Friday is here at last. Woohoo! Today I spent the morning working hard on the Dental Unit and also called my Mommy and Daddy to say hello and see what they were dressing up as for Halloween! :) You guys are probably dancing the night away right now as I type. Wish I could be at the lake!
This afternoon, I attempted to play left, right, center but got taken over by 3,4,5 year olds that were trying to play. We'd ask them which hand was their right hand and they'd raise their left. However, I tried to let them play and just tell them where to pass their pieces but then they started taking them from the center and just didn't get the concept. It moved too slow for them so we quit playing! Instead, I tickled Jennifer on the table for a little while and then went over and hung out with some more kids until it was time to get back to work.
I took my camera down and got some pretty decent pictures of the kids which I've posted. Paola was one of the girls that didn't want her picture taken but then decided she wanted to do a photo shoot. It was fun.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/OrphanageKids02?feat=directlink
I went back to work for about 2 more hours finishing up the Dental Unit and the Vaccine Unit that I still had to finish from last week.
Paola wanted to play left, right, center earlier so after working I attempted once again to play with her and Christine but got bombarded with children so we quit playing. As we were finishing up, David jumped on my back and Luis Alberto was standing on the table getting ready to jump to me. I didn't want to catch him so I stepped backwards, but as I stepped back he continued to jump and he jumped hard! He face planted the ground, cutting open his knee. I felt so bad because I thought he would be able to catch himself and land on his feet but he did not! It was a like a belly flop onto the ground! OUCH!
So needless to say, after that I held him until it was time for dinner. He finally came around after putting a band-aid on it but he kept saying OW! OW! for a while! Poor little baby!
Tonight was Mexican night for dinner! We had chicken quesadillas (Dominican style), rice, beans, and avocados! It was awesome!
After dinner I went and played with the kids. We had fun. At first we played 1,2,3, mariposita (little butterfly). One person stood with their back to everyone else and counted 1,2,3, mariposita and everyone ran towards them but when they turn around you have to stop moving or go back to the start. We played this for a bit but then went to the basketball court for an even better game.
One person was it, and everyone else came up with an action to do as a group. Then the group headed down the court, within arms distance from the person and they asked some questions I didn't understand and then said, "and how do you do it" and the group acted out the action. The person had to guess what we were doing and if they said it you had to run to the other end of the court without getting tagged. It was a lot of fun but a little dangerous. I ran into one of the older girls smacking her in the chest and her stepping on my ankle!
After this I got summoned by Jessica again to sit down and tickle her. She is funny because she always calls Jenny over to sit with us, even though I only tickle her. We hung out for a little bit before I headed to a basketball game in town.
There is a league in Monte Cristi of adults/high schoolers that are playing a basketball tournament and we went tonight to watch. I got to drive us without Coco for the first time! It cost 25 pesos (less than a dollar) to enter and was pretty fun to watch. We of course were the opening spectale before the game because we were obviously the only Americans there. You'd think they'd be used to us by now but I guess we don't get out much! :)
During the game, Jazmin came who is a previous orphanage girl that I am friends with. She now lives in Monte Cristi and works here but I hadn't seen her since I've been back. I was very excited to see her and spent about 20 minutes just sitting and talking with her. She lived at the orphanage from 5 months-18 years old and I met her my first time down in 2006. Her twin sister is Yanina, who still lives her because of her handicap.
Tomorrow is cleaning day and we are going to Jaibon, the other orphanage, in the afternoon to play with the boys there. We also are stopping for lunch on the way at a place that apparently has really good goat, so guess I'll be eating that tomorrow! Good night and Happy Halloween (almost)!
Friday, October 30, 2009
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Early Morning Rise = Lazy Day!
We got up and left at 6am this morning to take sunrise pictures by the salt flats. The salt flats are on the way to the beach and are square areas where salt water is pumped in, the water evaporates and they harvest the salt to use here in Monte Cristi and some goes to Morton Salt to be refined and sold. I got some decent pictures but unfortunately my camera battery ran out before the sun rose. Oh well! I'll post my pictures, they are all scenery pictures which I'm usually not a huge fan of but some of them turned out okay.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/EarlyMorningPics?feat=directlink
We came back, had breakfast, and then I read some about vaccinations given here in the DR. I flipped through the book we were given in Mao yesterday to learn about the vaccine schedule here. I then took a nap and just rested the rest of the morning. I was still exhausted from traveling all day yesterday and getting up so early this morning.
After lunch, I made myself be productive. I went and hung out with Luz Maria and Yanina for a little bit after lunch until it was time to work.
I worked on taking pictures of all of the dental tools, again, because I rearranged them and sorted them all out. This took about 1.5 hours to take pictures of everything we have! Now I have to go through and look at the lists Nancy has sent me and the ones I'm going to receive from another lady and see if I can figure out what everything is. If not, then I'll be sending the new pictures back out Nancy! :) Bet you can't wait!
After that I worked some on the vaccine unit to type up what I read about this morning.
I promised Luz Maria earlier in the day that I would play chase with her so I went and found her after working for about 3 hours and played chase. We ended up with about 5-6 little girls wanting to be chased. At one point, I was reaching to tag a little one and tripped and fell down, falling onto her legs with my arms. She started crying and I picked her up to make sure she was okay. My hands were pressing hard on her legs as I was falling! One of the other girls tried to make her stand up and she wouldn't put weight on her right leg, the one I kind of landed on, so I was afraid I had really hurt her. At that time, Luz Maria told her to start laughing, and she went from apparently fake crying to laughing. I was so happy because I really thought I could have hurt her badly!
We continued playing chase until it was time for them to eat. They scarfed down their food so they could come back and play and we continued for about 5 minutes. I got too tired and then had to go to dinner, thank goodness! However, before I left, Nena who is about 7 years old, and reminds me of Sydney :), was saying that she wasn't going to play with me because my pants were "Haitian". By this she meant that my pants were dark like Haitians because my pants were black. This gives you an idea of the negative mindset instilled even at a young age, and the irony of it all is that she, her 3 sisters and her brother are all at least 1/2 Haitian if not full blooded Haitians. They are all darker than most of the kids here, so for her to be saying it was very ironic but also so sad. I told her that I liked Haitian people and she called me a liar. Not sure if this will ever change in this country, but maybe one day they'll learn to just respect a person as a person, and forget about the color of their skin or where they are from!
After dinner I went back over and hung out with Jessica and Jenny again. She wanted me to tickle her again like last night so we played that for a while. Not too exciting of a day but a fun one with the kids, and a mildly productive one this afternoon.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/EarlyMorningPics?feat=directlink
We came back, had breakfast, and then I read some about vaccinations given here in the DR. I flipped through the book we were given in Mao yesterday to learn about the vaccine schedule here. I then took a nap and just rested the rest of the morning. I was still exhausted from traveling all day yesterday and getting up so early this morning.
After lunch, I made myself be productive. I went and hung out with Luz Maria and Yanina for a little bit after lunch until it was time to work.
I worked on taking pictures of all of the dental tools, again, because I rearranged them and sorted them all out. This took about 1.5 hours to take pictures of everything we have! Now I have to go through and look at the lists Nancy has sent me and the ones I'm going to receive from another lady and see if I can figure out what everything is. If not, then I'll be sending the new pictures back out Nancy! :) Bet you can't wait!
After that I worked some on the vaccine unit to type up what I read about this morning.
I promised Luz Maria earlier in the day that I would play chase with her so I went and found her after working for about 3 hours and played chase. We ended up with about 5-6 little girls wanting to be chased. At one point, I was reaching to tag a little one and tripped and fell down, falling onto her legs with my arms. She started crying and I picked her up to make sure she was okay. My hands were pressing hard on her legs as I was falling! One of the other girls tried to make her stand up and she wouldn't put weight on her right leg, the one I kind of landed on, so I was afraid I had really hurt her. At that time, Luz Maria told her to start laughing, and she went from apparently fake crying to laughing. I was so happy because I really thought I could have hurt her badly!
We continued playing chase until it was time for them to eat. They scarfed down their food so they could come back and play and we continued for about 5 minutes. I got too tired and then had to go to dinner, thank goodness! However, before I left, Nena who is about 7 years old, and reminds me of Sydney :), was saying that she wasn't going to play with me because my pants were "Haitian". By this she meant that my pants were dark like Haitians because my pants were black. This gives you an idea of the negative mindset instilled even at a young age, and the irony of it all is that she, her 3 sisters and her brother are all at least 1/2 Haitian if not full blooded Haitians. They are all darker than most of the kids here, so for her to be saying it was very ironic but also so sad. I told her that I liked Haitian people and she called me a liar. Not sure if this will ever change in this country, but maybe one day they'll learn to just respect a person as a person, and forget about the color of their skin or where they are from!
After dinner I went back over and hung out with Jessica and Jenny again. She wanted me to tickle her again like last night so we played that for a while. Not too exciting of a day but a fun one with the kids, and a mildly productive one this afternoon.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Blast from the Past!
Today was a great day. I have a funny but embarrassing story to start with. I got up early to run before leaving for road trip #2. I made it to the last street and had to use the bathroom. Emma can associate with this :) So anyway, I start walking the rest of the way looking for people outside their homes to see if I can use the bathroom. There isn't anyone most of the way so I just keep walking and finally come upon a man in his front yard picking beans or something off his tree. I ask if I can use his bathroom and he goes thru the back of his house and comes out front to undo about 2-3 locks! Super secure home. As he lets me in the gate, he says "para hacer peepee", in other words, are you going pee? Well, anyone that runs knows the answer to this! ;) So I lied and said yes because I felt awkward. He then said because the other one is not finished, so basically saying the bathroom I was going to was only to pee in. Well, I continued to his backyard where he showed me his outhouse. It was a very nice, new outhouse, made out of cedar and had a wooden bench basically inside with a hole cut in it. Well, feeling guilty that he asked if I was going pee, I just went inside, hung out a minute or less and then left, not using the bathroom! Not to mention, there was no toilet paper!
