International travel

I love seeing new places, exploring different cultures, seeing where and how God can possibly use me. But getting to these adventures is not the fun part! I try to relax and learn to navitgate airlines, airport waits etc. But I would say this trip was a bit bumpy! Thankfully not literally!

With flight changes and long, long layovers (14 hours) , to very short, short layovers (running to the next plane) , and luggage mix ups (not sure if they would make it there and then immigration still keeping medical equipment)! I had a surprise stop in Panama! I thought I was going through Panama Florida, but it was actually the country of Panama! But all I got to see was a big fancy airport that I had to have a very fast walk through and directly on the next plane!

It was 3 full very long days of traveling!

I was so glad to arrive in this beautiful country and rest in my our beautiful airbnb!

I'm sharing our airbnb with 5 others ladies that are part of the group of 20. It's very comfortable and only a 10 minute walk to the hospital.

I always love going to the grocery store in new countries and seeing the odd differences

Ketchup in a can, ricotta more like cottage cheese, star fruit

So far Dominican Republic is a pretty modern, clean, friendly country!

Our first day here we worked on donations we all brought. We each brought 100 lbs of donations, so we had to get Ubers (taxi) to bring us the the stuff to the hospital, then load everything upstairs to a room where we sorted.

Meanwhile getting to know each other. I have 5 students in my team and I only know one of them. So learning to know their names and about each one here. One of our students is 75 years old! I am so honored to get to teach her! The next picture over is the shift leaders with our Nelly, who is taking care of us at the hospital.

Later that day we went out to eat. This restaurant had all sorts of things on their menu, not just Dominican food, but from all over it seemed. My favorite was the Kalamata paste. It was an olive dip.

A good night sleep and we will be ready for our shifts the next day!