Monday we went to the site of the spring as part of the water celebration. The weather was beautiful. We all enjoyed hearing from the mayor of Dera, Rochelle and Chantal. It was a happy day. Truly inspirational. The people of Dera now have consistent clean water for themselves and their animals, making life more abundant.
This is Lydette and her younger sister. They are orphans and participate in the Thrive Together program for Hope Arising. We built them a kitchen, which consisted of a roof and stick walls. Lydette will now be able to cook under a roof, rather than being exposed to the elements.
Here are Bob and Ben in one of the five gardens that they built for some of the villagers. The plan was to do three, but when the neighbors saw what they were doing, they cleared a spot and asked if they could help them build one too. They installed a drip line system in these gardens, allowing them to grow food year round.
The dental clinic was a huge success this year. This is Dr. Jenkins with four of the dental students and the health care professional in Dera. We had two dentists, an orthodontist, a hygienist, an amazing assistant and at least six or seven others who were so valuable to the team. We worked hard for three days, saw 375 patients and extracted over 1,000 teeth. We look forward to continued improvements to the dental clinic and seeing it someday become self sustaining. This was just an amazing trip. We can't wait to go back!
