First Day On The Job

The meds had done their job and so, after a good night's sleep, it was an early rise to dress and have breakfast before getting on the bus for our 1/2 hour commute to the construction site.

Our first stop was for gas. Yes at a pump made out of an old refrigerator.

Then into the new village of Samaritano where I was VERY glad not to have to cycle up this grade.

We cheered even as the bus made it up. This was our trusted transportation for the week owned and driven by Eddie.

We weren't the only ones arriving for work that day.

 And this was our view while we worked and will be the view for the families from their front doors.

Our team needed to be divided into smaller groups for different tasks and to work with different Haitian skilled workers. I really felt for our leader Arnie, trying to organized us, so excited about starting the project, finding places to put our stuff. As my friend Tracy would say, it was a lot like herding barn cats.

Some of the other houses almost done. This is the back yard.

 Finally settled into our duties, I was assigned to be the mecla(cement mortar) and bloc minion for Haitian brick layer, Louis.

Cement mortar in one hand, cement block in the other.

I did well to keep his skilled pace and it didn't help that David and Patrico, the guys filling the mecla buckets didn't think as a woman I could carry a full bucket so they would only fill it half way. Until once I put it down, Patrico filled it full without realizing it was me, then he tried to dump it out. I stopped him, said, "No" grabbed the bucket as they chuckled at me being able to handle it. After that, I refused to pick up the bucket unless it was full. We can to an understanding really quick. It just made sense though as I couldn't keep up to Louis if I had to make twice as many trips.

Geoff getting to lay block

Elizabeth and I working together

We also had this herd of cows wander through the building site throughout the day.

 And there were a few spiders hanging around

We worked until lunch, then John Huizinga, Director of The Samaritan Foundation in the DR came and got me to go and meet with the crew from the eye clinic. We drove into the town of Sosua Beach which is east of Puerto Plata. We pulled up to the place that Karen Conquergood was staying. I turned to John and said, "I REALLY like my new work site"

It had a pool! Karen had fallen just a few days ago and broken 2 vertebrae.
We were going to be making plans about what to do with the equipment and the clinic as we needed to make sure we got the work done without impeding her long term healing. We spent the afternoon discussing her work and how I could be of most help. As I feared she had come across a lot of problems, issues and disorders that I couldn't figure out and wasn't qualified to help with. However with we did develop a great plan for the week and by the end of the day I felt like I had completed a National Exam again. John came back to pick me up and deliver me back to the team but not before a quick stop to see the office they work out of in the village of Paradiso.

We will be visiting this town again. Finally, it was back to the hotel where we needed to load up all the eye clinic equipment and deliver it back to Karen's place. By now, I really needed a shower and then dinner but I was so exhausted. A day of both physical and mental exertion had taken it's toll. I was too tired to even eat dinner, basically passed out on the bed for our end of day team meeting and that was enough. It was straight to bed to get as much sleep as possible. Tomorrow I was going straight to Karen's to train everyone on the equipment and to prepare for our first clinic day.