Day 4

It is hard to believe that our trip is almost over. We have accomplished so much in such a short time, but there is always more to do here. Today our barrios team went to one sight and saw around 150 patients. The surgeons have been very busy and performed 6 surgeries today. The patients and their families have been so grateful. Construction finished the walkways to the lower classrooms and they look great! This afternoon a couple of groups of people enjoyed walking into San Juan and visiting the cathedral. We are looking forward to a Dominican-style dinner in town tonight followed by a trip to the ice cream store. We hope everyone has enjoyed keeping up with our journey. This has been a great week!

Barrios

Children at the Jim Smith School

New Sidewalk

Cathedral in San Juan

View of San Juan from the Cathedral

More pictures from Wednesday...

Day 3

Pictures from Wednesday...

Day 2

Today was a very busy day. The barrios teams saw over 300 patients. The clinic stayed busy all day and into the evening performing surgeries. Our construction team continued pouring sidewalks and laying block. Prosthetics delivered most of the remaining prostheses and did some fittings. Everything is moving along as planned!

Bananas at the San Juan market

Day 1

Today was a very busy day. Our surgical team screened patients that will be having surgery this week and performed 7 surgeries. One team went to the barrios and saw 170 patients. The patients ranged in age from 3 months to 100 years old. Our construction team had a busy day as well. They poured 20 feet of sidewalk and laid a foundation for a storage shed. The prosthetic team saw 19 people today. Twelve of these patients received their prostheses and 7 were fitted for next year. It was very rewarding to see the end result. One man had not walked without crutches for 9 years. He was thrilled! We are looking forward to another busy day tomorrow. We will be sending out 2 teams to the barrios tomorrow, and we have many surgeries scheduled. The construction will continue working on sidewalks, and the prosthetic team hopes to deliver the remaining prostheses and fit more patients.

Getting settled in

Hello from the Dominican Republic! Our trip started out snowy in Roanoke but changed to rain as we got to North Carolina. The flights were uneventful and everyone and all bags arrived safely on Saturday afternoon. After spending the night in Santo Domingo, we got up Sunday and headed for San Juan. We arrived at lunchtime, got settled into our rooms, and began organizing the clinic, construction site, etc.. Our main evening activity was counting and bagging vitamins and medicines to take to the barrios. We are all enjoying the nice warm weather and are getting ready to start work tomorrow! Here are some pictures from the last couple of days.

Following snow plows on 220

Driving to the construction site

Children at the Jim Smith School