Back in it....

I woke up this morning in complete peace.   I didn't have to be at the Guesthouse early so I wandered out to the kitchen and put on the coffee (always always always the first thing to do).   There was milk in the fridge for the coffee which instantly makes everything the best ever.

I opened up the doors to both balconies and watched the sun stream in through the trees with the ever looming mountains in the background.  I could hear the dogs downstairs and the neighbors hooting to each other and the guy who sells yucca pedaling by on his bike contraption shouting YUCCA YUCCA YUCCA way too early.   I could hear the cars and motorcycles buzzing by on the big bridge.    I could smell the neighbors starting to cook already (what is it- 730 here?  wow!) when the scent of garlic and onions sizzling rises to my 3rd floor apartment.   Ufff it makes me hungry.  Good good stuff.   I'm smiling thinking about last night.   Monchi and I went with our current team to play softball.   He plays ball and I play dominos with the non-softball-playing-guys that show up there.   I'm laughing because I'm still not THAT great playing dominos but I've been accepted enough that the crew feels comfortable yelling at me when I make a dumb move.   Of course it's beyond humiliating that 10 year olds know more than I do....but at the same time refreshing to not always be seen as the untouchable/unrelatable American.    Monday night dominos while cheering on my softball-playin' man has become one of my favorite moments of the week.   I feel like one of THEM...which feels good.  Plus the American teams always love playing there too and it's so great watching them dig in with the locals and come home sweating and laughing and telling stories.   Sports seem to have a universal language here.  

I sit down on the new (new to us anyway!) pink fuchsia couch that Monchi finished putting together Sunday and have my quiet time.    Then I start digging through my referrals to update my referral list.   When teams go out to the barrios and see potential surgical candidates or patients who need further follow up, they give me the phone numbers/names/info and I try to categorize the patients and refer them out to others who can help or American surgical teams.    I keep stacks of these papers around and then have massive "referral" days when I type them up and then send them to the Dominican doctors to check/refer to as well.   It helps us know how many potential surgical candidates we might have and what interesting cases might be "out there" for the surgical teams.   I spent pretty much my entire morning on the referral list and STILL have other names to add.     Yesterday was another office day as I reviewed Order forms to see which equipment/supplies could be potentially purchased for the clinic and brought down with American teams in their suitcases.  Sometimes that seems like Christmas!  

These quiet days (office days) are great for me.   I've loved my time here since I got back from the States.  We've had amazing groups and are currently hosting a youth team from Hesston, Kansas.   One of the leaders was a missionary here years ago and has the coolest stories to share.  Watching Dr. Canario embrace him yesterday afternoon and hearing them relive history together gave me such joy. I love sitting in on these moments when folks "come home" in one sense,  hearing that spanish tumble from their mouths once again, watching them greet old friends and wander familiar streets.   I know I don't take it for granted ...living here and having opportunity to see and experience the world here.   The gang from ONU last week dove in full tilt- throwing down dominos every night and practicing spanish in the barrio clinics and loving on the people completely and wholly.     I watched their eyes and hearts open up and I remember so vividly my first time here, my first barrio clinic here, my first patients and friends and rice and beans and chinola juice and bus rides....and I fall in love with everything again just from living vicariously through them this one week.  And the next week.  And the next.   I say it to the groups sometimes when I'm in orientation or even finishing out the week.    We live it all over again through you guys.  Watching THEM reminds me of how it was when I first saw it.  

I still giggle at the ridiculousness of running out of gas on the pasola and getting pushed by Monch to the gas station (pushed by HIM driving another pasola...straight-legged with one leg on the back on my pasola and me desperately trying NOT to steer into a ditch).   I still gulp down the chinola juice like it's the best thing going (it IS!).   I still think kenepas (limoncillos) are a novelty to eat.   I still want to cover my ears at the majority of the sound systems in this country as the blaring and static is usually louder than the speaker or the music ( I've been known to pray that the sound systems won't work and that the person preaching or singing will just have to speak in normal speaking tone. )   There are a billion things that I still think are the coolest here- it hasn't become rote or boring.    And it looks like I will be able to stay as I intended to- since I WILL HAVE TENANTS IN MY HOUSE IN A MERE 6 DAYS.  God is so faithful...and I can feel my trust deepening in Him as He continues to prove His care to me.   Thank you, dear friends, for praying for this with me.    I feel your love and support always and appreciate so much the encouragement I receive from both old and new friends and family.  

Below are a few photos to sum up the past several weeks.   My favorite of course is of me on a pasola being pushed by Monch to the gas station, the quintessential Dominican experience.  

