I love my job; I feel like I get to do some of the coolest things! One of my favs is filming Tuesdays and Thursdays when Dr. Fernando, the gynecologist who works with SI, goes to the little hospital here in Jarabacoa to do surgeries (cesareans, hysterectomies, etc.). Privacy is not really an issue in the Dominican Republic and we don't have to ask to film people--even medical patients. We're even free to be in the operating room whenever we want, though they did ask that only a female film during those kinds of operations.




These pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago. This was my first time to film a c-section and the whole thing was rather fascinating, but I've also seen enough to decide I'm NOT having c-sections when I have my own kids, if it can be avoided!

Dr. Fernando is the one on the right:

We had two American students with us this particular day (on the right):

I've never worn scrubs before, so I just had to take a picture of myself!

Randomness...

The reason I haven't updated my blog in a while is because I thought that I didn't have really anything new to share other than the typical "hey we have a team right now" or "hey I'm just doing school right now." But I was just looking at the pictures on my camera from the last few weeks and realized that I do have a few interesting things to share--and quite a few pictures, now that I look at them. And they're fairly random so I titled this post "Randomness," even though I don't think that's actually a word. (Ha, but I use it all the time--I love that word!)

Amy Green had a birthday recently and we had a little party for her--complete with confetti, balloon animals, three kinds of chocolate dessert, and a game of pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey! 

Katie lighting the candles on her amazing flour-less (on purpose) chocolate cake! It was like fudge!

Chastity and I got to dog-sit Ryan and Caroline's chihuahua Booper while they were at the beach for a couple of days with our two spring interns. She's such a cutie! The darling little yapper even got to sleep in our bed with us ;-)

On the left are our two spring interns (from my home area in Indiana): Ruth and Maryann Miller. Those girls are so much fun! We got to spend a lot of time together during outreaches, and Maryann is actually coming back in a month or so as a summer intern. This is a HUGE answer to prayer for me because she will be helping me full-time as my videographer assistant! She and Ruth just left for the States this morning :(  but Maryann was able to help me film at the various ministry sites this past week. (btw, that's Alberto on the right. He's a teacher at our school in a little community called Mata Gorda. We four had a movie night last night since the girls would have to leave this morning). 

Here are a few photos from the current outreach:

This is Francisco, one of our two artists at the art site, watching two team members paint:

This is Angie Brown, part of a college group from Taylor University that's here right now. I first met Angie two years ago when I was here as an intern. She's such an amazing and fun person! Here she's working with a student at our newest preschool in Los Higos, the community I used to work in.

A boy from the same school being goofy with his play-dough:

Arlene at the social work site, also in Los Higos. On her left are two American students who worked at her site this outreach:

That's about it for now. Tonight I have some video editing to do, and tomorrow I'm supposed to have this outreach team's dvd done and 53 copies made by 5 p.m. (gulp!). So I gotta get to work!

team from Jupiter, FL

Finding a routine

We have a high school team here from a private Christian school in Jupiter, FL, plus three college girls from NY (I think there's close to 40 people with both students an leaders. I lost my notes so I can't tell you for sure). There are 12 sites to cover so on one hand I feel like I'm being run ragged trying to get all the interesting stuff on camera from as many sites as possible each day but on the other hand I've been surprised to find a couple of precious hours here and there in the evening when I feel on top of things enough to just chill for a while. I think I'm finally starting to figure out a system or rhythm to this whole thing.

I've had the wonderful and indispensable help of Alicia, Nate, and the new team directors Josh and Vicki on various days (there's absolutely NO WAY this could be done without them!) but I'm REALLY looking forward to the summer intern that's coming who will be working solely with me! Having a three-person "crew" would be absolutely ideal, but we'll have to make do with just the two of us. We'll probably have to snag Josh and Vicki as much as we can to help, but they have their own jobs too. Hey, if there is anyone out there who loves videography and has a steady hand, doesn't mind bugs, is over 18, and wants something to do over the summer (or even before), call me! ;-)

So, it's 9:30 p.m. right now and I've finished putting all the footage from today on the computer. I'm not going to edit it right now because I'm tired and fighting a cold (in a warm-climate country--go figure!) and I want to relax for a couple of hours before going to bed. A typical day for me during an outreach is usually from 6:20 a.m. to 11-ish p.m. After the first couple of days, if I get the footage I need of the team's morning devotional activities, I can sleep in as long as I'm down at the main building for breakfast by 8:00. 

And I think I'll sleep in tomorrow, if I can; my internal alarm clock can be so annoying...