?Como te 'ta'?

Saturday: Day 3

Missionary life feels like a strange mix of a crazy night in clinic at Mercy and a vacation. I get to wear tevas and shorts, no one wears makeup (praise God!), but there is so so so much to do! Anyone who has seen me be the crazy secretary at Mercy knows what I mean. You get so into the groove of things that you just don't stop. Diane, the missionary hosting me, feels it too. In the last two days I've hardly seen the woman stop. Believe it or not, this amazing doc got up at 3 AM just to make breakfast for a group of other missionaries. When I got up at 8 she had been up all morning working and aside from a few hours of nap in the afternoon she worked until 11 PM in the office here with me. I guess residency preps you to do that kind of stuff.

My quiet time with God means so much now; instead of being a discipline its like water at the end of a long run. I read the book of James last night. Its so short, but was so perfect for my mood. Normally I read slowly, but reading last night was just being wrapped into strong arms saying its OK. God is so real here. This afternoon the internet and copier inexplicablly went out for a few hours. Thats not surprising really, but the funny thing was that we didn't have to do anything to fix it. I kinda felt like it was God saying "take a break!" So I took a quick nap and then went out back to pick mangos for the kids at Abuela (grandma's| school. Well, school might not be the right word for it; in all honesty its really just an older lady who looks after the neighborhood kids for the day and really lights into anyone who dares to hit one of them. Sadly, abuse is really common in Latin America. The Sabados help support her; afterall, getting the kids off the street and loosely organized is better than them never having anything to do -- thats a real breeding ground for trouble.

The Sabados are really looking after that whole neighborhood as well. There's a girl who has atypical dermatitis - an immunological condition. He parents are doing well relatively speaking; they run a minimart out of their house for the neighborhood. Sitting in their backyard, it was easy to romantisize being a missionary doctor. Diane spent 30 minutes or so explaining the treatement - bathing with mineral oil and no soap, and dietary changes away from , and politics, and well, everything. I even had time to ask about some of the flowers - Trinidad y Viela de Novia (girlfriend's veil). Their yard was beautiful; it had grass and trees shading a place for the kids to play, chickens, a pot of stew that I hear tastes like pumpkin pie (maybe next time I'll know) and the whole family was spending their Saturday there. Seeing how much time families spend together and how much they really depend on each other makes me think that we're missing something in America.

This next piece is going to sound a bit formal; its from a thank you letter for financial donations that I've been getting ready to mail out today, but I want to record this story here and there's lots more to say... but writing is officially cutting into sleeping!

Our ministry here in the Dominican Republic continues to flourish. We have the opportunity to treat a gracious young man named Augustine. Three months ago, Augustine was a successful chaufeur until a gang attacked and robbed him of both his health and his livliehood. With both arms fractured and one infected with an antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria called MRSA, feared in both the US and abroad, Augustine has been forced to depend on his extended family’s charity to support his wife and two children. As I write, Augustine is in reconstructive surgery and we are hopeful that God will bless him with the return of 90% of his arm function and a cure for the infection.

The most poignant moment with Augustine was last night. After the team of docs put him in a quick drying cast (they really are cool) and discussed how to switch around certain ligaments to restore function (surgery is sounding good), Augustine went home to get his ready for the next day. I assumed that the team would pick him up. To beat the crowd to customs they were planning on leaving at 4 AM. The team was going out to Cotos food court - a french style Walmart - for dinner so I declined to go. Pizza just isn't necessary - total tangent here, but God totally took care of me when he put me with a family dedicated to eating well too - so I took the car back to the Sabado's house. We had made the trip like 5 times that day in the light, but in the dark everything looks different. I took a few wrong turns but I made it in the end. Well, its a good thing I just wanted to go change and read because 30 minutes later I hear "hey, hey" coming from the gate. Paul Emery - former missionary kid, my ticket over here, and the happiest man I've EVER seen in an airport just because he hates the US and loves serving - was upstairs so I let Augustine in the gate and got Paul; really just to be safe. After a few minutes we all agreed that it made the most sense for Augustine to stay at the guest house with the team - why should they have to go fetch him afterall and Diane had already OKed it, so I got to have about a hours worth of conversation with my peer while we got everything set up for him. How cool eh? It was really interesting to get to talk to a 22 year old and see his worldview. He was really excited to hear stories from the US - disneyland as Paul calls it - but I wanted to break down some of those great expectations so I just said that it had good points and bad points like every country but that I didn't really like how little value it placed on the family and how individualistic it was. I really took him off guard with that.

Time to sleep! Hold on to the Lord tightly!