This is a pic of some of our barrio patients waiting to be seen.  The lady with the white kerchief is 102 years old.   

I'm not sure if this video will load or not but it's of Dr. Canario seeing patients and teaching the ONU students in the barrio clinics.  

Being pushed in the pasola to the gas station!  Please note Monch's foot on the back of my pasola shoving me down the road.......GO ME!

I just can't get enough of the El Gordo.   He's just the cutest and might need to be in every single blog that I ever write.   

Working in the barrio pharmacy!  This was a first for me and I LOVED IT.  

The ONU group loved dominos almost as much as we do!  

Hector preaching and teaching to the crowds in Elias Pina....

Ahhhhh this was just the MOST FUN.  Tubing down the irrigation canal!  I love my peeps!  

The ONU team.  I wish they could come every week.  Phenom crew.  I'll remember those barrio clinics for a long long while.  :)  THANK YOU dear friends!  I hope you all bought dominos in the capital......

July 2014 Update Newsletter

News from Nik- July 2014 

I’ve just spent a few weeks in the Homeland resting, reading, and stuffing my face and it’s been beautiful.    This is the most peaceful trip home that I have had in at least 3 years and I’ve enjoyed every minute (except for missing Monchi and my Dominican peoples!).    Red Robin, nephews (see Donavon and I together at the 50s Diner here above!),  late night chats with dear friends, mountain trips,  Isaac’s Sandwiches,  Eby and Umble reunions, Turkey Hill Ice Cream,  homemade pickles, (much of this apparently resolves around food?) swimming in pools and ponds and lakes and mountain creeks,  precious time with Bud and Sue (my beloved parents), and just quiet moments reflecting on my life and all the fullness that it is.    

I took in a lot and I hopefully let go of a lot.   I hope I let go of the stress and anxiety and pressure that comes along with serving in another country sometimes.  I hope I let go of the idea that I often can’t fit my square peg in a round hole and sometimes wonder which world I fit in.  I hope I am letting go of the idea that I’m not good enough ,thin enough, spiritual enough,  talented enough, enough, enough, enough, and all the enemy thoughts that attack me.    Sometimes I have to let go of these thoughts multiple times and know that I will continue to WANT TO BE ENOUGH and struggle with feeling it and finding it in HIM WHO KNOWS ME BY NAME.   (I Love you Jesus!) 

BUT I TOOK IN FAR MORE THAN I LET GO OF.  I took in the unconditional love of my family, the ever-present support of my besties, the trust that I have in my friends, the truth that needed to be heard from my soul sister, the prayers of my people, the open-arms of my church, the tears in a sad movie, the story of a good book, the tight hugs of my nephews, the sun on Pine Creek, the peace of a park as I plod heavily on a running path, the rain hitting the roof of my parent’s home, the quilt that I love on my old bed (just like always!), the GOODNESS OF THE LORD.   I saw the face of Jesus in every single person who served me here…and it happened every single day.  

I feel refreshed.  I feel ready.  This was exactly what I needed.  I am enveloped in love and I remember THE CALL.  I remember why God sent me to the DR.   I had been feeling like I have a job, like I’ve been working, like it’s an employment when IT IS NOT.  It’s always been about God.  It’s always been Him calling me there, sustaining me there, fulfilling me there,   It’s always been a privilege and an honor and I’m-the-luckiest-girl-in-the-world feeling.  And I’ve got it again.  

I’m not going to say this is ever a walk in the park.  I’ve got major prayer requests.  I was denied a Residency Visa to the DR.  That hurts.  My man was denied a visitor’s visa to the States.  Ouch again.    My passport and Visa paperwork is lost in the US postal system (since May) and I need it to continue on in my search for legal life in the DR.   My tenants are leaving my home and I have no new tenants lined up as of yet to pay the mortgage.  Sigh.  Pray.  Just pray for me.  

And yet….. I’m ready.   I’m confident that God already has these things in His Big Schedule Book.  He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands.   Back to the DR I go……  THANK YOU my wonderful people for supporting me, for making all this possible, for praying, sending money and notes and encouragement and fresh strawberries and chocolate ice cream.  Thanks for sharing the vision!    

* If you would like to support me (tax deductible!) , please check out the Missionary Support page on www.solidrockinternational.org and follow me on the Solid Rock International blog (same webpage)  

Photo journalism at its best!

When I don't know what to write I think that maybe photos can cover it up for me.    It's been a great couple months;  winding down the medical/surgical season until July and ushering in the construction, youth group, and vacation Bible school groups.   Our pharmacy is as tight as I can get it.  Scary Room is under control.   Next surgical team is September.   I guess that  I'm gonna head to my passport country soon and visit my peoples for a while.    Blessings to all!

