Operation Sound Asleep II

It’s a homecoming, pulling onto the dusty road to Batey Aleman. The sugar cane stalks are tall, trash is piled on the roadside, and as we enter the village, children gather and shout with happiness. The village is strikingly cleaner than previous visits, with freshly painted buildings and a few new businesses. It is so good to be here again. The bus pulls into town and we check the new baseball field that the Pujols Family Foundation is building, as part of the new baseball league project. One hundred and sixty boys are enrolled, equipment is arriving, and practice is underway. As a joint project with Compassion International, this baseball league offers boys an opportunity to develop baseball skills as well as character. In this society, fathers often are not in the home, or work very long hours to try to support their families. Boys often lack a strong role model. The new league combines the national passion for baseball with the educational support structure that Compassion provides. This is now my fourth trip, and I remain deeply impressed by the quality of people that work with Compassion, both in the village as well as in national leadership. 

 
The baseball diamond stands on an grassy field, a gleaming new backstop on a solid concrete base, a marvel of engineering in a village of scrap metal lean-to huts. The children crowd around, and I see some familiar faces, some mothers smiling broadly as they recognize us. As my husband, Dr. Rob Hanson, and I set up our medical clinic nearby, the rest of the Pujols Family Foundation team kicks into action on the bed delivery project. Deidre Pujols' creation, Operation Sound Asleep places sturdy, handcrafted Dominican beds into village homes. In this country, 3-4 adults and children might share a filthy, stained mattress propped up on concrete blocks. Some sleep on cardboard. On an earlier trip, Deidre and Albert decided to address the need by providing safe, comfortable beds. The gift is tied to basic health and hygiene classes that Deidre gives to a standing-room only crowd of women. Beds are carried down the roads to the huts, as the delighted new owners direct the movers. 

As I meet each of my patients and their mothers, it is a joy to see familiar faces from the year before. Most babies are growing well, but almost all have intestinal parasites. The drinking water comes from rivers shared with livestock. There is no plumbing in these villages. Not surprisingly, many have stomachaches. This trip, Dr. Rob and I are bringing a somewhat expensive antiparasitic medicine, a donation from St. John’s Children's Hospital. This enables us to treat every child that we encounter. We see the children in the Compassion project first, and then any other children in the village who need help. This time, I see more families that are recently from Haiti. My translator speaks Creole, so I am able to communicate with them. One couple brings in their twin baby girls with malnutrition. I treat the girls for parasites, and speak with the mom about how to feed them. The father has such concern in his eyes as we discuss the babies. I notice that the girls’ mom is very thin, and so is the father, even by the standards of a poverty-ridden village. I ask if they would let me have the privilege of praying for them, and the dad nods Yes. As I begin to pray for the girls and the family, he begins to weep, first silently, then with gasps and sobs. I know that the men of this island rarely weep openly. I don’t know the depths of what this family has suffered, but I have a glimpse of their story in that moment. I have a backpack full of snack crackers and protein bars, and before they leave me, I empty the contents into their bag. Now the woman is crying, too.

Our pediatric clinic bustles on. We see many children with routine colds and ear infections, many with a skin parasite called scabies, and a few quite ill children with wheezing and pneumonias. I am grateful to be able to treat them, and I give them careful instructions. We coordinate the care for the sicker children with the local Compassion leaders, so if the children are not recovering quickly, they can be referred to a hospital. Later in the afternoon, I meet some of the boys that have joined the new Batey baseball leagues. Their grins light the room, and they stumble over each other’s words to tell me about their uniforms and how excited they are. I check them over, and I offer to pray with them. I pray for the oldest first, asking God to bless him with great baseball skills, but also to grow this boy in knowledge as well as stature. I pray that he would grow up to be a good man, who leads others. And then I prayed for God to give him an excellent strong throwing arm. When we finish the prayer, the other boys’ eyes are huge, and they all start clamoring. “Pray for me, Doctora!” “Me, too!” What a privilege!

Later in the trip, we go to Batey Experimental, a nearby village that is new for our team. Deidre has dropped by earlier, and scouted out a nearby field. She and Pastor Bernard Okeke and some of the Compassion team go and play a pick-up game of soccer with the local youth. Dr. Rob and I set up clinic, and treat a boy with burns, and later, we perform an incision and drainage of an abscess on a boy’s chest. Interestingly, as the villagers see our team playing on the field, one man pulls out a push mower and begins to trim the field. Another woman and her friend begin to pick up trash from the field. Later, Deidre tells me that as we come along beside to help the people and their environment, they begin to take more effort for themselves, as well. I think this is true, as I reflect on the obvious improvement in Batey Aleman. These villagers have heard many promises of reform and improvement over the years, but have watched years go by with little change. Imagine their surprise and then joy as Albert and Deidre show up in person to deliver the beds. I think it must capture some essence of heaven - gifts that are beyond what we can ask or think, hand delivered, with genuine love. Over-the-top, pouring out, outrageous compassion for people the world seems to have forgotten. Where will God take us all next in this project? I am not sure, although I have dreams of clean water, and vaccinated, healthy children, and an awesome baseball league…