Luckily, the orphanage was not far! But I'm glad I stopped because he had an awesome backyard. His backyard backs up to the baseball field and you could totally set up chairs and watch a game from there. It was sweet. Wish I could have taken a picture but I didn't have my camera on the run/walk. The baseball field is just for local teams/leagues, not a minor league or anything big but it was a cool view!
So anyway, I got back to the orphanage after a little adventure, showered and got ready to head to Mao with Coco. We left around 7:30 and returned at 4:45 this afternoon!
It was a successful day though. We got to Mao, asked to meet with the director and the secretary said he was gone on vacation and didn't know when he'd return. She said he tried calling Coco yesterday and she was there when he tried to call but Coco didn't miss any calls and always has her phone on her. So basically she was making up things. Coco asked to speak with an administrator since we had traveled 1.5 hours to meet with someone! We sat down with the administrator, explained that we wanted to do some clinic outreach in their area and he said, wait, I'll call the director. About 10 seconds later, the director walks in and says, come to my office so we can talk. Not sure what the secretary was talking about, but let's just say she wasn't very helpful!
We sat down with the director of public health and spoke with him about our wishes. He was very receptive and said he would like to work with us and could provide local physicians to work with. Coco presented him with an OO calendar that has some pictures of our past clinics and she said, "I don't know how good your English is because this is in English but..." and he broke in saying "I teach English at the university" in perfect English. It was pretty humorous! He taught himself English which is impressive because it was quite good!
We also talked to the guy in public health who was in charge of vaccinations because I needed some information for my curriculum. He wrote inside a book that he gave us a little note so people wouldn't think we had stolen the book. In this book he wrote, "Este manual a sido donado" which should translate as "This manual has been donated" but "a" should be the word "ha" in Spanish. However, "h" is silent in Spanish so he was spelling phonetically but was a professional in the public health department! It is amazing the lack of education here, even in jobs that are well respected! So many Dominicans cannot spell their own language. They write "b" instead of "v" in words because they sound simliar, they drop "s" in words so they never write them in, and they forget "h". It is sad the lack of education!
We left Mao, and headed to Esperanza. In my blog yesterday I spoke about the doctor stopping to talk to us and not seeing patients, I WAS WRONG! We waited an hour and 45 minutes so that he could see his patients and then spend relaxed time with us instead of rushing. We spoke to him for 15 minutes! It was insane but worth it because he is president of the Rotary Club and will have lots of connections to advertise the clinics and help out as well.
After leaving there, we went by the old orphanage that is now shut down, but the one I used to go to. We picked up Neuri, who is a guy that is about 30 who still lives on the property and used to help OO and also has a baseball league that he runs that OO had helped with in the past. We picked him up and I saw another guy that I knew from Esperanza at the orphanage. The orphanage was desolate, looking run down and unkept which is sad.
We then went to see Santos, one of the previous Esperanza orphanage kids, who moved here to Monte Cristi but had some problems and now lives with the principal of the school is Esperanza. OO still helps him out some and he is doing great. It was good seeing him, he looked very happy and is almost done with high school and will hopefully start college next year or the following year. We chatted with him and his new house Mom for about 45 minutes and then headed to eat lunch with Neuri in town.
We stopped at a local restaurant and had chicken nuggets (more like chicken tenders), rice, beans, and french fries. It was very good! After a long day we headed back to Monte Cristi!
On the way home we stopped to buy small rubber bands so I can get braids in my hair sometime soon and we also pulled over on the highway as the Skim Ice guy was walking down the road and bought a Skim Ice. These are the popsicles I spoke of before. So basically we pulled over on the shoulder of the equivalent of a 2 lane Harrodsburg Road or Nicholasville Road and bought Skim Ice through the passenger side window! Where else can you do this!? :) Also, on the ride home we saw two guys in the middle of one of the small towns just chilling, sitting in chairs in the median of the road. Again, where else can you do this!?
Anyway, I came back, passed out for an hour, had dinner and hung out tonight with two girls, one about 15, the other 11. We just sat on benches and talked, tickled each other (well not me) and had some good bonding time. It is fun to play with the little ones, but some days I just really enjoy sitting with the older ones and just hanging out and talking!
One last thing, at one point tonight, some of the younger kids had long sticks stuck through the slats on the benches outside, and were sitting on either side of it making a teeter-totter out of it! Crazy, creative kids, at least until the bench breaks! They got stopped by the older girls quickly! :) Oh and another girl fell today and got two stitches in her forehead. Apparently they know I'm here and have decided to have one kid fall a week requiring stitches! :) Buenas noches!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/20091028?feat=directlink
A few pictures from our adventure to Mao and Esperanza yesterday and today.
Luckily, the orphanage was not far! But I'm glad I stopped because he had an awesome backyard. His backyard backs up to the baseball field and you could totally set up chairs and watch a game from there. It was sweet. Wish I could have taken a picture but I didn't have my camera on the run/walk. The baseball field is just for local teams/leagues, not a minor league or anything big but it was a cool view!
So anyway, I got back to the orphanage after a little adventure, showered and got ready to head to Mao with Coco. We left around 7:30 and returned at 4:45 this afternoon!
It was a successful day though. We got to Mao, asked to meet with the director and the secretary said he was gone on vacation and didn't know when he'd return. She said he tried calling Coco yesterday and she was there when he tried to call but Coco didn't miss any calls and always has her phone on her. So basically she was making up things. Coco asked to speak with an administrator since we had traveled 1.5 hours to meet with someone! We sat down with the administrator, explained that we wanted to do some clinic outreach in their area and he said, wait, I'll call the director. About 10 seconds later, the director walks in and says, come to my office so we can talk. Not sure what the secretary was talking about, but let's just say she wasn't very helpful!
We sat down with the director of public health and spoke with him about our wishes. He was very receptive and said he would like to work with us and could provide local physicians to work with. Coco presented him with an OO calendar that has some pictures of our past clinics and she said, "I don't know how good your English is because this is in English but..." and he broke in saying "I teach English at the university" in perfect English. It was pretty humorous! He taught himself English which is impressive because it was quite good!
We also talked to the guy in public health who was in charge of vaccinations because I needed some information for my curriculum. He wrote inside a book that he gave us a little note so people wouldn't think we had stolen the book. In this book he wrote, "Este manual a sido donado" which should translate as "This manual has been donated" but "a" should be the word "ha" in Spanish. However, "h" is silent in Spanish so he was spelling phonetically but was a professional in the public health department! It is amazing the lack of education here, even in jobs that are well respected! So many Dominicans cannot spell their own language. They write "b" instead of "v" in words because they sound simliar, they drop "s" in words so they never write them in, and they forget "h". It is sad the lack of education!
We left Mao, and headed to Esperanza. In my blog yesterday I spoke about the doctor stopping to talk to us and not seeing patients, I WAS WRONG! We waited an hour and 45 minutes so that he could see his patients and then spend relaxed time with us instead of rushing. We spoke to him for 15 minutes! It was insane but worth it because he is president of the Rotary Club and will have lots of connections to advertise the clinics and help out as well.
After leaving there, we went by the old orphanage that is now shut down, but the one I used to go to. We picked up Neuri, who is a guy that is about 30 who still lives on the property and used to help OO and also has a baseball league that he runs that OO had helped with in the past. We picked him up and I saw another guy that I knew from Esperanza at the orphanage. The orphanage was desolate, looking run down and unkept which is sad.
We then went to see Santos, one of the previous Esperanza orphanage kids, who moved here to Monte Cristi but had some problems and now lives with the principal of the school is Esperanza. OO still helps him out some and he is doing great. It was good seeing him, he looked very happy and is almost done with high school and will hopefully start college next year or the following year. We chatted with him and his new house Mom for about 45 minutes and then headed to eat lunch with Neuri in town.
We stopped at a local restaurant and had chicken nuggets (more like chicken tenders), rice, beans, and french fries. It was very good! After a long day we headed back to Monte Cristi!
On the way home we stopped to buy small rubber bands so I can get braids in my hair sometime soon and we also pulled over on the highway as the Skim Ice guy was walking down the road and bought a Skim Ice. These are the popsicles I spoke of before. So basically we pulled over on the shoulder of the equivalent of a 2 lane Harrodsburg Road or Nicholasville Road and bought Skim Ice through the passenger side window! Where else can you do this!? :) Also, on the ride home we saw two guys in the middle of one of the small towns just chilling, sitting in chairs in the median of the road. Again, where else can you do this!?
Anyway, I came back, passed out for an hour, had dinner and hung out tonight with two girls, one about 15, the other 11. We just sat on benches and talked, tickled each other (well not me) and had some good bonding time. It is fun to play with the little ones, but some days I just really enjoy sitting with the older ones and just hanging out and talking!
One last thing, at one point tonight, some of the younger kids had long sticks stuck through the slats on the benches outside, and were sitting on either side of it making a teeter-totter out of it! Crazy, creative kids, at least until the bench breaks! They got stopped by the older girls quickly! :) Oh and another girl fell today and got two stitches in her forehead. Apparently they know I'm here and have decided to have one kid fall a week requiring stitches! :) Buenas noches!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/20091028?feat=directlink
A few pictures from our adventure to Mao and Esperanza yesterday and today.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Road Trip
Today Coco and I went on a road trip to Mao, a city a little over an hour away. We went to try to meet with the public health director of the region to discuss the possibility of doing some clinic weeks in two bateys there, one is called Batey Dos and is very very very poor, the other is Batey Libertad and is poor but much better off than the other.
