Week 4 in the DR

Week Four in the DR

April 1, Monday

               We started the day off meeting with Dr. Jensen, his wife, and his son Parker. The Haws, Jensens, and we meet for an hour at their hotel and then we drove over to the Ministry of Health to meet with Dr. Arroya and Dr. Herrera. Dr. Jensen spent about two hours explaining the need to train doctors and nurses in neonatal recessatation.  At 2:00 pm, 20 missionaries came to the Bishop’s Storehouse to help clean and to do an inventory. Joy took the American Elders to help her clean and she gave me the Haitian Elders to do the inventory. Of course the Haitian spoke French, so it was fun doing an inventory.

April 2, Tuesday

               We attended a planning meeting with Dr. Jensen and the Haws at the Pan American Health office. At the meeting, were representatives from the Dominican Republic Health Ministry, UNICEF, USAID, and the Pan-American Health Organization. We had a two hour meeting and then returned to the office. It was interesting to see how the various organization came together to help reduce the infant mortality rate in the Dominican Republic. Dr. Jensen was superb in his presentation and ability to get an agreement with four governmental agencies on a plan of action.

Sisters Crismon and Haws at Pan-American Health office

April 3, Wednesday

               We went into the office and spent the day. Dr. Jensen, his wife and son come over to the office to meet a few of the people.  We were going to leave a little early to go to the store on our way home. Before we could go, Julio, our new boss,  asked us to attend a meeting at 4 pm at the Institute. We meet with the Employment Office and PEF personnel. Three of the participants used Skype to be part of the meeting. We rushed home after the meeting to help prepare dinner for the Jensens. The Jensens came at 6 pm and stayed until 9 pm.  Joy and the Haws had prepared dinner for the seven of us.

April 4, Thursday

               We went into the office at the usual time 9 am. Our old boss Bennie decided it was time we learned more of our job. He gave us a list of about 20 duties that were assigned to us. We got through about 8 of them and then we had to take a break. We went to lunch with the Ruckers and then drove over to the monument built by the church to commemorate the dedication of the preaching of the gospel in the Dominican Republic. Elder Ballard dedicated the land in 1978. Since that time, over 120,000 people have joined the church. We went home at the usual time to meet a delivery truck full of food items for the storehouse. I counted the items and signed off on the delivery. At 6 pm Joy went downstairs to do the laundry and saw that the Bishop’s Storehouse had not been opened up. So we went down and opened the storehouse and spent the next three hours filling orders and overseeing the volunteer help. The person in charge never showed up. We went to bed exhausted.

Jim and Joy at Dedication Marker

April 5, Friday

               Joy and I have been asked to coordinate the testing of the 15 satellite telephones in the Caribbean Area. The church wants all the phones tested before the hurricane season. We were also asked to prepare the emergency cargo containers for the upcoming hurricane season. We have three containers of emergency supplies.  We need to make sure they are up to date and that they have the items needed for a disaster.

Cargo Containers at the Area Office

 April 6, Saturday

               We left the house at 8:30 am and traveled to the beach at Juan Dolio with the Wegeners. We spent about two hours on the beach enjoying the beautiful water and the white sand. We went across the street and had lunch at a nice restaurant. We returned to our apartment in time for the second session of conference. We listened to the second session and then we washed our car and spent the night in our apartment.