Dominican Republic

Tyler and i just got home from a wonderful humanitarian trip......that will change and shape our lives for many years to come, and then some let's hope. We took this trip with a group of Dentists, their team members and families that are a part or in someway affiliated with Smiles for Life. (This is the charity that we run at the Crown Council - where I work). We served in 5 different communities during our time in the DR and were able to do dental work for over 550 people. It was amazing to go into these communities, visit with the people, hear about their lives and play with their children. They were kind and humble and we felt honored to be in their presence. Sorry for the length of this post, but it was SO hard for me to narrow it down. I took a total of about 515 pictures, so I really had to cut out a lot.

Here we have the first hotel we stayed at for 2 nights. Hotel Europa in Santo Domingo. It was darling and lived up to it's name with it's European charm.

Trying on our wardrobe for the next week. We were pretty anxious at this point to get working.

Sunday we had the opportunity to go to church and then walk around the temple grounds. It was beautiful and reminded me of the Houston temple. Which I'm very nostalgic about as you can imagine.

This is the new cover for the Santo Domingo Temple Brochure.

Standing in the ocean - something we wouldn't be able to do again for many days.

The best meal we ate

The second hotel we stayed at for 4 nights - The Howard Johnson in San Pedro. What a beaut eh!?

The rooms

Bathroom - this makes it look a bit nicer than it really was. The shower head fell on my head as dirty sewer water ran down the shower. It was lovely.

Hotel art. We tried to purchase this but it wasn't for sell. It would look so good in our home!

These little guys were everywhere. They kept me company at night when I sat in the business center doing work.

The days at the clinic begin. We had to load the bus every morning with all the equipment, take it all down at the end of the day, reload the bus and then take all the stuff into the storage room at the hotel when we got back. It was quite a bit of work as you can imagine, but thankfully there were about 25 of us so it went fast.

Set-up

The crowd waiting to come in

And so it begins.......

She was not happy. She had 3 extractions and was extremely scared. Poor thing.

Lunch - rice and chicken. We ate this for about 75% of our meals.

The sterilization corner

And the days continue.......

Dental students from Santo Domingo that came and helped out.

These girls were from Haiti. We met many people from there. They come and work in the sugarcane fields, 15 hour days at $1 a day.

The handsome group after a 10 hour day of work. Isn't this pink church pretty? I love pink.

Breakfast at the Howard Johnson. Tyler and I had to have eaten 15 pineapples between the two of us while we were there. They served them at every meal and I couldn't get enough of it.

Morning huddle. We'd yell:
"uno, dos, tres, equipo!" (One, two, three, team!) Sounds way lame in english.

This women came in and was just devasated with how "ugly" her front tooth was. She spoke with me about it for quite awhile before I sent her through to the dentist.

They did a great job fixing it and she was elated!

Tyler had some fun with his nametag. This day he was Wannabe Richard. (One of the Dentist's name was Richard and he and Tyler had a total Bromance going on!) Here Tyler is with his son Sage.

This day he was LDS Certified. I guess you can say we took some heat for being "Mormon" but Tyler showed them here how proud he is to be one.

They loved having their picture taken! This was a "mosh pit" moment if you will. I totally got taken out by these kids after this picture was taken.

Tyler's boyfriend. They hit it right off because this dude is into 50 Cent - the rapper. Did I even type that right? I have no idea.

Lunch please. This was the first day we had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. I thought I was in heaven!

Our transportation for the week.

Sugarcane. Yum.

Bromance

Coolest kids ever

My favorite picture from the trip. The hygienist had to at times clean teeth on the waiting chairs, because the kids were too nervous or small to sit in the seats.

Awards night. Tyler and I got Mr. and Mrs. Dominican Republic. (That's a joke of course.)

Singing "As I have loved you" Did I mention we are Mormons. Last day
My friends that kept me company all day

The Powers + The Youngs = Dream Team

Bromance again

And to the resort for 2 nights. They had ice cream. Bubble Gum and Raisin flavored. Yum.

It was pretty to say the least

Back home to America, filling out custom forms

It was nothing short of amazing. I truly hope this is a yearly occurence. I'd go back today if I could. Who's with me next year?!