The drive to Mao was exciting. Highway driving here is crazy. Mac trucks go flying by at high speeds on double lined roads, motos swerve in and out, and sometimes goats, cows, etc walk out onto the edges of the roads. As we were driving into Mao, there was a little stand on the side of the road where a full skinned goat was hanging from its hind legs with its horns still attached. I wish I could have gotten a picture!
We arrived in Mao, not really knowing where we were going but found Conani's daycare (the child protection services here in the DR) and we asked the nurse there. She gave us directions about 2 times and then sent us with someone making sure we wouldn't get lost. We walked to the building where public health is and had to make an appt to return tomorrow because he was out.
We left and headed back to our car and on the way found a building that said Instituto de Diabetes so we went in to check it out. We met with the administrator here and got the run down about this place. It is a non-profit, independent organization providing free consultations, free meds if they have them, or cheaper meds than the local pharmacies if they don't have samples. It has been around about 5 years and has served over 2500 patients. We spoke with him about the opportunity to do some work with them and he said if we provided the meds and the funds, he would provide a local doctor to help out. This was an awesome finding that we happened upon and hopefully will be able to work with them in the future!
We headed on to the car, but first stopped for some chocolate ice cream as a treat! YUMMY!
We then headed to Esperanza, about 10-15 minutes away. This is where the old orphanage that I first started going to is located. We went to a clinic there that OO had worked with in the past and met shortly with the medical director and set up a meeting with him tomorrow as well. By meeting I mean, we said, can we come by to talk more tomorrow after our meeting in Mao, and he said yes come on by. So when we arrive, he'll finish with whatever patient he has, meet with us and just stop seeing patients until we are finished talking! Crazy the "appts" they schedule here!
We left Esperanza and headed back towards Monte Cristi. Jaibon is the town where the other orphanage is that OO recently started working with. We stopped here to ask Tia (the lady in charge) if we could come by Saturday to do an activity with the boys. While we were there she asked if we had lunch and we hadn't so she offered to make some plantains and coffee for us. While we waited we toured the property because I have only been there once and it was quickly in the spring to drop off leaders. We played with Tia's granddaughter who is 17 months for a little bit until our food was ready. We had HOMEMADE french fries. Real potatoes cut and fried! They were awesome!!! She also had some sausages/hotdog things that I tried but they weren't very good! We also had coffee, yes at 2pm in the 85 degrees afternoon! I was sweating buckets after finishing it but had to drink it because she offered. I could become really fat here if we went to people's homes often because it is an insult not to take what they offer.
We left here, headed back to the orphanage, made a quick stop to by Gatorade buy the case in a town on the way to Monte Cristi and finally arrived back to Monte Cristi about 3:45.
I went upstairs, started working on separating dental tools and did this until dinner and returned after dinner working another 2+ hours! Wow, there are a lot and they all look similar but just enough different to not be exactly the same!
Tomorrow we head out at 7:15am to head to Mao for an 8:30 meeting with the director. Hopefully he'll actually show up! :)
Outside of our room right now we can hear preaching as if they were outside our window. He has a microphone with a large speaker and I feel like he is right outside my window talking to me. From what songs we've heard, we've decided this is the same guy that preached several weeks ago and that wouldn't let Bryson translate for him. He was the one that preached for like 2 hours and people were falling to the ground at the end. Hopefully, he'll end here soon otherwise, no early bedtime for me! :)
The drive to Mao was exciting. Highway driving here is crazy. Mac trucks go flying by at high speeds on double lined roads, motos swerve in and out, and sometimes goats, cows, etc walk out onto the edges of the roads. As we were driving into Mao, there was a little stand on the side of the road where a full skinned goat was hanging from its hind legs with its horns still attached. I wish I could have gotten a picture!
We arrived in Mao, not really knowing where we were going but found Conani's daycare (the child protection services here in the DR) and we asked the nurse there. She gave us directions about 2 times and then sent us with someone making sure we wouldn't get lost. We walked to the building where public health is and had to make an appt to return tomorrow because he was out.
We left and headed back to our car and on the way found a building that said Instituto de Diabetes so we went in to check it out. We met with the administrator here and got the run down about this place. It is a non-profit, independent organization providing free consultations, free meds if they have them, or cheaper meds than the local pharmacies if they don't have samples. It has been around about 5 years and has served over 2500 patients. We spoke with him about the opportunity to do some work with them and he said if we provided the meds and the funds, he would provide a local doctor to help out. This was an awesome finding that we happened upon and hopefully will be able to work with them in the future!
We headed on to the car, but first stopped for some chocolate ice cream as a treat! YUMMY!
We then headed to Esperanza, about 10-15 minutes away. This is where the old orphanage that I first started going to is located. We went to a clinic there that OO had worked with in the past and met shortly with the medical director and set up a meeting with him tomorrow as well. By meeting I mean, we said, can we come by to talk more tomorrow after our meeting in Mao, and he said yes come on by. So when we arrive, he'll finish with whatever patient he has, meet with us and just stop seeing patients until we are finished talking! Crazy the "appts" they schedule here!
We left Esperanza and headed back towards Monte Cristi. Jaibon is the town where the other orphanage is that OO recently started working with. We stopped here to ask Tia (the lady in charge) if we could come by Saturday to do an activity with the boys. While we were there she asked if we had lunch and we hadn't so she offered to make some plantains and coffee for us. While we waited we toured the property because I have only been there once and it was quickly in the spring to drop off leaders. We played with Tia's granddaughter who is 17 months for a little bit until our food was ready. We had HOMEMADE french fries. Real potatoes cut and fried! They were awesome!!! She also had some sausages/hotdog things that I tried but they weren't very good! We also had coffee, yes at 2pm in the 85 degrees afternoon! I was sweating buckets after finishing it but had to drink it because she offered. I could become really fat here if we went to people's homes often because it is an insult not to take what they offer.
We left here, headed back to the orphanage, made a quick stop to by Gatorade buy the case in a town on the way to Monte Cristi and finally arrived back to Monte Cristi about 3:45.
I went upstairs, started working on separating dental tools and did this until dinner and returned after dinner working another 2+ hours! Wow, there are a lot and they all look similar but just enough different to not be exactly the same!
Tomorrow we head out at 7:15am to head to Mao for an 8:30 meeting with the director. Hopefully he'll actually show up! :)
Outside of our room right now we can hear preaching as if they were outside our window. He has a microphone with a large speaker and I feel like he is right outside my window talking to me. From what songs we've heard, we've decided this is the same guy that preached several weeks ago and that wouldn't let Bryson translate for him. He was the one that preached for like 2 hours and people were falling to the ground at the end. Hopefully, he'll end here soon otherwise, no early bedtime for me! :)
Monday, October 26, 2009
Happy 3rd Birthday Alexa!
Pictures from today http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/Juliana?feat=directlink
Pictures Coco took on our walk yesterday (some are in the "Walk Thru Town picture link but this includes a lot more) http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/CocoSPictures?feat=directlink
Although Alexa can't really read the Title, just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday and I'm sorry I'm not there to do it in person. Hope she had a cookie for me! :)
Today I worked on the Dental Unit! Woohoo! I actually found some cool activity sheets on the ADA website that I was pretty excited about! Anyway, after working for a couple of hours I went downstairs and got to do some real work! One of the twins fell last week and busted her chin, getting three stitches. Today was the day for them to be removed so I went to work.
Let's just say trying to take stitches out of a terrified 3 year old's chin while she is talking, crying, screaming isn't so easy! :) She kept yelling the name of the lady that was holding her and saying, "help me, let go of me, help me". It was adorable but so sad at the same time. I had to keep telling her not to talk because a moving chin is hard to remove stitches from. One had already come out on its own so I only had to remove 2. Luckily we have sterilized dental tools from the spring so I used those and took out the stitches without too much difficulty and about 8 people peeping over my shoulder.
After this I tried playing L,R,C with some of the younger children but this ended in me getting frustrated and leaving! They were throwing pieces around, others were stealing pieces, etc. This game is now reserved for only 10 and older.
Going to Dr. Garcia's house today was a small adventure. I get dropped off two street corners down from his house and walk there. The road to his house is being dug up and the sewage top is off and sewage water has been leaking down the street for the past week or so. I stayed on the sidewalk obviously but the ditches in the middle of the road were insane. They were about double my height and two blocks in length. They have a lot of work to do to fix this! To get to his house, I should have just crossed one street and been there after walking two blocks but I had to walk to the end of his street, away from his house, cross over two wooden planks laid out and come back up the other side of the street because the poopy water extended too far to jump without stepping in it. On the way up the other side of the street, the electrical line is still not fixed from a couple of weeks ago. It was at shoulder level as I was walking and kind of freaked me out a little even though it was encased in the black tubing.
Today we went to Batey Juliana where I've been already. On the way we were driving out there and passed by the road to turn onto. About 3 minutes later, Dr. Garcia stopped the car in the middle of main road and was like "where are we going". He did a u-turn (there wasn't much traffic at all, maybe 2-3 cars but far away) and headed back to the road. I told him I thought we had passed it but didn't say anything because I wasn't for sure.
Juliana is mostly men, mostly Haitian men at that. Apparently they had forgotten that Dr. Garcia was coming today so there were very few patients there. Only two got vaccinated and only 5-6 saw the doctor. I took some BPs with an automated machine.
However, it was exciting in a different way today. A lady was eating this bread and Dr. Garcia asked about it. One of the men there started talking about how he made this bread and sells it for 20 pesos. He brought out some for Dr. Garcia to try. It was about the size of the pizza from Smashing tomato if you've been there, if not, maybe a small Papa John's pizza but just the crust diameter. It was heavy though! Guillermina, the nurse, and I went inside this man's house to see what his kitchen looked like. I took some pictures and have attached the link and can't really describe it well enough. He was cooking this bread over a charcoal fire on his counter top.
