Back in the DR.......Sickness, Angels and Growth

Going back to the DR had mixed emotions for most of the team! Personally I wasn't very excited about it, many of the team members were not excited about the rules we had previously, but we all had open minds and submitted everything to God. Christian Fox, one of our DTS leaders came the day after we arrived back in the DR and we had a fun day at the beach. It was Christian's birthday so we threw him a little birthday celebration and he brought us candy, which everyone was excited about.

Beautiful Beach!

Christian was a little tired from his travels. :)

Denine is on staff at the base in the DR, she is an incredible woman of God. I really love and respect her.

A boy we befriended on the beach, he was in love with Emily and Elizabeth. 

I continued to be nauseas, which was no fun! :(



Our second day, we went on a tour of downtown. Here are a few pictures....

Elizabeth and Emily bought friendship bracelets!

And this is how people exchange money! :)

We went to a little shop that had amazing fresh juices and coffee.

Color art available on the street.

And there's a KFC that delivers! :)

That night we went to Denine's church.

Sunday we had a day of rest and then went to speak at Laromi's youth group and then visited with her family. Laromi is one of the girls that is part of King's Kids and volunteer's at the base. She was like part of our team. A few of us shared testimonies.

After a few days of rest we began planning our ministry. Unfortunately, I continued to be nauseas and every time I ate, by stomach hurt really bad. Both Emilys continued to be sick and so did Elizabeth. Elizabeth was the first to go to the doctor and came back with the news that she had an amoeba. She had to go back a few days later so the four of us ended up going. We went to a private hospital and that is where we met our Angel. We met Dr. Angel, who was from the Tampa area and spoke fairly good English, in the Emergency Room. We explained our symptoms and he walked us over to the lab and ordered stool samples and blood work and told us to come back in 24 hours for the results. He gave us a prescription, as he was pretty sure we had parasite. He also gave us instructions on what to eat and explained that it was most likely that we got the parasite from dirty water! NICE, huh! We trucked home, ordered our prescription on the phone and had it delivered to the house, yes, delivered to the house or base! The next day we took a taxi back to the Hospital to get our results and found our Angel, who again walked us through everything. The results were negative so he sent us over to see a Gastrointestinal Specialists. He walked us over and checked on us several times while we waited to see her, as she wasn't in yet. OH, I forgot to mention we never paid for an ER visit, just the lab test and the the Gastro. The GI Doctor ordered a series of test, one being multiple stool samples that needed to be grown 48 hours, so back we went home with our sample cups AND back to the hospital the next three days, to drop off stools, get results, etc. The end result, two of us had parasites, one had an amoeba and the fourth undiagnosed. This meant we missed ministry for almost two weeks. We spent TONS of time locked up in the house doing nothing but resting and taking care of each other. We prayed and worshipped together. God met us and I really feel like this was a time of growth for each of us. The last day we went to the hospital Emily Rice was really weak and had to get several bags of IV fluid pumped into her.....which we never had to pay for! Thank you to our Angel!

In the midst of all of this, I was trying to close on my house, which I sold via a 'short sale'. All the paperwork was overnighted to me in the DR. I needed to get about 8 pages notarized, which had to be done at the American Embassy since I was out of the country. So in the midst of being miserably nauseas and sick, I traipsed down to the American Embassy to try to get my papers notarized. Cyrielle, my outreach leader, and Dani, one of my team mates, had a appointments for their Visas so we all went together. Unfortunately I had to come back the next day, I tried to go in with them BUT they had stuff they couldn't take in so I had to stay outside for several hours by myself. FUN....NOT! Remember, I'm not feeling good, it's summer and it's HOT, but I survived! So I came back in two days, only to find out that I stood in line for a while JUST to get an appointment for the following day......UGHHHHH.....REALLY!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, God was challenging me! I also received paperwork indicating that they charge $50 USD for EACH notary! WHAT????? Considering I needed at least 8 pages notarized, that was over $400!!! I soon figured out a one way ticket to Orlando to be at the closing in person was MUCH cheaper. I talked to my outreach leader and called our school leader and got approval to book a flight to Orlando and then meet my team in Miami for our flights back to Kona on September 16. So I booked my flight and packed up and headed back to the mainland for 10 days. It was a really hard decision to leave the team, but considering that I hadn't been well for almost three weeks and the ridiculousness of the notary fees and appointments, it seemed like the best decision. Turned out there was a document that needed to be signed on the day of closing that could have lost the whole deal if it didn't close the day it did, so everything worked out perfectly! 

This also meant spending my birthday with friends! :)