An interview with the local newspaper led to this great article on my then upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic as part of a medical team. The team went to the sugar cane villages (bateys) and the La Romana prison to see patients. I was a little nervous and cleaned the house like mad before the photographer showed up.
My friends were very generous in making donations to me. Two boxes of prescription medications were purchased and the remainder of the money was spent on all of these over the counter medications. US Customs almost seized the lot if the secondary screening agent had had his way. Fortunately for me, his supervisor was more kindly. The supervisor took one look at me and my boxes and said, "She is on a humanitarian mission; let her go". Whew!
And the end result was about 700 people were seen by the team during the week . Here one of our interpreters is explaining the medications in Creole to a family. Sometimes I felt like we were not doing much, but then I would see the smiles on the kids' faces as we handed out bandaids and the grateful thanks from their moms as they received vitamins and medications made me realize that we were making a difference.
