República Dominicana

This past week, Mike has been in the Dominican Republic serving a Medical Mission Trip with the school. We are so glad that he made it home safely and I am especially grateful that he is back b/c I am SO over being a Single Parent-----anyways, back to his trip. I am going to break up my writing in between the pictures b/c there are a LOT of pictures, so if you dont have much time to read, I would suggest you come back when you do have time, b/c there is a MEGA picture overload and this isnt even all the pictures!! Mike had a great time and an awesome experience. Just from him sharing his experience with me makes me SO grateful for what we have. Dominican Republic is a 3rd World Country and you will definitely see that from these pictures below. Ok, lets get started...

This is a truck loaded with sugar cane. They were told that the people that load these trucks make $1.00 per ton...yes I said PER TON...$1 flippin' DOLLAR PER TON!!

Oh the Palm Trees...whats the Caribbean without Palm Trees??

Oh the beautiful Caribbean Sea...how I wish I could be swimming in you now.


The first few days they were there....they went to a village where they set up a clinic for the people there. The locals would come in with complaints about their health, and Mike and his group would treat them and prescribe them medicines. Most of the complaints being back pain--from working in the sugar cane fields, and many kids came in with ring worm and other infections along those lines....

One of the streets in the village...no pavement.

An adorable little boy named Miguel that they made friends with...dont you just dig his shirt?? And as you can see...he is walking around on those dirty/rocky streets in bare feet!

Mike was required to attend a church service while they were there....here they are at a Baptist Church...the building they are in used to be a "club".


Two of the days while being in Dominican they were busy performing surgeries at a local hospital...

A sign showing the services they offer.

The Hospital where they did the surgeries...

How you like this for a wheelchair?? Is that not awesome!!?? Its like the ultimate"redneck" wheelchair .....AWESOME!!

Too bad hospitals here didnt steal this idea---we could have saved a LOT of money.

Ok...be prepared to be grossed out-----you ready??

So this tree sits just outside of the hospital, because of the lack of money and products that they have OR dont have...the hospitals have to Re-Use catheters. Yes, Re-Use them. So what they do is after they have used a catheter...they bring them outside to this tree, where they wash them in a basin and then hang them on this tree to dry before using them again...

So here we have the "Catheter Tree" --- can we say Gross!!??


The Mission Group got the opportunity to visit an orphanage on their visit.

This orphanage actually was very nice and well kept.....but it used to not be. Not too long ago, all the grass that you see pictured below used to be all dirt and rocks and there used to not be a playground. A lot of work has been done to it and it now looks like this present day...they say that these kids probably have a better life being in the orphanage than a lot of the kids who live at home with their families....

The orphanage was holding a Birthday Party for one of the little girls....all the orphans who were there were ALL girls except for the 2 little boys pictured below....

The beds in the orphanage.

This was one of the days that they were driving to the village...for all my Charleston friends...here's a little piece of the Cooper River Bridge here in Dominican Republic. It reminded Mike of home...

This is Mike with one of the translators---Mario

At the local Baptist Church they have a Haitian Nursing Home---basically it is where they housed elderly Haitians living in the Dominican Republic. Pictured below is what it looked like on the inside...they all lived and slept in this one big room together.

Whats a 3rd World Country without goats running through the dirt streets?????

Mike ate a small bag of Doritos for lunch and won this.....a FREE bag of chips!!---talk about lucky, eh!! He scored big in the Dominican Republic!!

Another lovely street in one of the villages they visited.

Mike with some of the local kids---ADORABLE!

One of the main parts of the village....again, everything is DIRT and ROCKS

A big open area where a lot of the kids gathered and played baseball, soccer, volleyball, or whatever. If you look around you see trash all over the place. Dominican is NOT one of the cleanest places on earth. Just driving down the streets there would be piles of trash everywhere. Very dirty.

A very common way of getting around the villages and cities are by motorbike. It was very common to see people pile all kinds of stuff on their bikes...how they get it all on there?? I know not. It was also very common to see 3-4-even 5 people riding ONE bike. They are very good at "piling" in this country...

One experience of a lifetime that Mike and the Mission Group got to do was visit and set up Clinic in a Dominican Republic Prison. And what an experience it was....a little background on Dominican Republic Prisons--the prisoners where street clothes. But they do have to wear Shorts, anybody in shorts that you see in these pictures are prisoners. Also, the richer you are, the better prison experience you are going to have...any privileges that the prisoners get, they have to PAY for them. You will see prisoners with Cell Phones, but if they want to keep their cell phones, they have to pay a fee once a week. Some prisoners you will see with Keys around their neck, if you want to be able to go through certain doors and to other areas of the prison, you have to pay money to get keys to do so. You want your cell cleaned---you have to pay for it, otherwise they will not clean it.

