It's a New Year -- 2015! Here's a belated photo "Christmas Letter" celebrating highlights from 2014!

Happy January!

Oh, yes it's true.  I'm late again. But this is my New Years post and Christmas letter in one. It's a photo journey of the hotter half of my 2014:

 Here we go...

 2014 seemed like two years in one!

  

I lived the first 6 months in the Dominican Republic - finishing my final (3rd) year of service with Health Horizons International (www.hhidr.org).  Then I moved to the U.S. in late June, where I now  work at Mennonite Central Committee (www.mcc.org).  I have a lot of stories to tell about MCC and the work I'm getting to do this year (2015) with MCC -- all over the world. But for this first post of 2015 I want to look back on just a few special highlight moments of 2014 

in the Dominican Republic!  

So, here is my 2014 summery -- in Photos!

(The photos above and below show me at work in the D.R., teaching and supporting the Community Health Workers in 4 communities as they cared for their patients).

 Carlito and Claudia, pictured above and below, became Community Health Workers after their young son died of leukemia. Like many of the HHI Community Health Workers they heroically decided they wanted to help other families dealing with illness. Carlito and Claudia became some of my great friends in the D.R.  

I am excited to hear they're expecting a new baby now!
- due in Feb. 2015!

Congratulations Carlito and Claudia! 

So glad to see a new joy in your lives!

 

Above and below, my friend Elisa, one of the Community Health Workers, shares info about High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, and Healthy eating and exercise, with her neighbors in Pancho Mateo. Like many of the Community Health Workers she hopes to go on to 

work full-time in Healthcare someday! Go Elisa!

(one of my other great friends, Dania, another Community Health Worker, is there in the background too, in the photo below).

Here we're decorating the little fake Christmas tree at my house in the D.R. last Christmas :) 2013.

 Celebrating Easter (and Semana Santa) 2014 with my Friend Dania's extended Family -- including our second "annual" Easter Egg hunt in a row! This year it rained, so we had to
hide the eggs up off the ground -- we hid them amid the leaves on the banana trees. :)

 

 Riding up and down the Sugar Cane Road on motorcycle to visit the communities we served.

 Boys playing baseball in the street in Pancho Mateo.

One of my favorite young patients "Luis-a" (age 7) learning to color - taught by her uncle and her HHI medical case manager Willy,in the hospital waiting room.
I love this smart and brave little friend!
She's reportedly having major surgery again this month (Feb 2015),
so please join me in sending prayers her way!

This little artist's got a really tough medical road ahead of her.
(Luckily she's a really tough cookie!)

  Above and below, participants in the Type 2 Diabetes Education and Support Group I was so honored to be able to help start in 2014 in Pancho Mateo!  As a person with type 1 Diabetes myself, seeing these neighbors and friends start getting control of their Diabetes was such a delight for me this past Spring!

I was also honored to collaborate (above) with the Dominican Ministry of Health to find funds and help initiate a new training program helping Doctors and Community Health Workers in the Puerto Plata Province learn more about proper cutting edge diagnosis and treatment for 

Diabetes and other related medical conditions!

 This is the team of Community Health Workers I worked with and supervised!  I'm so proud to know them! While many of these folks and their spouses struggle financially, striving to find enough work to put food on the table for their families and manage the costs to keep their kids in school in an area with 90% unemployment and low wages -- instead of sitting around giving up in despair they all volunteer to serve with HHI, spending hours every week providing free first aid and health education in their communities, helping seniors in their communities understand how to take their blood pressure meds, preventing the spread of disease, assisting during outbreaks of Cholera and Dengue, advocating to bring clean water to their communities, and helping people in medical emergencies get down the mountain to proper hospitals for life-saving care.  They are truly amazing and they are the kind of people I want to be every day!

 

  

Kids I love in Pancho Mateo, Montellano, Dominican Republic

 My "Secret" work Good-Bye Party in the Dominican Republic in June. (This one was after and even better than the official "office" one, of course,) thrown by my Co-workers in Pancho Mateo right before I moved back to the States. 

Thanks so much for the love, guys! I love you too!

Here's that always beautiful and dangerous road I had the opportunity to ride up and down, in sun and rain, (thankfully mostly sun,) on motorcycle to reach the communities we served
-- so full or rocks and holes, 

yet so beautiful.

 Here are some of my many friends from the Missionary Community in the D.R.!  

They're a good representation of where Missionaries and Humanitarian Workers in the D.R. 

come from:

Jody = U.S.   Perla = Dominican Republic   Sadrac = Haiti   Leeann = Canada

(Oh, and that's me in the middle)

Here's one of my favorite "Babies" -- Wilmery.

I met her, and her mom and Dad when she and her mom both came to the clinic, sick.

She and her parents welcomed me into their family, and when my parents and aunts and uncles came to visit me in the D.R. this past Spring (definitely one of the biggest highlights of 2014 for me!) Wilmery's (and also Willy's) house was definitely one of the first places I took them to visit!

Carlito and Claudia's house was another important stop of many:

 Here are my parents, Aunts and Uncles visiting at Carlito and Claudia's house in Pancho Mateo.

Thanks to my Parents and my Aunts Sue and Fern and Uncles Rich and Marlin for letting me drag them all over the North Coast of the D.R. meeting people and seeing sights!  They munched on sugar cane, got hugged by everyone, rode up the bumpy sugar cane road to visit my friend Estela, and even got an unexpected first-hand lesson in cock fighting!  

 I was a member of the leadership team at New Life (English) Church 

in Sosua, Dominican Republic, until June when I returned to the States.

 Here are my closest Co-workers at work in the D.R.

There's something about working 24/7 in rather unpredictable conditions, and often without electricity, that really bonds one to their co-workers and neighbors, that's for sure!

 I definitely love
and miss all of my friends, co-workers and neighbors in the Dominican Republic! Transitioning back to the U.S. (and all of this snow!) has been a big adventure of it's own!

So, now I'm living in PA and working at MCC (Mennonite Central Committee - MCC.org), and I have more upcoming stories to tell about that too...

but that will be for the February Post!

A belated Happy New Year to All!

May God send you Peace, Joy, and Love, in the coming year!