The bread consists of processed yuka on the bottom, sugar and coconut in the middle, and more yuka on top just toasted until crispy. We've had this bread here but it doesn't have the sugar or coconut in the middle. It is really dry, like what I imagine unleavened bread was like. I really wanted to try it because Dr. Garcia said it was good, but I was afraid it might make me sick because of the lack of great preparation and cleanliness so I refrained.
Next time we come, he is going to make more for Guillermina without sugar because she is diabetic, and with peanuts on top cooked in. Should be interesting!
One guy at the batey today had severe pink eye. He couldn't even open his eyes and just keeping wiping away goop with a handkerchief. We drove one of the other men living there to the wash station where the medications are kept and he got the drops for him to start today.
We stopped at the wash station as I said to pick up his meds and so I took some pictures to show you all how the bananas are brought there, cut off the stalk, washed, boxed and shipped to Europe.
When I returned to the orphanage, the goats were over on our side eating some beans that the worker here planted. I chased them away but they ran over to where are laundry was hanging and right to where the steps are to go up to my room. As I was chasing them away, the male goat which is much larger than the others, rared up on his hind legs and I went running and screaming up our stairs. He has some large horns that I want no part of! It was scary for a second and I was just hoping goats don't climb stairs!
I spoke to Dr. Garcia about the boy with the cleft lip/palate and he wants to go with me to see him Wednesday to see if he can do anything to help. I hope he can!
Tonight was movie night with the kids. We watched Cinderella and the boys that were 11-15 were laughing harder than the other kids. It was pretty funny. Luis Alberto climbed into my lap about 1/2 way through and passed out! I love cuddling with him! That's all for now. Sorry it is really long!
Pictures Coco took on our walk yesterday (some are in the "Walk Thru Town picture link but this includes a lot more) http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/CocoSPictures?feat=directlink
Although Alexa can't really read the Title, just wanted to wish her a Happy Birthday and I'm sorry I'm not there to do it in person. Hope she had a cookie for me! :)
Today I worked on the Dental Unit! Woohoo! I actually found some cool activity sheets on the ADA website that I was pretty excited about! Anyway, after working for a couple of hours I went downstairs and got to do some real work! One of the twins fell last week and busted her chin, getting three stitches. Today was the day for them to be removed so I went to work.
Let's just say trying to take stitches out of a terrified 3 year old's chin while she is talking, crying, screaming isn't so easy! :) She kept yelling the name of the lady that was holding her and saying, "help me, let go of me, help me". It was adorable but so sad at the same time. I had to keep telling her not to talk because a moving chin is hard to remove stitches from. One had already come out on its own so I only had to remove 2. Luckily we have sterilized dental tools from the spring so I used those and took out the stitches without too much difficulty and about 8 people peeping over my shoulder.
After this I tried playing L,R,C with some of the younger children but this ended in me getting frustrated and leaving! They were throwing pieces around, others were stealing pieces, etc. This game is now reserved for only 10 and older.
Going to Dr. Garcia's house today was a small adventure. I get dropped off two street corners down from his house and walk there. The road to his house is being dug up and the sewage top is off and sewage water has been leaking down the street for the past week or so. I stayed on the sidewalk obviously but the ditches in the middle of the road were insane. They were about double my height and two blocks in length. They have a lot of work to do to fix this! To get to his house, I should have just crossed one street and been there after walking two blocks but I had to walk to the end of his street, away from his house, cross over two wooden planks laid out and come back up the other side of the street because the poopy water extended too far to jump without stepping in it. On the way up the other side of the street, the electrical line is still not fixed from a couple of weeks ago. It was at shoulder level as I was walking and kind of freaked me out a little even though it was encased in the black tubing.
Today we went to Batey Juliana where I've been already. On the way we were driving out there and passed by the road to turn onto. About 3 minutes later, Dr. Garcia stopped the car in the middle of main road and was like "where are we going". He did a u-turn (there wasn't much traffic at all, maybe 2-3 cars but far away) and headed back to the road. I told him I thought we had passed it but didn't say anything because I wasn't for sure.
Juliana is mostly men, mostly Haitian men at that. Apparently they had forgotten that Dr. Garcia was coming today so there were very few patients there. Only two got vaccinated and only 5-6 saw the doctor. I took some BPs with an automated machine.
However, it was exciting in a different way today. A lady was eating this bread and Dr. Garcia asked about it. One of the men there started talking about how he made this bread and sells it for 20 pesos. He brought out some for Dr. Garcia to try. It was about the size of the pizza from Smashing tomato if you've been there, if not, maybe a small Papa John's pizza but just the crust diameter. It was heavy though! Guillermina, the nurse, and I went inside this man's house to see what his kitchen looked like. I took some pictures and have attached the link and can't really describe it well enough. He was cooking this bread over a charcoal fire on his counter top.
The bread consists of processed yuka on the bottom, sugar and coconut in the middle, and more yuka on top just toasted until crispy. We've had this bread here but it doesn't have the sugar or coconut in the middle. It is really dry, like what I imagine unleavened bread was like. I really wanted to try it because Dr. Garcia said it was good, but I was afraid it might make me sick because of the lack of great preparation and cleanliness so I refrained.
Next time we come, he is going to make more for Guillermina without sugar because she is diabetic, and with peanuts on top cooked in. Should be interesting!
One guy at the batey today had severe pink eye. He couldn't even open his eyes and just keeping wiping away goop with a handkerchief. We drove one of the other men living there to the wash station where the medications are kept and he got the drops for him to start today.
We stopped at the wash station as I said to pick up his meds and so I took some pictures to show you all how the bananas are brought there, cut off the stalk, washed, boxed and shipped to Europe.
When I returned to the orphanage, the goats were over on our side eating some beans that the worker here planted. I chased them away but they ran over to where are laundry was hanging and right to where the steps are to go up to my room. As I was chasing them away, the male goat which is much larger than the others, rared up on his hind legs and I went running and screaming up our stairs. He has some large horns that I want no part of! It was scary for a second and I was just hoping goats don't climb stairs!
I spoke to Dr. Garcia about the boy with the cleft lip/palate and he wants to go with me to see him Wednesday to see if he can do anything to help. I hope he can!
Tonight was movie night with the kids. We watched Cinderella and the boys that were 11-15 were laughing harder than the other kids. It was pretty funny. Luis Alberto climbed into my lap about 1/2 way through and passed out! I love cuddling with him! That's all for now. Sorry it is really long!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!
Happy 34th? Anniversary to my Mom and Dad! I can't remember how many years for sure, sorry! But a lot! :)
Today we had a little worship service amongst the volunteers with John, the dad of the family leading. He used to be a youth leader back home in the past and led a little discussion with some of us this morning. After that I went and played L,R,C with Jessica and her brother Mancho. Amazingly we haven't lost any pieces yet even though we've played so much! The paint on the dice is starting to rub off!
After lunch today I hung out with some of the kids for a short while and then headed to the beach! We had an optional beach afternoon and I took advantage of this to get a little sun and to get away for a little while. It was very nice to just relax and lay on the beach. However, I feel like my farmer's tan just got redder and the white still remains. Oh well! It was nice to be in the sun relaxing! Did anyone at home do the same today? ;)
We returned from the beach, showered and got ready for church this evening. I went over and hung out with the kids a little before dinner. Arianni, one of the twins, was jumping from one bench to the other and being caught mid jump and was cackling so hard. She gets tickled so easy and it is adorable!
The rest of the evening was pretty routine. At dinner, got my hair french-braided for a little change of scenery, and then went to church.
At church tonight, Leonel, brought a little 11 month old baby to me and I held him for a while. He is the son of the guy that helps drive the buses when we have big groups here. He was with me for the two weeks I was here in the spring so I got to hang out with him a lot so it was cool to meet his son and get to hold him. I think he was a little terrified and confused with all that was going at church. He started sucking his thumb and was rubbing his top lip with his pointer finger. It was super cute!
Anyway, Leonel ruined the fun by tickling him under the arm a little too much and he started crying and had to then go home! Oh well, a little baby time is always great!
That's all for tonight! Week 5 starts now!
Today we had a little worship service amongst the volunteers with John, the dad of the family leading. He used to be a youth leader back home in the past and led a little discussion with some of us this morning. After that I went and played L,R,C with Jessica and her brother Mancho. Amazingly we haven't lost any pieces yet even though we've played so much! The paint on the dice is starting to rub off!
After lunch today I hung out with some of the kids for a short while and then headed to the beach! We had an optional beach afternoon and I took advantage of this to get a little sun and to get away for a little while. It was very nice to just relax and lay on the beach. However, I feel like my farmer's tan just got redder and the white still remains. Oh well! It was nice to be in the sun relaxing! Did anyone at home do the same today? ;)
We returned from the beach, showered and got ready for church this evening. I went over and hung out with the kids a little before dinner. Arianni, one of the twins, was jumping from one bench to the other and being caught mid jump and was cackling so hard. She gets tickled so easy and it is adorable!
The rest of the evening was pretty routine. At dinner, got my hair french-braided for a little change of scenery, and then went to church.
At church tonight, Leonel, brought a little 11 month old baby to me and I held him for a while. He is the son of the guy that helps drive the buses when we have big groups here. He was with me for the two weeks I was here in the spring so I got to hang out with him a lot so it was cool to meet his son and get to hold him. I think he was a little terrified and confused with all that was going at church. He started sucking his thumb and was rubbing his top lip with his pointer finger. It was super cute!
Anyway, Leonel ruined the fun by tickling him under the arm a little too much and he started crying and had to then go home! Oh well, a little baby time is always great!