The prisoners get ONE meal a day...Mike's description of it would be that it look liked dog's throw-up (sorry to gross you out, but thats the way it was). The only other food the prisoners could get--is if their families brought food to the prison for them. Other than that, its one serving per day. They didnt have any utensils to eat with, they would use cans or whatever they could find to eat on...and no utensils. They had drinking stations, where a lot of the times, the water would be drizzling down the wall and the prisoners would be drinking and licking off the wall (from what it looked like). It was very sad to see and it makes America's Prisons look like a "Hollywood" lifestyle. Its a pretty sad sight to see....

The front of the prison.

This guy was sitting just outside the prison...in his basket he had raw chicken in it with it flies swarming all around it (gross). Not sure why he was out in front of the prison...possibly bringing food to sale to the prison???

Because of the water being bad in the country...the only water Mike got to drink was from these baggies...


Pictured below is a part of the prison where they keep all the prisoners with Tuberculosis. They have a courtyard with only a screen wall dividing their living quarters and where Mike and them set up Clinic for the prisoners----AHHH and ICK!!!

For those you who dont know what Tuberculosis is...here's a description of the disease: it is a common and often deadly infectious disease. Tuberculosis usually attacks the lungs but can also affect other parts of the body. It is spread through the air when people who have the disease cough, sneeze, or spit. And here they are setting up clinic right next to this area--YIKES!!

You can see Mike's excitement of having to work right next to the tuberculosis prisoners.

Another shot of their living quarters---notice the trash can that is overflowing...yuck.

Mike treating one of the prisoners..

The wall/gate into the main part of the prison.

One part of the prison that is obviously dirty...and it smelled like feces--there were questions as to whether this might be the place where they may use the bathroom. Along with water drizzling from the windows. If you look to the far left side...there are 2 men sitting down there. Can we say un-sanitary???

A bunch of the prisoners hanging outside.

And of course a baseball field...Dominican Republic LOVES their baseball and it is HUGE down there. Therefore, it was probably a requirement that the prison have their own baseball field.

You can see that there are mattresses laying out in the middle of the "yard" there...they bring their mattresses out there to dry...how they get wet?? We dont ask and they dont tell (i guess).

Here's a funny picture...if you notice the first tree on the right...there is a prison guard standing there peeing--YES, Mike and them caught him peeing onto that tree. Absolutely Disgusting!!!

This is the "privileged" part of the Prison. There were fruit stands and such set up here.

And this is the guard that started telling the group to Stop taking pictures and to Stop videotaping...what they have to hide?? We know not. But I would hate to mess with that guy--if you notice, he has a cane hanging from the side of him and those guards are not afraid to use them. Some of the guys in Mike's group witnessed a guard beating the daylight out of one of the prisoners there....they have every intention of showing the prisoners "who's boss" there.

The prison was definitely an interesting experience and again, it makes us so grateful for what we have in our lives!!

Crossing one of the rivers at sunset....so pretty


Another day at the hospital...pictured below is Mike and his Haitian Patient. Mike being able to speak French came in REAL handy during this mission trip. Mike served a 2 year mission for our church in France, so being able to speak French came to be an advantage for him. Its amazing how quick he picked it back up being able to actually speak it again to someone who spoke it back.

Mike at work giving his patient Anesthesia via his spine

I always loved a man in scrubs (sigh)...Oh Sorry, I was having a moment there--moving on!!
This is Mike setting up in the OR with all his medicines and equipment and stuff.

Mike with his Haitian patient after the surgery... I love the fact that they have him in the "redneck wheelchair" haha awesome.

A GORGEOUS Catholic Church in one of the villages.

These boys were playing baseball with a stick and plastic bottle lids....they love their baseball and are happy with using whatever just to be able to play the game.

This is for my Brother-In-Law, Blaine. This would be the house of one of the New York Yankee Players...notice his Range Rover and Ferrari parked in the garage and driveway. Also, if you can see the man there standing between the garage and the front door...that would be his own personal security guard.

And that FINALLY brings us to the end of my post. My apologies for making it so long, but these arent even half the pictures, so I definitely did some MAJOR editing. But what an awesome experience. And experiencing things like this makes us SO SO SO GRATEFUL for our lives here in the US. We have it SO good. One thing that just amazed Mike and that he notice, was that these people would show up at these clinics and the hospitals and wait for HOURS to be seen and not once did you see them complain about it. They were just grateful to have the help and services. Mike stated that they were very pleasant people to be around and they showed nothing but gratitude towards them for helping them---despite waiting hours to be seen. We have so much to learn and to be grateful for. Hope you enjoyed our post and Mike's experience in the Republica Dominicana.


***a video of the prison for your viewing pleasure...it gives you a better idea of the conditions there***

And yes, all the men you see wearing Shorts are the Prisoners--just a mingling amongst the others...again, YIKES!!