Dominican Republic

I've finally started a blog. I love writing because it is a good way for me to get my emotions out and a way to vent, so beware you few people who read this. This blog will be more of a personal outlet for me, so if you were expecting a blog that is all happy and with multiple exclamation marks after every sentence then you should probably stop reading this. Anyways, the reason for this first blog post is because I'm on an amazing humanitarian trip in the Dominican Republic and I want to remember this trip so I'm writing all about it!

Patrick's great Uncle is Dr. Roy Hammond; an amazing dentist who spends a lot of his time doing service and humanitarian work. He goes to the D.R. about 5 times a year and does a free clinic for the people. He heard that Pat is pre-dental so he invited us to come with him on this trip! So with a lot of help from Roy and from Pat's parents, we are finally here. We honestly feel so blessed to be here, and to have the opportunity to serve and help the people in the D.R.

We got here Friday afternoon and today was our first day of clinic. There are about 8 dentists and a lot of hygienists so it took a long time setting up and being organized. We had the clinic in Santo Domingo in an elementary school, which had no air conditioning. We knew it didn't, but we didn't realize how hot and humid it is here. We all wear scrubs and we were all drenched in sweat. Gross, I know. But nobody really cared because our purpose wasn't to look fashionable or attractive, it was to help the people.

There were a lot of people in pain waiting to be seen. My job today was to sterilize the dentist's tools after they had worked on a patient. And Patrick was pretty much a dental assistant all day, working with Dr. Yoshida from California. He was able to help with a lot of fillings and pulling teeth. He did such a good job. One of the patients was a little girl who was by herself, and you could tell she was terrified of getting worked on. When they gave her the numbing shots, I looked over and saw Patrick holding her hand to comfort her. It was one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

We worked about 8 hours and on over 100 people. I'm not going to lie, it was exhausting. The heat and humidity were so draining, and being on our feet and bending over most of the day really killed my back. But I really tried to not focus on it and to not let it hold me back from serving. A lot of peoples backs were hurting after we finished, and I did notice everyone was extra nice to me after they found out I am a massage therapist :)

It's amazing how different and how much happier I feel after doing service. I'm very excited to do more clinics monday-thursday next week in different areas. We are going to an LDS church tomorrow which should be interesting. Hopefully I will be able to understand 1/80 of what is being said. No hablo espanol!