That's all for tonight! Week 5 starts now!
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Walk Thru Town
So this morning I was a lazy bum. I slept about 11 hours last night and then ate breakfast and came back and laid down for another hour or so. I think I slept too much but it was nice also! After awaking from my deep slumber, I went and read with some of the kids for about 30 minutes before lunch. Pile asked me to read to her but she kept asking questions and would turn the pages about 2-3 words into reading a page. I started to get frustrated but just kept going and leaving out parts of the book that weren't important.
For lunch we had grilled cheese and fries, very Dominican huh?
After lunch, I came back and read my new book, Complications, which is by the same author but now it is about him during his residency whereas the other was about him out in practice. Brian, if you are reading this, you should read these books. I'll bring them home for you!
As I'm typing a large cockroach is being killed by my roommate! AHHHHH! I'm such a wimp!
Anyway, after siesta I went down and took sidewalk chalk to the kids to play with. They had me tracing them on the basketball court and they were tracing me as well. Once Bryson came down to play he started making animals out of the kids while they were lying down and this continued for a good 45 minutes. It was pretty funny to see how excited they got. I became the chalk police because some of the kids were trying to steal the chalk.
Later I went with Coco to visit the house of the kid with the cleft lip and cleft palate. She wanted to take pictures to send back to an American group that comes here and repairs these. We arrived at the house and the boy was naked, walking around in the backyard and leaning against a new barbed wire fence that had been made. No one was home except him. There was an elderly man next door whom we spoke with an apparently his daughter who is the grandmother of this boy was sick in the hospital with vaginal cancer and she had gone to the hospital on Friday morning and her granddaughter was with her there. The old man told us that this boy had been left alone and people were coming to feed him but that was all! Soon thereafter, some nosy neighbors came by to see why us "Americans" were there. They helped get the boy washed off and dressed so that Coco could take some pictures. At the boy's house there was a separate wooden "house" or shed that had this boy's bed in it. It was a double mattress with no sheets and the ladies that came over just kept telling him to go lay in his bed. The clothes you see him in were nice and clean, and he was actually able to put his own pants on with some assistance. However, after standing for about 5 minutes, he just squatted down and laid down right into a puddle of water and sand from where they had bathed him. He had wet sand all over his clean shirt and in his hair, and then went to lay on his mattress! All I can say is WOW!
We found out that the elderly man was 89 years old!
He was walking up and down his yard carrying being of old sheet metal and large 6-7 foot posts to certain areas in his yard. He didn't stop the whole 15 minutes we were there! He was so skinny you could see his ribs and his skin was falling off of him. He was cute but at the same time very pitiful. Imagine an 89 year old man being left in charge of a 19 year old blind, disabled boy who can't talk. I wanted to take the boy back to the orphanage with us until his sister returned so just he'd have someone watching over him.
The walk home was interesting as well. We stopped and talking to two Haitian moms for a little bit. There were 4 little kids there with them and they were so adorable. One was 11 months old, the next 3 years old, and the other sister 6 years old. The oldest was wearing what looked like a plastic bag with the bottom cut off and the handles worn as straps for a dress. Yes, I believe she was wearing a plastic bag as a dress. I wish you could hear the sounds of her moving
because the picture doesn't quite capture the experience. But she was adorable and super excited to see herself in the pictures. There was also a 6 month old little boy that I tried to hold but he didn't like me. I think he is related to Carter! :)
We continued on and found this family who wanted their picture taken as well. Coco asked them "What is your name" in English and they all answered. Then she asked "What is my name" and they all knew. It is funny because even though she doesn't know a lot of people, they all know her name since she has been here so long. Even on the walk down to the boy's house, some other little boy yelled, "Hola Coco" but she didn't know who he was.
The last street we went up was the street that Pastor Ramon lives on. At the end of the street there was a Haitian lady and her son who is probably 3-4 years old. I don't remember if I spoke of her before, but we had seen her elsewhere in town on some of our morning runs. I've now decided that she is a begger and makes her son beg as well. As we walked by he kept saying, Madam, Madam, eat, eat, eat but in Spanish. He was begging us for food but wasn't enough looking at us. He was just playing with the dirt on the ground but repeating what his Mom was telling him to repeat! Such a sad situation but nothing we could really do about it. He is probably illegal because he is Haitian and she probably is as well.
We returned and I read some more and then showered before dinner. For dinner, Sharon made baked chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. It was like being home. Yummy!
I hung out with Domingo some after dinner and in the kids kitchen there is a large part of the wall painted with a world map on it. We played, "see how horrible Elizabeth is at geography". He would say the name of a country and make me find it. Let's just say I wasn't very good at it!
For the rest of the night, we had volunteer game night. Coco, Sharon, Christine, Bryson and I played Quiddler. It is like Scrabble and Rummy combined. Jo and DJ, you need to get this game, it encompasses both of your favorite games! It was a fun game!
That's all for now! Hope you guys didn't freeze too much if you went to the UK game! Here are a few more pictures that Coco took today. http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/WalkThruTown?feat=directlink
For lunch we had grilled cheese and fries, very Dominican huh?
After lunch, I came back and read my new book, Complications, which is by the same author but now it is about him during his residency whereas the other was about him out in practice. Brian, if you are reading this, you should read these books. I'll bring them home for you!
As I'm typing a large cockroach is being killed by my roommate! AHHHHH! I'm such a wimp!
Anyway, after siesta I went down and took sidewalk chalk to the kids to play with. They had me tracing them on the basketball court and they were tracing me as well. Once Bryson came down to play he started making animals out of the kids while they were lying down and this continued for a good 45 minutes. It was pretty funny to see how excited they got. I became the chalk police because some of the kids were trying to steal the chalk.
Later I went with Coco to visit the house of the kid with the cleft lip and cleft palate. She wanted to take pictures to send back to an American group that comes here and repairs these. We arrived at the house and the boy was naked, walking around in the backyard and leaning against a new barbed wire fence that had been made. No one was home except him. There was an elderly man next door whom we spoke with an apparently his daughter who is the grandmother of this boy was sick in the hospital with vaginal cancer and she had gone to the hospital on Friday morning and her granddaughter was with her there. The old man told us that this boy had been left alone and people were coming to feed him but that was all! Soon thereafter, some nosy neighbors came by to see why us "Americans" were there. They helped get the boy washed off and dressed so that Coco could take some pictures. At the boy's house there was a separate wooden "house" or shed that had this boy's bed in it. It was a double mattress with no sheets and the ladies that came over just kept telling him to go lay in his bed. The clothes you see him in were nice and clean, and he was actually able to put his own pants on with some assistance. However, after standing for about 5 minutes, he just squatted down and laid down right into a puddle of water and sand from where they had bathed him. He had wet sand all over his clean shirt and in his hair, and then went to lay on his mattress! All I can say is WOW!We found out that the elderly man was 89 years old!
He was walking up and down his yard carrying being of old sheet metal and large 6-7 foot posts to certain areas in his yard. He didn't stop the whole 15 minutes we were there! He was so skinny you could see his ribs and his skin was falling off of him. He was cute but at the same time very pitiful. Imagine an 89 year old man being left in charge of a 19 year old blind, disabled boy who can't talk. I wanted to take the boy back to the orphanage with us until his sister returned so just he'd have someone watching over him.The walk home was interesting as well. We stopped and talking to two Haitian moms for a little bit. There were 4 little kids there with them and they were so adorable. One was 11 months old, the next 3 years old, and the other sister 6 years old. The oldest was wearing what looked like a plastic bag with the bottom cut off and the handles worn as straps for a dress. Yes, I believe she was wearing a plastic bag as a dress. I wish you could hear the sounds of her moving
because the picture doesn't quite capture the experience. But she was adorable and super excited to see herself in the pictures. There was also a 6 month old little boy that I tried to hold but he didn't like me. I think he is related to Carter! :)
We continued on and found this family who wanted their picture taken as well. Coco asked them "What is your name" in English and they all answered. Then she asked "What is my name" and they all knew. It is funny because even though she doesn't know a lot of people, they all know her name since she has been here so long. Even on the walk down to the boy's house, some other little boy yelled, "Hola Coco" but she didn't know who he was.
The last street we went up was the street that Pastor Ramon lives on. At the end of the street there was a Haitian lady and her son who is probably 3-4 years old. I don't remember if I spoke of her before, but we had seen her elsewhere in town on some of our morning runs. I've now decided that she is a begger and makes her son beg as well. As we walked by he kept saying, Madam, Madam, eat, eat, eat but in Spanish. He was begging us for food but wasn't enough looking at us. He was just playing with the dirt on the ground but repeating what his Mom was telling him to repeat! Such a sad situation but nothing we could really do about it. He is probably illegal because he is Haitian and she probably is as well.
We returned and I read some more and then showered before dinner. For dinner, Sharon made baked chicken, roasted potatoes and green beans. It was like being home. Yummy!
I hung out with Domingo some after dinner and in the kids kitchen there is a large part of the wall painted with a world map on it. We played, "see how horrible Elizabeth is at geography". He would say the name of a country and make me find it. Let's just say I wasn't very good at it!
For the rest of the night, we had volunteer game night. Coco, Sharon, Christine, Bryson and I played Quiddler. It is like Scrabble and Rummy combined. Jo and DJ, you need to get this game, it encompasses both of your favorite games! It was a fun game!
That's all for now! Hope you guys didn't freeze too much if you went to the UK game! Here are a few more pictures that Coco took today. http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/WalkThruTown?feat=directlink
Friday, October 23, 2009
Picture of the Week
This was a test run of uploading pictures from Picasa to Blogger and it was pretty fast. I might be able to add some pictures to my blog now along with still attaching the albums. We'll see! Now they'll be even longer DJ! (well longer in actual length but not amount of words!)
