Every morning we were up around 5:30-5:45 to get ready for our day. We had group worship and prayer at 6:15 then we had time for devotions. Breakfast was at 7:30 and we were leaving our compound by 8:30. The church where we held clinic every day was about 30 minutes from where we were staying. Every morning when we arrived at clinic there would be a bigger crowd waiting for us. We had hygeine, restorative and oral surgery areas for the dentists as well as a PT and OT area. Outside is where we did triage (checking the patients blood pressure, pulse and getting critical information from them) and a spiritual counseling area. We ate lunch in shifts and that would be any time between 12 and 1:30. We usually left clinic around 5:15 or shortly after and ate dinner at 6 back at the compound. At 7pm we had group worship followed by small groups or free time (small groups and free time alternated every other night). We were ususally in bed by 10:30.
Chris was in the PT area all but one day of the week and he really enjoyed getting to work with the people of Trinidad, though he saw mostly patients with back pain. The PT's and OT's were able to talk with the patients while performing stretches and exercises for them. They would spend 30 or so minutes with each patient and had the opportunity to pray with most of their patients. I was with the childrens ministry on Saturday (our first day) and really enjoyed spending time with them, though we had a small group throughout the day. The rest of the week I was able to put my nursing skills to the test in triage. I spent the days meeting most of the patients and taking their blood pressures and pulses. I enjoyed this because I got to spend a few minutes getting to know most of the people who came to our clinic. On Thursday, Chris and I were in Spiritual counseling together all day. This took both of us out of our comfort zones as we had patients coming one after the next for prayers or questions they may have. This was a really neat opportunity for us as we were able to share God's word together and strengthen our ability to share God's love. We were definitely able to grow as a couple throughout the week.
Saturday we took an 1 1/2 hour bus ride to the northern part of Trinidad and spent the day at Maracus Bay. The beach was beautiful and for lunch we ate bake and shark. (basically a fried shark sandwich).
I know this is getting rather long, but I wanted to let you know a little bit about our living conditions as well. We were so completely blessed to have air conditioned rooms but we did have to take cold showers and we weren't able to brush our teeth with tap water, we had to use bottled water. They did not have a sewage system in St. Helena (where we were staying). We could only eat hot foods-- no ice, fruit etc. Most of our meals consisted of bread, rice or eggs. We ate a lot of carbs!!
We were up at 3:30 am on Sunday morning and off to the airport by 4:30. We arrrived in Atlanta after a 5 hour flight around 1:45 and went through customs and finally found everyone's baggage and loaded the bus to come back to Augusta. We can't wait to share more with you all. Thank you so much for your prayers-- God is faithful!