We all love Braegan so very much.  But this is one of my favorite pix of her OF ALL TIME.  She is shoving broccoli in her mouth at the speed of light, sitting on a huge bag of coffee, right between the Monch and I.  Just good times all around.  Our lives at Solid Rock are so very very much brighter with Braegan running around and saying funny things in Spanish/English/Braeganish.  :)  

To be honest, I'm not even sure what this dear little guy's name really is . We all call him Gordo ("chubby", "fatty"- it's a compliment here, really).   Although this photo doesn't show it, he is the jolliest of jollies in the barrio.   

We have found some beautiful sites while taking "lunch walks" from our mobile clinics.  This is a beautiful river near Cabeza de Toro with a sweet swimming hole.

Seriously!  You won't believe it but this guy is a twin!  He and his brother were equally squalling, snotting and crying nearly the entire day that we spent with them in Elias Pina at a mobile clinic.  They clung to their 6 year old brother very tightly and wailed whenever we even APPROACHED them.  But wow- how precious!

I have repeatedly mentioned that the DR has over 30 different kinds of mangos, right?  Only 30 billion times.   Never gets old.  And look how beautiful.  

I work with the greatest fellas.  And we have great times in the barrios.  3 of these brothers are some of my oldest friends in the DR..... way back from the Pueblo Nuevo days.   How cool that we get to connect and work together now!   God is so good!

A room with a view.  If you want to know more about this place...check out my blog from about a year ago called Casa Abandonado.   I still wander through these roofless walls wondering how I can live here one day.

They just don't get any cuter (or rowdier!) than the kids in Bastida.  Baby Nicole's brothers are included in this pic!  We held a WONDERFUL mobile clinic in Bastida and were able to see my beautiful baby, her family and many others in this place that I love!   

One foot in front of the other

Update on my running:  the two-a-days with Monchi didn't really work out.   My knees, sassy mouth, ankles and attitude really couldn't hack it.   But the one-a-days with me, myself, and I- those are still going onward.    I'm not good at it.   I don't exactly enjoy it.  But I feel better about myself....and I feel the tendrils of anxiety that tighten around my neck slipping away when I'm out huffing away, feet pounding on the gravel or rocks or sidewalk or wherever I am.   Just trying to keep it one foot in front of the other.

It helps that I live in possibly the most gorgeous place ever.   I don't look around a whole lot, because I'm trying to watch my feet and the road and make sure I don't fall on my face.   The streets here aren't exactly friendly to runners, and although the track is nice-  I loathe circling the same scene again and again and again with about 200 Dominicans staring at me wondering why I run so slowly.  :)   But when I do put my head up and check out what is around me..... I'm reminded that it's part of why I'm out here plodding away, sucking in air and pushing myself.  It's beautiful.  It clears my head.   It shows me again how stunning God's creation here in San Juan IS and how blessed I am to see it.   Below are a few of the scenes that I get to experience, when I'm not tripping over myself.

This is my screen saver right now.  I just. cannot. believe. I. live. here.  Look at those mountains. 

Outside the Guesthouse and clinic at 730 pm.  

Ahhhh the statue at Comemoros or San Tome.   Exactly one mile from my abode.  And three times around the park is another mile.  Baseball field across the street.  Outskirts of San Juan on the way to Las Matas or El Cercado.   I like it here.  

The road I'm on.   It's been rocky lately, both physically and emotionally.  I've been anxious- I've been stressed- I've been tired.   We've had off from teams the last 3 weeks and only this week have I felt the tension seeping out of me.   I'm working on trying to do the things that bring me JOY.  Watching baseball with Monch,  playing dominos, visiting friends,  reading books,  checking out movies, seeking and talking with Jesus, puttering with my balcony plants.     Putting one foot in front of the other.  Simple stuff.    Just like running.  One foot in front of the other.   Walking when I need to.   Plodding most of the time.  Waiting for that feeling that I can RUN now.  And sometimes I can.   Sometimes I can even go farther than I thought I could.    The feeling of exhilaration in THOSE moments  is enough to keep me going even when I'm exhausted....knowing it will come.  And that is just like life.  I KNOW the times of exhilaration are coming.    I know there is a finish line and I'm in my race and sometimes plodding, sometimes walking and sometimes FLYING.    

2Tim 4:7

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Acts 20:24

However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me--the task of testifying to the good news of God's grace.
1 Corinthians 9:24
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
1 Corinthians 9:25
Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.
1 Corinthians 9:26
Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.