Happy Birthday Lynne!
Just a little shout out to my Aunt Lynne to wish her a Happy Birthday! Sorry I'm not there to celebrate!
Pictures from today http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/RehabCenterAndLaPlayita?feat=directlink
This morning I went back to the Rehab Center with Gabriella to help her with some translation. The first patient was an older woman who had Bell's Palsy, she has had it for 3 months and you can find a picture of her in my album. She couldn't close the affected eye, or smile on the right side. The put electrical stimulation on her face, which I had never heard of and then Gabriella did a facial massage. After that she did a couple other back massages and on one older lady did her legs and lower back. After the older lady finished, she sat up, reached into her bra, pulled out her wallet and then a comb and brushed her hair. It was too cute!
We had some fresh squeezed lemon/orange juice that just tasted like a slightly tart lemonade but it was very refreshing and tasty. At the end of the morning, the nurse that was working there asked for a quick massage and while Gabriella did that, I put a heat pack on my lower back and rested for 15 minutes! It felt great!
We returned for lunch and Christine made a big sign that said Happy B-day for one of the old interns that was here. She took a picture with some of the kids holding the sign with her and the other leaders in it, and then Coco took a generic picture of just the kids holding the sign to send to volunteers in the future. Great idea huh? During siesta I just kind of hung out with some of the kids and Ari got hit on the head and started crying so Sharon was holding her but wanted to go rest so I took her and rocked her to sleep. She was precious! I hopefully get to take her stitches out on Monday. She fell last week and busted her chin on the table and I offered to take out her stitches so we'll see if I get to.
I came back to my room to siesta for a bit and found Julie, who lives in the room attached to ours, signing loudly to Christmas music. Not sure I'm ready to hear Christmas music yet. It seems so weird because it is still so warm here!
I worked on finishing most of the vaccination unit, at least what I can up to this point this afternoon. After finishing that, I had to follow thru with my promise to chase Luz Maria around. I tried last night and it was too dark so I had promised before dinner I would and I did. Two other girls played along and we got a good 20 minutes of chasing in, ending in me pouring sweat!
I showered and got ready for our Friday night outing. At lunch, I had asked Coco if we could wear non-OO t-shirts to dinner to switch it up a little and we were allowed to. It was so nice to wear just a normal solid colored shirt with jeans. We all felt so dressed up! We went to la playita (the little beach) and took some pictures and tried to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy. From there we went for pizza and I had 5 pieces! The pizza here is so good and somehow you can eat more than normal without feeling full. I think the dough is not as dense as back home or something!
We were going to go to a local basketball game tonight after pizza but tonight is the first night of the league and they weren't sure what time the game was going to start so we opted to wait until next week to see it. That's all for tonight.
Welcome to my new follower, Keightley! Apparently she has learned to read while I've been gone. Thanks Jo and DJ! :)
Pictures from today http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/RehabCenterAndLaPlayita?feat=directlink
This morning I went back to the Rehab Center with Gabriella to help her with some translation. The first patient was an older woman who had Bell's Palsy, she has had it for 3 months and you can find a picture of her in my album. She couldn't close the affected eye, or smile on the right side. The put electrical stimulation on her face, which I had never heard of and then Gabriella did a facial massage. After that she did a couple other back massages and on one older lady did her legs and lower back. After the older lady finished, she sat up, reached into her bra, pulled out her wallet and then a comb and brushed her hair. It was too cute!
We had some fresh squeezed lemon/orange juice that just tasted like a slightly tart lemonade but it was very refreshing and tasty. At the end of the morning, the nurse that was working there asked for a quick massage and while Gabriella did that, I put a heat pack on my lower back and rested for 15 minutes! It felt great!
We returned for lunch and Christine made a big sign that said Happy B-day for one of the old interns that was here. She took a picture with some of the kids holding the sign with her and the other leaders in it, and then Coco took a generic picture of just the kids holding the sign to send to volunteers in the future. Great idea huh? During siesta I just kind of hung out with some of the kids and Ari got hit on the head and started crying so Sharon was holding her but wanted to go rest so I took her and rocked her to sleep. She was precious! I hopefully get to take her stitches out on Monday. She fell last week and busted her chin on the table and I offered to take out her stitches so we'll see if I get to.
I came back to my room to siesta for a bit and found Julie, who lives in the room attached to ours, signing loudly to Christmas music. Not sure I'm ready to hear Christmas music yet. It seems so weird because it is still so warm here!
I worked on finishing most of the vaccination unit, at least what I can up to this point this afternoon. After finishing that, I had to follow thru with my promise to chase Luz Maria around. I tried last night and it was too dark so I had promised before dinner I would and I did. Two other girls played along and we got a good 20 minutes of chasing in, ending in me pouring sweat!
I showered and got ready for our Friday night outing. At lunch, I had asked Coco if we could wear non-OO t-shirts to dinner to switch it up a little and we were allowed to. It was so nice to wear just a normal solid colored shirt with jeans. We all felt so dressed up! We went to la playita (the little beach) and took some pictures and tried to watch the sunset but it was too cloudy. From there we went for pizza and I had 5 pieces! The pizza here is so good and somehow you can eat more than normal without feeling full. I think the dough is not as dense as back home or something!
We were going to go to a local basketball game tonight after pizza but tonight is the first night of the league and they weren't sure what time the game was going to start so we opted to wait until next week to see it. That's all for tonight.
Welcome to my new follower, Keightley! Apparently she has learned to read while I've been gone. Thanks Jo and DJ! :)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
The Price of Sugar
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/RehabCenterWithGabriela?feat=directlink
For those of you wanting to appreciate what you have, I would recommend the documentary "The Price of Sugar". It is about the sugar cane fields in the DR where Haitians are brought into the country with false information of a happier, more fruitful life. In turn, they are stripped of their papers, being completely illegal and are forced to stay on the bateyes for life. They are paid less than 90 cents a day and often times have no food to eat. Quite a difficult movie to watch, even living where I am right now.
Anyway, this morning we did a great leg workout and then I had to start working on some of the curriculum. I worked on the vaccination unit but also chatted with Brian and Kerr online. I wasn't so productive this morning but getting better.
This afternoon I went to the Rehab Center with Gabriella to take pictures and help her translate. It was very interesting to observe. They were doing rehab on a 4 year old girl which I believe has cerebral palsy. She didn't speak and she couldn't sit up. Her legs look like frog legs the way they were bent. However, the therapist was straigtening her legs and arms, which looked very painful. My knees were hurting with the way the therapist was jerking this girls' knees straight. She cried throughout the whole process and it was breaking my heart to watch. At one point, I went over and just started rubbing her head to try and calm her but she continued to cry. She couldn't express anything and even if she could they would have just told her to be quiet.
After working with her on the table for a while, they took her to the gym area and rolled her around on an exercise ball. I have a short video that I'll try to upload, you can hear her crying in it, and it was just so miserable!
Gabriela is a licensed massage therapist in Canada and she worked on two patients this afternoon with back pain. She enjoyed doing this and was trying to show some of the other workers there what she was doing so maybe they can do some massage in the future.
The best part of the day was the walk home. I had many great opportunities to take pictures of some cute pictures which I'll post. Maybe one of the strangest requests ever from all my times here came today as well. A lady called me from across the street to come into her house. Inside her house was a 19 year old boy, shorter than me, and with horrible scoliosis. He was blind, and one of the worse cases of cleft palate and cleft lip I've ever seen. She was telling me that he lived in New Jersey for 6 years but they couldn't help him so his Mom sent him back here to live about 2 years ago. This lady was asking me if I knew how he could get help in the states and get papers to return because he is a Dominican citizen. I felt horrible because there wasn't much I could do but I told her I'd talk with Coco and we'd try to help her some way. So. Coco and I are going to go tomorrow and see if we can at least offer some local resources through some organizations.
After returning, I hung out with the kids some. I played left, right, center, surprise! Some of the girls that I usually play with refused to play because Yanina, the old handicapped girl was playing. They said she didn't know how, although she's played before with me, so they refused to play if she was. So we wouldn't let those girls play because they were being so hateful. The mentality here of disabled people is poor, especially coming from these children who live with some disabled people.
Tonight I played with several of the kids. Luz Maria, I had promised yesterday that I would chase her around, so she asked me again and I told her after dinner I would. Unfortunately it got really dark after dinner so we are going to play chase tomorrow before dinner! I read a book to William, a 14 year old boy that hardly talks because he is so shy. Arianni, one of the little twins, was calling for me, and she calls me Elisamen (pronounced A-lee-sa-men). It is so cute! The rest of the time I just spent hanging out with several of the kids before it was time for us to watch the movie tonight. It was a great night, and I got to talk to Leo before the movie started so that was great catching up with him.
Welcome home almost Dad! Hope you haven't missed me too much ;) Sorry if my blogs are super lengthy, there is just so much to say! Feel free to ignore 1/2 of them if you want, but I'm excited to go back and read them next year to reminisce.
For those of you wanting to appreciate what you have, I would recommend the documentary "The Price of Sugar". It is about the sugar cane fields in the DR where Haitians are brought into the country with false information of a happier, more fruitful life. In turn, they are stripped of their papers, being completely illegal and are forced to stay on the bateyes for life. They are paid less than 90 cents a day and often times have no food to eat. Quite a difficult movie to watch, even living where I am right now.
Anyway, this morning we did a great leg workout and then I had to start working on some of the curriculum. I worked on the vaccination unit but also chatted with Brian and Kerr online. I wasn't so productive this morning but getting better.
