Opening Season with Seacoast

Our first official group of the season came to us from Seacoast Church West Campus in Charleston, South Carolina. We hosted a small dental and construction group from their church last September and we were so excited to have them back only 5 months later!

Stacey, Pat, Ron, Libby and Geri

Pastor Ron Hamilton returned with his wife Libby and nurse/dental assistant Stacey, along with 2 nurses Geri and Pat. With their help we were able to see 90 dental patients in 3 different villages. They provided 101 extractions, 82 fillings, and 23 cleanings to the people of our area. Pastor Ron was the first dentist to provide fillings last year and he definitely raised the standard of care by leaving us the necessary equipment to provide restorative care to the patients who come to our dental clinics!

Pastor Ron providing restorative work. Hard at work in our Rio Viejo dental room!

The nurses Pat and Geri helped serve patients in our clinic and helped Michael and Rani with a huge inventory project...counting all the donated medicines from last year, and bringing our hospital inventory up to date!

Geri, Pat, Libby, Rani and Michael counting meds!

Pat checking blood glucose in the clinic!

We also had the privilege of partnering with another local ministry, Give Hope 2 Kids. We split the Seacoast team between our two ministries for an incredible experience and then got the 2 parts of the team together a couple of times during the week. We were able to come together to do hygiene education in some of the village schools.

What a great way to open the 2010 season, and we can't wait to host another group from Seacoast Church next year! Thank you Pastor Ron and Mrs. Libby for bringing such a wonderful group to serve with us.

The entire Seacoast Group!

Maybe we will start a tradition of opening every season with Seacoast!

Extreme Make-Over: Jungle Edition

Bus driver...MOVE THAT BUS!!!

Here we go, gang...are you ready to see what we've been up to?

Fresh paint on the exterior.

The second floor veranda.

Our new living room in the dorm.

No escape from the jungle with plants inside!

Our favorite guest room!

1st floor dining room

El cuarto de damas...the girls bunk room.

El cuarto de caballeros...the guys bunk room!

Can you be in love with a building...well...maybe not, but we definitely have a lot of love for this building! We can't wait to see all of the faces that will pass through the doors this year, and we hope they won't want to leave!

Painting Time...Rain or Shine

It feels as though we have been putting the finishing touches on our dormitory since we opened its doors in February of 2009. We have hung cabinets and curtain rods, installed sinks and faucets, painted the interior of the first floor and the second floor, picked out fabrics and plants. Even after all of these improvements, we were still lacking one very important thing...the outside of the building was the sad, gray color of raw stucco, and the mildew was threatening to cover the entire building from the bottom up.

Then, to our extreme delight, we had a group of guys come to our rescue. Pastor Jerry Taylor, Mr. Frank, Mr. Bob and Jeff from Bay Community Church sacrificed 4 days to come paint our buildings!

Armed with a paint sprayer and 4 suitcases chock full of brushes, rollers and masking tape...our heroes landed in Rio Viejo to find almost 100 gallons of paint & primer waiting for them!

We all joined in the effort to paint the 3 unfinished buildings on the HHGlobal campus: the dorm, the Williams' House and the Caseta (snack shack). The next 4 days were consumed with tape and scaffolding, spraying, rolling and brushing, all against the clock...and against the weather!

We tested the team's ability to multi-task as they completed our list of "Honey-Do's" in-between rain showers. So despite the in-climate weather we were able to go the second mile!

Our Beautiful Dorm!

The Caseta

The Williams' House with Primer

Thank you so much Pastor Jerry and Bay Community Church for getting the job done...rain or shine!