Dominican Republic

Chase was planning on going to the Dominican Republic with an organization his senior year to do a dental service mission there. When he started telling me about it, I told him that I would love to go and help if it would be possible. He found out that I could so we planned the trip and left in July. It was amazing! 

We started the trip out on a high note...we got upgraded to first class! Chase and I had never flown first class so we were kind of being dorks about it. When they brought us the warm towels for our hands, I was like, “What do we do with these?” By the time we got our food, we were having a pretty good time. It was nice that we had such big seats that reclined so we could sleep and start the trip off well. We didn’t get into the Dominican until about 2 am. We met another couple there and we were going to share a car to the hotel. Our flight ended up getting in about an hour and a half late so we were kind of worried that maybe they had left without us. As we walked out of the airport and saw tons of people staring at us, I was starting to feel a little panicky thinking we may have to find our own ride to the hotel. Well, our sweet friends waited for us! It was SO good to see their faces, especially since neither Chase or I speak spanish very well and our friend speaks very well. We made it to the hotel, despite some crazy driving and going through a few red stop lights. :) 

We got there a day early so we were able to do a session at the temple and explore the city (Santo Domingo) a little bit. The temple was so beautiful and it really stood out among the run down buildings and garbage that pretty much covered the city. Chase and I felt SO out of place as we walked to the temple, even though it was only five blocks from where we were staying. We were definitely the only white people. We got some weird stares and I couldn’t wait to get inside the temple! We kept walking hoping we were getting close, and then we saw a group of about five girls, who I could tell were young women who had just been to the temple. I said, “Temple?” and pointed in the direction we were walking. They all smiled and said, “Si, si.” That was very reassuring. It was so neat to do a session in Spanish (we wore headphones) and be with some of the local members there. There was a sister missionary who was from Utah who I talked to a bit to find out more about the city. I asked if the water was okay to drink in the temple and she said it was and that the church had put in a filtration system on the temple grounds. 

Over the next five days, Chase and I were extremely surprised at how hard the work was and how hot it was. The conditions we worked in were unbelievable. We set up at five different locations for the five days, in churches and schools. One of the schools we worked at had mouse feces all over the floor, so you can imagine what the conditions were like. Let me just say, the bathrooms were unbelievable and some people didn’t go all day. Being pregnant I just couldn’t do that so you can imagine how miserable that was. 

It was crazy how long the line would get even before we had started working or even set up our clinic for the day. We had portable clinic chairs and dental units that we packed in and set up each day. We also had a sanitation table where we sanitized everything after each patient. Some of the people were so grateful for the help and it totally made it worth it. There were people who had been in pain for years and to remove a tooth for them and ease their pain was amazing. Dr. Aste, the guy in charge told us one night that by changing the appearance of someone’s teeth, if they are really bad, can change who they marry, what kind of job they get, and affect a lot of what they accomplish in their lifetime. I had never thought of it this way before so it was really neat to watch Chase fix a few people’s front teeth and think about the difference you might be making for them in their lives. 

This was a student trip, meaning the dental students did all of the work, and there were three real dentists who oversaw the students’ work and stepped in when they needed to. We did all fillings, extractions, and cleanings. Chase really liked doing extractions because the chance of these people taking care of their teeth after receiving a filling was slim and those same teeth would eventually need to be extracted anyway. We did do some fillings that really changed the appearance of some teeth, so that was rewarding and neat to see. I was able to assist Chase for most of the time, clean and sanitize the station after each patient, get tools and supplies for Chase from the massive supply tables, and I also got to clean some teeth while we were there! I can’t put into words how bad most of the peoples teeth were. They would open their mouths and they would just be black. We could have spent all day on most people, but we were only allowed to do one procedure on each patient just because there were so many people and we wanted to get to as many people as possible. It was hard sending them away knowing that they needed so much more. 

We had two body guards with us the whole time and we were not allowed to go to the bathroom alone. It made us feel so much safer having them there! We met some really neat people on the trip, some from Omaha, and some from other schools. We had fun hanging out at night at the hotel playing games, eating, and talking. We were so exhausted each night that that was really all we felt like doing. Oh the food! It was so gross! haha We had rice and beans and some weird fried meat for almost every single meal while we were there. It really wasn’t gross, it just got really old after about the third day. Neither of us got sick though, so we should be grateful for that. We did have lunch at a ladies house one day that was actually really good and she was the sweetest lady. The places we stayed at were nice and clean so that was awesome to be able to come home at night and rest in a clean place.

We left Nixon with our families in Idaho and we are so grateful they were able to keep him! We skyped once but he didn’t act like he really noticed us being gone. I am hoping it was just because he was having such an awesome time :) We were gone for about nine days so that was a REALLY long time to be away from him, but I think it was good for all of us. When we got back to him, he just stared at me, like it took him a little bit to figure out what was going on. Then he just said, “Mom!” and we hugged and kissed! We are so grateful we got to experience this together as a couple. It is definitely something we want to do again in the future!