This afternoon I went to the Rehab Center with Gabriella to take pictures and help her translate. It was very interesting to observe. They were doing rehab on a 4 year old girl which I believe has cerebral palsy. She didn't speak and she couldn't sit up. Her legs look like frog legs the way they were bent. However, the therapist was straigtening her legs and arms, which looked very painful. My knees were hurting with the way the therapist was jerking this girls' knees straight. She cried throughout the whole process and it was breaking my heart to watch. At one point, I went over and just started rubbing her head to try and calm her but she continued to cry. She couldn't express anything and even if she could they would have just told her to be quiet.
After working with her on the table for a while, they took her to the gym area and rolled her around on an exercise ball. I have a short video that I'll try to upload, you can hear her crying in it, and it was just so miserable!
Gabriela is a licensed massage therapist in Canada and she worked on two patients this afternoon with back pain. She enjoyed doing this and was trying to show some of the other workers there what she was doing so maybe they can do some massage in the future.
The best part of the day was the walk home. I had many great opportunities to take pictures of some cute pictures which I'll post. Maybe one of the strangest requests ever from all my times here came today as well. A lady called me from across the street to come into her house. Inside her house was a 19 year old boy, shorter than me, and with horrible scoliosis. He was blind, and one of the worse cases of cleft palate and cleft lip I've ever seen. She was telling me that he lived in New Jersey for 6 years but they couldn't help him so his Mom sent him back here to live about 2 years ago. This lady was asking me if I knew how he could get help in the states and get papers to return because he is a Dominican citizen. I felt horrible because there wasn't much I could do but I told her I'd talk with Coco and we'd try to help her some way. So. Coco and I are going to go tomorrow and see if we can at least offer some local resources through some organizations.
After returning, I hung out with the kids some. I played left, right, center, surprise! Some of the girls that I usually play with refused to play because Yanina, the old handicapped girl was playing. They said she didn't know how, although she's played before with me, so they refused to play if she was. So we wouldn't let those girls play because they were being so hateful. The mentality here of disabled people is poor, especially coming from these children who live with some disabled people.
Tonight I played with several of the kids. Luz Maria, I had promised yesterday that I would chase her around, so she asked me again and I told her after dinner I would. Unfortunately it got really dark after dinner so we are going to play chase tomorrow before dinner! I read a book to William, a 14 year old boy that hardly talks because he is so shy. Arianni, one of the little twins, was calling for me, and she calls me Elisamen (pronounced A-lee-sa-men). It is so cute! The rest of the time I just spent hanging out with several of the kids before it was time for us to watch the movie tonight. It was a great night, and I got to talk to Leo before the movie started so that was great catching up with him.
Welcome home almost Dad! Hope you haven't missed me too much ;) Sorry if my blogs are super lengthy, there is just so much to say! Feel free to ignore 1/2 of them if you want, but I'm excited to go back and read them next year to reminisce.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Week #4 (I'm running out of titles :) )
So yesterday was a fun start to the day. We went to the beach at sunrise and did a workout on the beach. Christine, Bryson and myself did a workout that he made up. We started by running from one end of the beach to the other, which is maybe 1/4 of a mile. Then we did an optical course that he had set up. We started with lunges with rocks, followed by bear crawls, then jumping into and out of circles, then reverse crab walk (brought back memories from getting in trouble at HA practice...Kerr!), then lunging with rocks while twisting our abs. Then we repeated but switched things up just a little bit. After this we ran back to the other end of the beach, got some water and then swam back down the ocean to where we were then ran back to the end again. It was only about 20 minutes but a great workout and a great start to the day. Who can resist smiling when you workout on the beach at sunrise in beautiful weather and in a beautiful location!
After breakfast, I worked on the slideshow and finished up with this. The slideshow will be posted on OO's website for those interested in coming to view before coming down. It is still a very rough copy but a beginning. After that I just hung out until lunch.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids for a little bit. Two of the younger girls started to get into a little fight and I tried to break it up but should have stayed out. Jennifer, who is 4 years old, was trying to throw large rocks at Joanni and then found a 2 foot stick and tried hitting her but instead got me a few times. After that I left and went to take a siesta because these workouts and getting up early are wearing me out come midday and I had had enough of the kids at that point after getting beat up :)
At 3pm I went back to trying to take pictures of dental tools for Nancy to identify for me! :) Coco helped me because her camera was better than mine. After we finished, I sat in on the Spanish class that Bryson is teaching to Sharon and the Hopkins family. He was only on day 2 of class so it was still very basic stuff but interesting to listen to because there are a lot of Dominican words that other Spanish speakers don't use so it is good to learn these.
After class, I played left, right, center with the girls because they had asked me earlier but I was going to nap. After dinner we had free time with the kids again. Towards the end of the night I sat down with Luis Alberto and he was just talking up a storm about how him, David, and Tito (all the little boys) had killed people in the jail, etc. I only caught about 1/2 of his stories but it was cute. Then he'd throw in random comments about how one of the other boys ran into another and had the big swollen eye. He is so random sometimes but so cute. He had a ring on that had a picture of Santa Clause and I told him if he killed people Santa would not come visit him or bring toys so the count of how many he killed kept decreasing!
Today was a pretty relax day. Dr. Garcia had to go to the capitol for some meeting so I stayed here all day. We ran to the pier and back which was about 3.5 miles. It is so pretty here in the mornings with the sun coming up, the water, the mountains and all the beautiful landscape.
I went with Gabriela to the Rehab Center. She is a massage therapist in Canada so she went there today to help teach the German exchange student some massage techniques that hopefully she can use. The Rehab Center didn't know we were coming so they were a little confused and it took a while for them to figure out what was going on. The thought Gabriela wanted to learn and not that she wanted to help teach. I left to head back here to work and she said after a while they caught on and she did 4 massages and everyone gathered around to watch. There was a little language barrier and some confusion but she really enjoyed it. She is going back tomorrow afternoon and again Friday morning.
The rest of the day I spent working on an EKG course that I brought with me that I have to finish for my certification renewal by December! I was lazy today and couldn't get motivated to do much else so I worked on that for about 3 hours total.
I played some more left, right, center before dinner and then after dinner the kids had culto, their little worship service. The kids were all crazy tonight, running everywhere and acting loco but funny! Franchesca, 4 year old, with some developmental delay was going crazy, kept sticking her tongue out and running back and forth. Afterwards the older girls were sitting on us, like 3 at a time trying to knock us off the wall we were sitting on. There was something in the water apparently at dinner!
Tonight I was really wanting some chocolate and my prayers were answered when Coco, unexpectingly brought back some ice cream on her way home from a meeting. My popsicle was chocolate ice cream with a chocolate layer on the outside. It was sooooo good!
If anyone feels the need to go to the post office, we love chocolate here! :)
Anyway, tomorrow I'll start working on the curriculum again, no bateyes tomorrow either because Dr. Garcia still has a meeting in the capital. Good night!
Oh the weather is finally cooling off some. The past 2 nights I've slept with a sheet on and haven't turned the fan on that blows directly on my face. At culto outside tonight, I got a slight chill with the breeze. Woohoo! I know you all feel the opposite because you are probably freezing but I'm excited for a little cooler weather, but not 40s like there! :)
Miss you all! Love you!
After breakfast, I worked on the slideshow and finished up with this. The slideshow will be posted on OO's website for those interested in coming to view before coming down. It is still a very rough copy but a beginning. After that I just hung out until lunch.
After lunch, I hung out with the kids for a little bit. Two of the younger girls started to get into a little fight and I tried to break it up but should have stayed out. Jennifer, who is 4 years old, was trying to throw large rocks at Joanni and then found a 2 foot stick and tried hitting her but instead got me a few times. After that I left and went to take a siesta because these workouts and getting up early are wearing me out come midday and I had had enough of the kids at that point after getting beat up :)
At 3pm I went back to trying to take pictures of dental tools for Nancy to identify for me! :) Coco helped me because her camera was better than mine. After we finished, I sat in on the Spanish class that Bryson is teaching to Sharon and the Hopkins family. He was only on day 2 of class so it was still very basic stuff but interesting to listen to because there are a lot of Dominican words that other Spanish speakers don't use so it is good to learn these.
After class, I played left, right, center with the girls because they had asked me earlier but I was going to nap. After dinner we had free time with the kids again. Towards the end of the night I sat down with Luis Alberto and he was just talking up a storm about how him, David, and Tito (all the little boys) had killed people in the jail, etc. I only caught about 1/2 of his stories but it was cute. Then he'd throw in random comments about how one of the other boys ran into another and had the big swollen eye. He is so random sometimes but so cute. He had a ring on that had a picture of Santa Clause and I told him if he killed people Santa would not come visit him or bring toys so the count of how many he killed kept decreasing!
Today was a pretty relax day. Dr. Garcia had to go to the capitol for some meeting so I stayed here all day. We ran to the pier and back which was about 3.5 miles. It is so pretty here in the mornings with the sun coming up, the water, the mountains and all the beautiful landscape.
I went with Gabriela to the Rehab Center. She is a massage therapist in Canada so she went there today to help teach the German exchange student some massage techniques that hopefully she can use. The Rehab Center didn't know we were coming so they were a little confused and it took a while for them to figure out what was going on. The thought Gabriela wanted to learn and not that she wanted to help teach. I left to head back here to work and she said after a while they caught on and she did 4 massages and everyone gathered around to watch. There was a little language barrier and some confusion but she really enjoyed it. She is going back tomorrow afternoon and again Friday morning.
The rest of the day I spent working on an EKG course that I brought with me that I have to finish for my certification renewal by December! I was lazy today and couldn't get motivated to do much else so I worked on that for about 3 hours total.
I played some more left, right, center before dinner and then after dinner the kids had culto, their little worship service. The kids were all crazy tonight, running everywhere and acting loco but funny! Franchesca, 4 year old, with some developmental delay was going crazy, kept sticking her tongue out and running back and forth. Afterwards the older girls were sitting on us, like 3 at a time trying to knock us off the wall we were sitting on. There was something in the water apparently at dinner!