Scripture says we are to "run with patience (endurance, persistence) the race set before us, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith ... For consider Him that endured ... lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds." (Heb 12:1-3)      I'm wearied.  I'm faint in my mind.  But I want to continue with endurance and persistence the race set before me.   Maybe plodding.  Sometimes flying along.   But looking to Jesus to walk or run alongside me.    One foot in front of the other.    

How scary is it? Oh I'm glad you asked!

Well, as much of the free world knows by now (possibly due to all my whining??) , this has been a week of organizing the Scary Room and Clinic.   On the first day alone, we made 13 dump runs.  On day 2 there were at least 3 more dump runs and 3 truckloads of metal sold to the Metal Guy.   I couldn't be happier.   I think I sigh with joy as I watch the pickups depart for the dump with supplies from 1998.    We have found some treasures (I think?).   I found some clear garbage bags (win!) and bovies for the OR.  

We are also working on clearing out some "dumping grounds" in the clinic, such as the laundry, extra supply rooms, closets, etc.   I discovered a disgustingly filthy supply room outside that we gutted, cleared out, cleaned, and then I noted a sign on one of the closet doors "This is Jim's- keep it clean!  If you take something, put it back".   I'm sure it was referring to Jim Smith,  our "Founding Father" here at SRI.   How cool to find his note...and how awesome to have his "room" cleaned up and functional again!   And how nice to have SPACE in the clinic for patients, consult rooms, nurses and doctors instead of zones for non-functional equipment!  It feels almost like we are starting over in a new clinic and it's been neat to see the clinic staff working with our amazing SRI translators, eating lunch together, having devotions together in the afternoon with our staff pastor Enol, and playing fun games as well.

We'll have plenty more photos to follow...but here, for your viewing pleasure, some shots of the first two days.  

Our awesome translators working with the clinic staff in an assembly line to "empty out" the Scary Room.  For those who aren't "in the know"- the Scary Room is a medical supply room which has gotten WAY OUT OF CONTROL.  

YAY!  As you can see, we are really GETTING there.  Stay tuned for further Scary Room and Clinic Renovation updates!  

What does 68 surgeries look like?

So several weeks ago I went down in flames with the flu.   Of course it was HIDEOUS but the worst part was not being able to participate in one of my favorite surgical weeks, ENT (lots of tonsils!).  I was there for Monday morning before the plague struck me down...and I robbed lots of photos from the fabulous folks of Hickory NC, Fort Wayne, IN and my dear friend Cathy to demonstrate a bit of what a busy ENT week (PLUS a team going out to serve and treat barrios) may look like.  Thanks guys!  You did a great job!  68 surgeries in the clinic and HUNDREDS of folks served in 4 different neighborhoods (barrios, campos) by the mobile barrio team.   It's such an inspiration to see, even if it's either from a bed in the clinic (yup- I too received an IV in the clinic), via the photos and stories from the team, and best yet- the testimony of the folks who were served.  Amazing stuff!

So first of all, the teams arrive on Sunday mornings and bring in about one billion suitcases full of TREASURES and supplies!

They spend Sunday afternoon in orientation and then unpacking and setting up the ORS, Recovery rooms, Pre-op, etc...

 

The clinic is usually FULL of folks waiting either for consults or surgery.    There are consults before surgery to determine who is a candidate for surgery.    The OR crews are busy at work prepping the beds, getting supplies ready, checking the equipment, unpacking, etc.

The hallways are LINED with folks waiting!

Meanwhile, the barrio teams are unpacking their meds in the pharmacy and then REPACKING for the week in a big pharmacy box to dispurse medications.

Whichever day we hold consults (either a Friday before or a Monday morning)....there are HUNDREDS of folks waiting outside.  This is a pic of Nef and I giving instructions to the crowd in an attempt to be organized.

Our American nurses working with the Dominican nurses.....awesome teamwork!

And when surgery begins....ahhhh the sweet love and care that the nurses give to the patients.   I learn a LOT...and it's just so inspirational to see.  

Everybody gets a chance to listen and learn!  :)

We have a lot of fun with the amazing surgeons who come to serve here!  Here we are teasing Dr. Frank after a busy week of 68 surgeries!  

The amazing OR team....what a great job!   These guys do a TON of organizing and packing before they come.   We are so grateful.....as are the patients who have a much better quality of life after surgery.  THANKS HICKORY- FORT WAYNE- CATHY CASE...and everyone who came down and cared for the Dominicans...oh yeah- and cared for me too!  :)