It was the last day of the final trip of the summer in Dominican Republic. I woke up with great expectations of finishing this trip with excellence and enjoying the community party to the max. However, the sky did not look promising, and I was trying hard not to stress about the what if’s: What […]
...continue readingArchive for August, 2008
This trip with our Hero Holiday nursing and medical students has been non-stop learning, understanding, and memories. Each day I joke with the teams that it is just another day at the office as we march through mud, walk on trails through the jungle to get to the garbage dump, we hand out food to […]
...continue readingChoose Your Own Adventure!
Published by August 22nd, 2008 in Dominican Republic and Staff Blogs. 0 CommentsLife on a Hero Holiday is always unpredictable: there is never a shortage of crazy experiences and mishaps that you can’t wait to re-tell to all your friends. This trip is no different!
We are back in Dominican Republic with about 40 medical and nursing students, one doctor, two dentists and a whole lot of enthusiasm! […]
My name is Nicole Dufault, and I am the Hero Holiday nurse. I have had the privilege of being a part of Hero Holiday in Dominican Republic since we first started coming here in 2005. This is my third year running clinics during Hero Holiday, and this time is definitely a this time is a […]
...continue readingFemale, 17, BC
I met a girl named Maria and we played a clapping game today. I enjoyed communicating with her through games, gestures and just being together.
Female, 17, AB
It really moved me to see all the kids, waving at us and being so happy. They have so little, ad yet they […]
Two days down and we are off to a great start. - Mexico
Published by August 20th, 2008 in Mexico. 3 CommentsI missed putting a post up yesterday, mostly because it was a crazy, busy, great day. We spent some time going over cultural and cross cultural info. Then the Awareness Tour.
Our first stop was the graveyard, it is a startling picture, right there in front of us, the reality of child […]
The whole group arrived, in installments thanks to a temporarily broken down white bus, to a delicious welcome dinner of tamales. Then there was more orientation, I am sure that these guys have had information up to their ears, so it is pretty handy that tomorrow is Awareness Tour day… which means more information. […]
...continue readingThe group, all 45 of them, are on the bus and in the vehicles, as of dinner time tonight they were in southern Oregon. The traveling is going well, I am sure by the time they hit San Diego tomorrow they will all be happy to get out of the bus, stretch and shower. […]
...continue readingHero Holiday Mexico Trip 1 is over, and as a summer intern I have the pleasure and privilege of taking part in the next trip that arrives this Monday. When I was asked to write a blog for the Hero Holiday website, I contemplated what I would write about. There are many instances…highlights/lowlights…funny stories and […]
...continue readingWhen we all woke up yesterday morning, we all thought we were in for a little bit of a long, but exciting day. However, no one ever dreamed the day would end up having 40 hours in it!
We are currently back in Dominican Republic with a new first for Hero Holiday: 39 nursing and pre-med students, one doctor, two dentists, and our staff…and after 40 hours of being awake we are still going strong!
We started our orientation last night in Buffalo, after some people driving as far away as 8 hours from the border to join us. In the middle of our evening pre-trip orientation in our hotel, Nettie, our Hero Holiday administrator, received a call saying that our airline had canceled our flight due to weather in Buffalo. In fact, the whole airport was shut down. Now we were faced with a dilemma: we had tickets from JFK to Dominican, but no tickets to JFK…a quick negotiation with a bus shuttle company and two trips later, we found ourselves now sprawled out at 4:00 AM in the Rochester, NY airport, awaiting our new flight to JFK, and on still no sleep…
When we finally got to Puerto Plata, we shuttled to the hotel, dropped off our bags to get ready to go out on our awareness tour to see everything that we are about to be involved in, and out of nowhere: torrential downpours. (Did I mention we were out on open backed trucks?) But then, the crowning achievement of the 40 hours was the clutch going on the one truck in the middle of the road in the middle of the rainstorm, and the other truck getting stuck in the mud trying to get back to them…
So, you may ask, was it worth it? And the answer, of course, is “Always!”. The group that is here is going to be doing medical clinics and working on a building project. Most of all, they are going to be experiencing what it is to make a difference. If today is any indication of what they are going to be like, I am already in love with them! They have not complained once when they were wet, tired, or hungry…they just kept telling us how excited they are to be here!
And so, to all ourHero Holiday peeps that are with us for the next ten days in Dominican, we want to say that we are excited that you are here too, and that there is no one we would rather have join us for no sleep, unforeseen travel hiccups, broken clutches, torrential downpours, and the anticipation of what tomorrow can hold!
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