

After our church service, we transformed the church into our sleeping quarters and turned the benches into beds and hung mosquito nets from the rafters.

Our sleeping quarters in the church were the church benches.

Well, that is the end of our third day. Hope you are enjoying reliving the trip with me!

Dominican Republic Day 2-Friday

As you can tell, blog posting during the mission trip didn't happen after the first day. Our mission trip took all of our energies and our extra time was spent with our team and preparing for the next day--no time for blogging! Now that we are back and settled, it is time to let you know more details of how our time went!

Here's our team:

back: Denise & Roy, Jeff (SCORE rep), Bonnelyn (vet from AZ); front: Bill & Peggy (vet & v tech from NY), Craig (med rep from NY), Wayne (pastor/vet from NY), Sandy (vet tech from OK); not pictured: Jim (farrier/pastor), Dan (dairy farmer from NY)

Our second day at the SCORE headquarters (at Juan Dolio) we visited the beach just a few blocks away and got to go swimming. We were thankful for the time to do so as we didn't get to swim in it again...and it was absolutely beautiful!

The DR beach--taken by a teammate

Prior to the beach, we did some work. First, we took a trip to a nearby town of San Pedro, to a veterinary college. We got a tour from Dr. Marcel, the small animal clinical vet there. I was really impressed by the variety of medicines and quality of the clinic. Marcel had come in on her day off to show us around and you could tell that she really cared and did a great job! While the clinic was missing a few things (like x-ray processing chemical), it seemed to be mostly related to the university giving enough priority to providing what they need. We also arranged for some of the students to meet up with us later in the week during our clinic days.

Dr. Marcel showing us a teaching classroom.

After our trip to the vet school we visited Jumbo, a DR version of Wal-Mart and then headed back to the guesthouse to sort through all the medicines and supplies we brought. We had everything to perform basic surgeries for pets and livestock, treat infections and parasites, trim hooves and more! Roy was quite intrigued by the magnets that they brought to prevent hardware disease in cattle! 

sorting medicines to prepare for our first clinic day

          sorting medicines to prepare for our first clinic day

We brought stuff for the kids too! (inside was English/Spanish)

We brought stuff for the kids too! (inside was English/Spanish)

Our team's last bag of med supplies was still stuck in customs, but Peggy had made progress in getting a letter from the Department of Ag. She was promised that the bag would be released by bringing the letter by the airport on Monday.

Our evening ended with a team meeting and getting ready to leave the next morning for a 3 day/2 night excursion to the village, San Juan.  

Our First Day in Dominican Republic TOGETHER

Roy and I made it to Dominican Republic today for our first mission trip together! We are serving with Christian Veterinary Mission with a team of 11 folks including vets, vet techs, farrier, dairy farmer, drug rep & agriculturalist. We are a mixed bunch and will get to serve some of the local villages in Word and Deed.

SCORE is an organization that has been in DR for 30 years. They have many specific ministries to intentionally share about Christ while reaching their immediate needs  including education, jobs, schools for kids, health care, etc. For example, they have a boys home that reaches out to boys on the street to provide education and a home.  I’m sure their website has lots of specifics. This is the first intentional vet ministry with them. Tomorrow’s agenda includes visiting a vet school at San Pedro, visiting pharmacies and planning our outreach for the villages, and retrieving 1 bag with medical supplies that didn’t make it through customs. Pray that all the paperwork goes through tomorrow, and that it is an opportunity to build a good relationship with the Dept of Ag.

We have very nice accommodations (AC, great food, wifi). Is this really a mission trip??? And did I mention a pool and ¼ mile from a beautiful blue beach? We enjoyed a short time in the pool tonight with others volleying a ball. Our record was hitting it 10 times in a row!

We appreciate your prayers while we are here!

Stuck in the Middle or On the Road Again?

Some of my gallstones. My pinky finger
is in the shot for size comparison.

