Life Update!
I don't think I've talked much about Tyler (my little brother) this summer around here, so here's some background. He starts med school this fall. Another school was offering a chance for med students to go on a medical mission trip to the Dominican Republic, and he signed up for that. Well, he just came back tonight! I'm so excited to have him home again. He's been there for weeks.
Anyway, Meredith (his girlfriend) and I went to the airport to pick him up...but we got there way too early, so we had a lot of time to kill and were really bored. And then we discovered this really cheesy vending machine that sold bouquets of flowers. Well, it was almost midnight and we were drinking tons of coffee, and we decided that it would be hilarious to buy flowers for Tyler. So we did. And then waited by a window next to the departure area for him to finally get there, and then we waved our arms around and Meredith pulled out the bouquet and we were pointing at it all dramatic like. The best part was Tyler mouthing 'what the fuck' at us. Fun times. I missed teasing him.
He didn't tell us much tonight because he went to bed as soon as we got home, but it sounds like an amazing experience. He did everything from cleaning the clinic to injections to pap smears and prostate exams. Sanitation is a big problem down there because there isn't much access to clean water. Tyler said about 90% of the people they treated at the clinic had some kind of parasite from drinking contaminated water. And the doctors didn't have a filtration system and only brought enough water for drinking, so they had to clean the clinic and surgery area every day with rain water.
On a happier note, baseball is a big deal in the Dominican Republic, so Tyler brought a lot of baseball cards to give to the local kids, and they just loved it. Someone brought them a huge thing of bubbles too. They had never played with bubbles before, and spent almost the whole day blowing bubbles and running around popping them. He said he recorded them playing with the bubbles with his camera, so I'll have to see that tomorrow.
I might post some of his pictures around here later, if anyone's interested.
Anyway, Meredith (his girlfriend) and I went to the airport to pick him up...but we got there way too early, so we had a lot of time to kill and were really bored. And then we discovered this really cheesy vending machine that sold bouquets of flowers. Well, it was almost midnight and we were drinking tons of coffee, and we decided that it would be hilarious to buy flowers for Tyler. So we did. And then waited by a window next to the departure area for him to finally get there, and then we waved our arms around and Meredith pulled out the bouquet and we were pointing at it all dramatic like. The best part was Tyler mouthing 'what the fuck' at us. Fun times. I missed teasing him.
He didn't tell us much tonight because he went to bed as soon as we got home, but it sounds like an amazing experience. He did everything from cleaning the clinic to injections to pap smears and prostate exams. Sanitation is a big problem down there because there isn't much access to clean water. Tyler said about 90% of the people they treated at the clinic had some kind of parasite from drinking contaminated water. And the doctors didn't have a filtration system and only brought enough water for drinking, so they had to clean the clinic and surgery area every day with rain water.
On a happier note, baseball is a big deal in the Dominican Republic, so Tyler brought a lot of baseball cards to give to the local kids, and they just loved it. Someone brought them a huge thing of bubbles too. They had never played with bubbles before, and spent almost the whole day blowing bubbles and running around popping them. He said he recorded them playing with the bubbles with his camera, so I'll have to see that tomorrow.
I might post some of his pictures around here later, if anyone's interested.