Thursday - Our last clinic day & Friday - Orphanage

On Thursday, we went to another part of San Pedro, the poorest area we visited on this trip. The church building which was to house the clinic was made of corrugated metal. We opted to set up in the dirt road between the church and the houses. Normally we are in a building, however humble, the structure is generally far enough away from the surrounding houses that while we can see the frailty of the structures, we really can’t see into them. This area broke my heart. One young man’s home was at the end of our row of medical stations. He was in a wheel chair –I counted 7 people living in this very humble structure. I went over to give the children playing at the front doorway tennis balls and could see into the house; it was bare save a lone chair in the corner. The structure was made from scraps of lumber and corrugated metal; it looked as though it a brisk wind would topple it over.

Later as we watched, Mom bathed the children in tubs set up in the yard – keep in mind there is no running water, she walked a long way to the local well in order to haul back buckets of water to bathe her children!

We quickly put up the tarps, set up the stations and pharmacy and opened for patients. This team was up to any challenge! At the end of the day, I walked to the rear of area where we had placed portable screens and started handing out the leftover sandwiches and chips from our lunch to the small group of people gathered there. Even though we had feed the village at Noon (as we did each day), I knew that there would be no food for these children that evening. At the end of the day, as we packed up meds and supplies and loaded them into the truck, my feelings were bittersweet. It was a long, hard day, we were hot and tired but it was the last day of clinic and I wasn’t ready to leave – there was so much more to do.

The next morning we headed for Santo Domingo for some shopping in the local market then to a grocery store to load up $1,800 in groceries and a couple of hundred dollars in toys for the AIDS orphanage. Each year our team and the Men’s softball team which comes down the month before we do, visit this orphanage. We are the only outside group to do so. It is a blessing to be with these children for a few hours on Friday. It is the highlight of our trip to have the privilege of laughing, loving and playing with them. At present there are 32 children at this facility all but a few are HIV positive.

As I spoke with the Director in the courtyard as our team carried bag after bag of groceries to the kitchen, she began to cry. I then asked her to make a list of her most pressing needs as we wanted to raise funds to help them after our return to the states. She told me that no one ever asked them before what they needed. Her gratitude was humbling and their need overwhelming. However, we are not to be daunted or intimated as God will provide just as He did for this trip and the trips before us!