Well, my surgery went well. Since then I'm not sure if I am stuck in the middle of recovery or if I am on the road to recovery in the slow lane. 9 gall stones were retrieved from my gall bladder last Tuesday & my gall bladder was removed. The surgeon mentioned that my gall bladder was also filled with more of a mucous substance instead of the normal bile which means it wasn't really functioning anymore. Are you grossed out yet? If not, here are the photos to make some of you excited and others turn away in disgust!

 

And this is what my insides look like!

The laproscopic surgery was pretty cool, but in order to do the surgery they filled my abdomen up with CO2 gas. It was pretty painful waiting for those gases to move out the first couple days. Recovery for the first six days was pretty much on schedule.  Starting Monday, I've kindof fallen off the recovery scale a bit as most foods beyond rice & yoghurt seems to give fantom gall bladder attack pain. This morning's attack seemed to be brought on by a handful of saltine crackers. I think what brought on the downslide was a chicken soup which was the non-low fat kind. (Apparently chicken soup & saltines are not the cure-all for everything!) At my recheck on Tuesday, the surgeon was hoping I'd had a little better progress.

I am still trying to keep an extremely bland and fat-free diet and supplemented with regular tylenol or ibuprofen doses. This seems to keep the pain mostly under control, and hopefully will give my digestive system the chance to recoup. In the meantime, I am craving cheese & pizza...can't wait until I can have such goodies again! It was so bad that today I looked at the nutrition label of a frozen pizza in the health food section made with tofurkey (tofu & turkey?). That's got to be healthy right? It's fat content was 8 g -- a level which would likely have me calling the emergency room & double dosing on the oxycodone for sure. Don't worry I quickly left that section!

Meanwhile, I am still hoping to get out of Seattle next weekend to begin my cross-country trek to Greenville, NC. Thanks to my friends Fred & Vicki I am staying in their home, most of my worldly possessions are living in their garage and Mia is tied in the back yard. I am sure glad that all 4 of their kids are out of the house so that I could move in! I do have a home that I signed a lease on in Greenville, so I am happy to not have to pay rent on two houses this month. 

My pile of STUFF

Well that's it for tonight. I just wanted to give an update & let you know that I appreciate your prayers!

 

Another Surgery, Another Blog Post

While my back continues to improve and I continue to regain my strength, I figured out last week that my gall bladder has been acting up. After consulting with doctors it seems that it needs to come out. I was going to wait until I got settled in North Carolina for the regional representative role to have a surgery to remove it. Last week after a fairly painful attack a couple nights before I was to leave I realized that I needed to have it taken care of rather than having to deal with the pain over the 3000 mile trek!

I am going in to have laproscopic gall bladder removal tomorrow (Tuesday) at 3 pm. Pray that it goes well!

 

I now hope to leave for North Carolina on November 9. The surgeon told me she recommends waiting at least a week before I move. I told her that I was thinking about waiting 2 weeks, and she said that 2 weeks would be much better and that I would be able to enjoy it more & be able to help drive.

I moved out of my house this weekend, and have most of my things packed up. (Thanks to my neighbors, the Bakers and the VanGorkoms I did not do any heavy lifting!) I am now living at the VanGorkom house. The VanGorkoms & I were together in Ethiopia & here. I am so thrilled to have colleagues at CVM who take care of me so well.  

This seems to be another episode of God's timing and not mine. (This is my second delay in moving!) I prefer my timing, but I know that God's timing is better than mine even if I don't exactly know why. Perhaps someday I'll know why, but I do know that He is good and I can trust Him.  

Feel free to read more about my new role within CVM in my last 2 prayer letters:

• July prayer letter 
 
• September prayer letter

I am excited to have a house ready to move into in Greenville, NC and my friend Roy who will drive across the US with me. I am already praying for good weather on the roads as the first mountain pass just had its first snow this weekend. I am excited to be closer to those whom I'll work with on the east. I am definitely sad to miss the first couple meetings I had scheduled there next week.