Success :)

Thanks to everyone for hard work and prayers.
Thanks especially to Bob and Jeanette who do such a great job patiently organizing everything.
If you would like to see alot of pictures, go here: http://photobucket.com/spresdr2012
Here is our group photo:

Friday - think of Willie

Please keep our young friend Willie in mind as he is now in the hospital in Santo Domingo after riding with us fron San Juan.

Willy is eight years old and weighs only 28lbs. He has a congenital problem with his bowels known as Hirschprung's Disease and has recently developed diabetes. He was brought to the clinic at the same time as our team, so our medical team became involved in his care. He needs surgery to correct his bowel problem, but is currently too sick for the surgery. This week, his blood sugar has come down, and he feels much better, but still has a long way to go. He is travelling with us to Santo Domingo where he will be admitted to the hospital for continued care. Please keep Willy and his family in your prayers.

Medical Summary 2012

The surgical team consisted of 3 surgeons (John Mann, Hugh Hagan and Bruce Long) who saw approximately 40 to 50 patients.
Two Barrio teams headed out each day and combined they saw approximately 650 patients. John Starr, Kipper Nottingham, Russ Delaney and Bill Kagey were the physicians on these days.
Doug Call and Charlie Coulter continued offering their prosthetics work and have measured one of their biggest number of patients for their next visit.
A unique patient named Willie touched everyone's hearts as he struggles with many issues.
Kerry and Dan have been awesome hosts working hard to make everything run smoothly.
We hope to collect photos and add them here soon!
Thanks for your thoughts and prayers.

February 2012 Trip - Barrio Destinations

Below shows where the general area of where the Guest House is located and the other map shows where the Barrio Teams Traveled to.

The map below shows the locations of the Barrios the medical teams worked this trip. The red arrows point to them with the Blue arrow showing San Juan. As you see, a couple of them were very close to the Haiti border - they believe they saw a few Haitians at these Barrios.

Destinations:

Los Copeyes

Bastidas

Guayabo

Jovayal

La Grana

El Corbaro

El Copey

El Hatice de las Charcae

Thursday - Construction Photos

Here are a few more pictures of our great trip - alot of work but alot of fun too.

The sun was hot, we had to take many breaks in the shade - So someone had to keep working around here!

 Yes, he can dig a hole ...

 What to do with our Honey Badger digging?

The principal of the Elementary school and her assistant. Thanks to Tim Potter, we delivered several welding helmets that were donated from Patrick Henry High School. They have a vocational school here that teaches welding, carpentry and other important trades.

Making the rebar beams for the Viega - which is a concrete beam poured around the to perimeter of the wall.

Hugh Hagan and Ken Potter laying the posts for the small side porch. 

Thursday - Barrio Teams and meeting with sponsored students

The teams saw over 280 people today! pictures soon.
- This evening the students who are sponsored by members of our group are coming to the Guest House for a nice visit and maybe some cake!
We will post some pictures as soon as we can.

Thursday - Construction progress

We have finished our work for the week! Whew, everyone really worked hard and we completed much more than we had planned to. The blockwork is done on the exterior walls and the columns for the side porch are up 3‘. We moved a few tons of old gravel out of the school yard and cleaned up a pile of broken block, all of this going into the building to fill the floor.
 The viega top concrete beam is ready to pour.

Progress pictures:

El Jefe s - The Bosses ...

Wednesday - Barrios

Only the finest facilities for the medical teams at the Barrios!

Bathroom facilities... ?

Barn used as the clinic

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Wednesday - Barrio work

Two teams have been heading out in different directions each day. Some of the Barrios are a 2 hour drive away. The teams have been seeing and average of almost 150 patients a day. They have spent hours counting out basic pills in the evening and then dispensing them the next day.
The teams say the people are all very very poor and yet arrive first thing in the morning dressed in their nicest clothes , and are willing to wait all day to see the doctors and nurses. Below are a few pictures

Awards ceremony at the elementary school

Here are a few pictures from an awards ceremony at the school.

Wednesday - Construction progress

We have finished the block work on the exterior walls. Thursday we hope to form and pour a beam around the top perimeter and form and pour the corner columns.

Tuesday - Construction progress

We had a great day again today. After getting the footers all dug,prepped with rebar including tying 4  8‘ rebar columns yesterday, today we moved along. We poured the footers first thing and then began laying block.
We finished the day with the walls up close to 4‘.
   -  Attached are pictures as follows (not in order, sorry):

 -The barrio teams heading out.

-Joe and Tim at the construction site
-George and Jacob sifting our sand used for mortar (lots of pebbles and small stones)
-Progress picture - the tall wall separates the school from the street. There will be 2 windows in the wall that will be used for the local people to get the filtered water.
-Our helpers - including George :)

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Monday - Barrio Team 2

Dr. Delaney working with some patients. Gathering for prayer. 10 day old baby :)

Monday construction progress

We are ready for concrete! The rebar columns are in place at the corners and we included some pictures just for Fred Genheimer so he wll be able to sleep at night knowing we are trying to live up to his standards! 

Monday lunchtime

Construction has just about finished the footers. George has been a good worker!  Even in the DR we have had buried utilities to deal with! A few spiders seem to not appreciate being disturbed. See pix.

Monday

- 2 teams headed out to the barrios.
- The surgical teams have lined up a full slate of procedures.
- Construction beginning work on the water treatment building.

Day 2 - traveling to San Juan

On the way in the buses to San Juan. About a 3 hour trip.
It is a beautiful day here, and snowing in Roanoke!

2012 Medical & Construction Trip

The 2012 Mission Trip is about to start!

Is it late Friday, or EARLY Saturday ...
IT is 3am Saturday and we will be heading to Greensboro to catch a 7am flight.

We arrive about 2:30pm in Santo Domingo and head to San Juan Sunday morning.

More news once we are in the DR.

Hope the snow is pretty but safe Sunday! Have Fun in it!