2010 DR Mission - Day 3

Link To Video Of Day 3

Black Monday - So named because this was the day that the dreaded 24 hour stomach virus struck it's first victim (Chad). He became ill early Monday morning.



Painting Rebar

It was also the team's first day at the church worksite. There was much preparation to be done. Some of the money we raised for the trip was spent to purchase 75,000 cinder blocks that would be used to build the walls of the sanctuary. A milestone in owr relations with our Dominican hosts occured at this point. Ed, Jeff, and Pat were asked to accompany Nardo and the church's contractor to participate in this major purchase. They wanted us to be a part of this decision as well as demonstrate that they were using the donated money wisely. After visiting three block dealers, they got a great deal on the block of about two cents US per block.


Worksite Prep

 The main effort Monday was painting rebar with Rustolium primer and moving plywood in anticipation of the block delivery. As you can see our activity at the worksite attracts many of the local children.



Hello

We plan for this by bringing with us a number of inexpensive but entertaining toys which we give out over the week. The primer paint we used was quite nasty and cleaning up became a community project.


Cleaning Up


We returned back to the house for lunch and got to see how Dominican rural electrification self-help works. This was a particularly bad year for electricity with the power being off about 40% of the time.

You Will Not Believe This

That afternoon we made the decision to take Chad to the hospital in San Cristobal. We were there most of the afternoon and early evening. After two IV's and anti-nausea medication we finally got him back home. From this point on it seemed like new people got sick every day for the rest of the week. The only people who did not get ill were Debra and Jeff Taylor. In spite of this the team managed to get a lot of work done as well as take care of each other.



Play On Babe


Link To Day 3 Video