Thanksgiving 2013 (and Happy Birthday Mr. Bracker!)

Thursday was an unbelievably busy day! It started with a rousing chorus of Happy Birthday at which point the woman who runs the kitchen at Casa Pastoral (where we stay) dumped a cup of water on his head. Apparently, that is the tradition here.

The med team returned to Batey Guaymate, a huge village where we visited on Thanksgiving 2012. They treated 180 patients -- the largest clinic we have ever done. One patient needed to be taken to the Good Samaritan Hospital, an elderly diabetic lady who had an enormous wound on her lower leg — the front and side of her shin was an open, oozing wound that had been left untreated for a long, long time.

The construction team cranked out cement at a staggering rate today. At the end of our workday we got a "Muy buen trabajo!" from the foreman, a sometimes-grumpy/sometime-smiling Dominican man named Marcos with whom we have worked for 4 years now. By the end of Thursday the entire house was painted and the entire cement floor had been poured and leveled. We were also able to give shoes and baseball hats (donated by Mr. Holdt) to all the kids on Batey 50.

After our work day, we made our annual visit to the local orphanage. Many of our repeat team members have special friends who live there and wonderful reunions were had. There was also a spirited dance challenge with the teenage girls from the orphanage in one line, our team in another line facing them and they "battled" while laughing their heads off for more than an hour.

After the orphanage, everyone cleaned up and we went to a local resort for a luxurious Thanksgiving feast. We got to enjoy time relaxing and visiting with each other and with our hosts.