Today was our last day in the village and it was a wonderful ending to an eventful week. My highlight was brainstorming with Marie and Chris to adapt Vladimir’s wheel chair to allow his sadly twisted body to be more comfortable in it. Vladimir, who is 20 years old and has cerebral palsy. He only weighs about 45-60 pounds, and his Mother, who is a little lady that looks more like his grandmother, is his only caregiver. She lost her husband last March, and it melts your heart to watch how lovingly she cares for this young man. We were able to put together a cushion for the chair, and we used some boards and padding to fashion a leg rest that he needs because his knees do not bend. Although Vlad is not able to communicate his feelings, his mom was brought to tears of joy for him, and so were we. You can see Vlad and his mom in one of our pics of the day.
The high light for the women on the team and the children in the Village came from another team that dropped by yesterday. The whole Village was abuzz as the children got to pitch to the members of the Cleveland Indians that paid us a visit. Go Tribe!
We are so very thrilled that six of our 13 team members on this trip are members of Saint John of the Cross Parish. Our Lenten project this past spring was the tilapia farm and we were able to hang the tilapia tank banner from St. John of the Cross’s school in one of the classrooms at St. John the Evangelist school in the Dominican Republic. Please check out the picture of our Parish Missionaries sharing this special moment with some of the students today…and speaking of tilapia, we are pleased to report that, as of yesterday, Jack was able to secure the Higuey Rotary signatures we needed as the next step toward making a tilapia farm a reality.
In other school news, we hand carried 31 pen pal letters from the Willoughby middle school Spanish class for the St. John the Evangelist students and we are returning with a stack of letter from their new friends.
Once again, we want to express our profound gratitude for all that Doc Andrew and Doc Molly did to reach out a healing hand and to offer some comfort to the ailing members of the Community. We are now, more than ever, convinced that God handpicked each and every member of this awesome medical team to ensure that His work would be accomplished.
Thank you Lord for choosing us.
Thank you team members for saying yes to God’s call.
Dale
