Good things in the DR

Most of my days on NRT trips are spent at the computer entering data and test scores. Unfortunately on this trip the spreadsheet did not have the correct conditional formatting. Not familiar with 2007 I did finally get it figured out and fixed. I also do the certificates, they are pretty nice if I may so so. However they cause major headaches with getting the names correct.

Checking out the new water project.

We stopped to watch these guys planting rice fields.

Getting a field ready to plant rice. (what do you think all you Farm Town people?)

A shot of the class and Jeff and Dr. Sheffield doing a demo.

Men outside playing dominoes. You would never see that in Idaho. Never!

Think they can fit any one else on this truck? Where are the seat belts?

The group above is the team and support for the NRT courses we are teaching this week.

On our way to visit our friends the Hansen's at the Church camp we stopped along the road at a pottery place. This is the kiln. I love pots and we had a great time seeing how they make them. Wish I could bring some home.

On the way back to Santiago we stopped at a fun open air place and had a great dinner.

We are watching all the news about Farrah and Michael Jackson. It is big news down here too.

Do not get in elevators during storms!!!

We have had the usual thunderstorm this evening. The power went out for a short time. When it came back on we headed down to get dinner with the team. We went to the elevator. I said,"I sure hope the power does not go out while we are in this elevator". Well it did. We were stuck. The power kept flickering. It was very hot (small elevator). The elevator kept slowly traveling up and down the shaft. Very slowly. We could not push any buttons and get any result. When we went up above the roof it was lightening like crazy. Then slowly back down. We started pushing the alarm. For long times. Finally someone yelled down to us. "Do not worry, you will not fall". We will get you out. Our team members could not find us. We finally pried the doors open down in the basement and climbed up the stairs.

Generally I do not get claustrophobic. I did tonight. I did not like it at all. Not one bit. Lightening, no power, foreign country. Nope, I had to take the stairs after dinner.
Don't believe them. Nobody got to us. We could hear them banging around and yelling a lot but they did not get us out. My hero Jeff pried the doors open.
Oh by the way, we finished our first training today. It went well. Tomorrow we are visiting the camp with the cool spiders.

Trip so far

On our way to the Dominican Republic we had to spend the night in New York City. It was pouring rain. JFK requires you to go outside the terminal to get any where. We had to walk thru ankle deep water to get to our shuttle. Everyone had wet clothes in their suitcases. We did make it to a play, Mary Poppins. It was pretty good. The next morning it was still pouring rain. Everyone figured we would soon be in the Dominican Republic and it would be warm and sunny. Not to be. It has been raining like crazy and so much lightening and thunder. When we arrived at the hospital there was a lot of water on the floors from all of the rain. As in a couple of inches in some spots.

Dinner at our Hotel. This is our NRT team. The Dominican docs were not here yet.

The Hospital is a little rough around the edges. This is a waiting area. There is another group of U.S.Doctors here in our Hotel. They are working in the same Hospital. They are cardiac surgeons doing open heart surgeries. They come regularily, bringing all the supplies and equipment with them.

Diane below is one of our billers at the RMC. She was headed to Newark to see her Dad. Diane is TERRIFIED to fly. She was pretty calm however. Our planes were to leave within minutes of each other. We however had to spend an hour waiting at the end of the runway waiting because they did not want us to get to NYC early. Heaven forbid! When we did finally get there we had to spend another half hour waiting on that runway. So our flight that started out arriving early was late. Crazy isn't it?