Tonight I was really wanting some chocolate and my prayers were answered when Coco, unexpectingly brought back some ice cream on her way home from a meeting. My popsicle was chocolate ice cream with a chocolate layer on the outside. It was sooooo good!
If anyone feels the need to go to the post office, we love chocolate here! :)
Anyway, tomorrow I'll start working on the curriculum again, no bateyes tomorrow either because Dr. Garcia still has a meeting in the capital. Good night!
Oh the weather is finally cooling off some. The past 2 nights I've slept with a sheet on and haven't turned the fan on that blows directly on my face. At culto outside tonight, I got a slight chill with the breeze. Woohoo! I know you all feel the opposite because you are probably freezing but I'm excited for a little cooler weather, but not 40s like there! :)
Miss you all! Love you!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Back to Work!
Some pictures from today: http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/LaRecta?feat=directlink
So today I started working again on the health care stuff. This morning I spent time working on finishing up a list of medical supplies needed that Tom, the director of OO, is going to put on the website so teams know what they can bring when they come down. I also worked on a slideshow that will be posted online for people to read about the Health Corps program and see some pictures of what to expect. I didn't make it too far but got started at least.
Before lunch, I tried to work on taking picture of all the dental tools that we need to inventory for the dentists coming in the spring. There are soooo many different tools it is crazy and they all look very similiar to the uneducated dental personnel. We need you to come down and help Nancy! So I'm taking pictures to send back home to hope that people can tell us the name of the equipment and then we'll inventory it. Hopefully the pictures we took are good enough to distinguish what they are. We'll see!
After lunch I took an hour nap. I was exhausted for some reason. We have been working out every morning during the week, so my body is probably in shock since I didn't work out before I came.
I headed to Batey La Recta today with Dr. Garcia. It is about 45 minutes away on bumpy bumpy dirt roads. At times I felt like I was on a roller coaster it was so bumpy! We arrived there and I gave several tetanus shots. Not as many as some other places although this batey has about 2000 people living in it. It was fun however, because a 2 year old little Haitian boy came and he was adorable. I chased him around and tickled his belly and he would fall to the ground cackling. At times, I felt bad because he was so loud when he laughed that I thought I was disturbing Dr. Garcia while he was working. I probably played with him off and on for 30 minutes. It was a blast! On the way home, the nurse asked if I wanted to take a Haitian home. I said yes I wanted to take this little kid home because he was so cute and she said he was ugly because he was Haitian. It is so sad the racism here, even in well educated, respected people. I don't believe Dr. Garica has quite as strong of an attitude against Haitians but it is sad the way people treat others here.
Anyway, we came back and had dinner and then watched Anatasia with the kids. Before the movie I was chasing around Nena, and two other little kiddos. They could be chased for hours but I just can't do it! I was sweating like crazy after 5 minutes of running around. During the movie the kids received Twizzlers and they always enjoy a little treat. Towards the end, Nena came and sat in my lap and fell asleep after about 3 minutes. It is funny how they can run and run until 9:00 when there is no movie or planned activity but as soon as they sit down for 30 minutes or so, they fall asleep, sometimes as early as 7:30 or 8:00.
Tomorrow I'll be working here all day, trying to finish up the slideshow and start typing up some more units. We are going to the beach on a sunrise swim and several of us are going to do a workout of some sort on the beach. Should be fun and interesting at the same time! Early rise tomorrow, so headed to bed early!
So today I started working again on the health care stuff. This morning I spent time working on finishing up a list of medical supplies needed that Tom, the director of OO, is going to put on the website so teams know what they can bring when they come down. I also worked on a slideshow that will be posted online for people to read about the Health Corps program and see some pictures of what to expect. I didn't make it too far but got started at least.
Before lunch, I tried to work on taking picture of all the dental tools that we need to inventory for the dentists coming in the spring. There are soooo many different tools it is crazy and they all look very similiar to the uneducated dental personnel. We need you to come down and help Nancy! So I'm taking pictures to send back home to hope that people can tell us the name of the equipment and then we'll inventory it. Hopefully the pictures we took are good enough to distinguish what they are. We'll see!
After lunch I took an hour nap. I was exhausted for some reason. We have been working out every morning during the week, so my body is probably in shock since I didn't work out before I came.
I headed to Batey La Recta today with Dr. Garcia. It is about 45 minutes away on bumpy bumpy dirt roads. At times I felt like I was on a roller coaster it was so bumpy! We arrived there and I gave several tetanus shots. Not as many as some other places although this batey has about 2000 people living in it. It was fun however, because a 2 year old little Haitian boy came and he was adorable. I chased him around and tickled his belly and he would fall to the ground cackling. At times, I felt bad because he was so loud when he laughed that I thought I was disturbing Dr. Garcia while he was working. I probably played with him off and on for 30 minutes. It was a blast! On the way home, the nurse asked if I wanted to take a Haitian home. I said yes I wanted to take this little kid home because he was so cute and she said he was ugly because he was Haitian. It is so sad the racism here, even in well educated, respected people. I don't believe Dr. Garica has quite as strong of an attitude against Haitians but it is sad the way people treat others here.
Anyway, we came back and had dinner and then watched Anatasia with the kids. Before the movie I was chasing around Nena, and two other little kiddos. They could be chased for hours but I just can't do it! I was sweating like crazy after 5 minutes of running around. During the movie the kids received Twizzlers and they always enjoy a little treat. Towards the end, Nena came and sat in my lap and fell asleep after about 3 minutes. It is funny how they can run and run until 9:00 when there is no movie or planned activity but as soon as they sit down for 30 minutes or so, they fall asleep, sometimes as early as 7:30 or 8:00.
Tomorrow I'll be working here all day, trying to finish up the slideshow and start typing up some more units. We are going to the beach on a sunrise swim and several of us are going to do a workout of some sort on the beach. Should be fun and interesting at the same time! Early rise tomorrow, so headed to bed early!
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Sunday, Sunday
Well today was just a day to relax and hang out. We met the family this morning at breakfast. John and Cara are the parents, then Luke who is 16, Micah who is 15, and Caela (pronounced like Kayla) is 13. They are all very nice and I'm excited to get to know them more. We did some quick introductions around the table and then parted ways. They headed to the Institute where they are living and started unpacking.
This morning we just hung out with the kids and played L,R,C with several of them. They really enjoy this game. After we played multiple times the kids started asking to read. Christine brought out a box of books and about 10 of the kids sat down and read for about an hour. They love getting the opportunity to read. In school, the majority of their time is spent copying down what the teacher writes on the board and so when given the opportunity to read or learn in a different way they really enjoy it. While the kids were reading I grabbed my camera and got some decent pics of several kids.
Leonel, the oldest boy, was acting as barber today, cutting the little boys hair. Some of them really needed it but apparently they only have one blade and it is the blade that made them all bald. Some of them looked okay but others need some hair to grow back quickly! It was fun watching them get shaved though. Luis Alberto got shaved like Pastor Ramon at first, with the top of his hair cut and the rest left on the sides and the back. Then he shaved lines into the remaining hair. It was pretty funny but he looked hideous. I captured some pictures of it!
After this I played L,R,C again with two of the girls that are 10 and 11. They seem so much older here, I thought Nicol the 10 year old was at least 12. We played for about 20-25 minutes and then I came up to my room to help "Dominican mop" our floors. This consists of sweeping the dirt, then pouring soapy water on the concrete floors and sweeping the water out the door. It was fun, well as fun as cleaning can be!
After lunch, I just relaxed in my room most of the afternoon. I was really tired for some reason so I took a little nap and then just kind of laid around and did nothing. About an hour before church I went and sat with some the kids before dinner.
After dinner, we got ready for church and I left my hair down for the first time since I've been here. It is soooo long and untamed because of the humidity! Church was good and now we are back just relaxing until bedtime.
And for the record, I finished my book "Better" this morning. I read it in about 2 weeks, Jo you should be proud! :)
Make sure to check out my pictures I posted today of several of the kids. Have a great week everyone!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/MyPictures?feat=directlink
This morning we just hung out with the kids and played L,R,C with several of them. They really enjoy this game. After we played multiple times the kids started asking to read. Christine brought out a box of books and about 10 of the kids sat down and read for about an hour. They love getting the opportunity to read. In school, the majority of their time is spent copying down what the teacher writes on the board and so when given the opportunity to read or learn in a different way they really enjoy it. While the kids were reading I grabbed my camera and got some decent pics of several kids.
Leonel, the oldest boy, was acting as barber today, cutting the little boys hair. Some of them really needed it but apparently they only have one blade and it is the blade that made them all bald. Some of them looked okay but others need some hair to grow back quickly! It was fun watching them get shaved though. Luis Alberto got shaved like Pastor Ramon at first, with the top of his hair cut and the rest left on the sides and the back. Then he shaved lines into the remaining hair. It was pretty funny but he looked hideous. I captured some pictures of it!
After this I played L,R,C again with two of the girls that are 10 and 11. They seem so much older here, I thought Nicol the 10 year old was at least 12. We played for about 20-25 minutes and then I came up to my room to help "Dominican mop" our floors. This consists of sweeping the dirt, then pouring soapy water on the concrete floors and sweeping the water out the door. It was fun, well as fun as cleaning can be!
After lunch, I just relaxed in my room most of the afternoon. I was really tired for some reason so I took a little nap and then just kind of laid around and did nothing. About an hour before church I went and sat with some the kids before dinner.
After dinner, we got ready for church and I left my hair down for the first time since I've been here. It is soooo long and untamed because of the humidity! Church was good and now we are back just relaxing until bedtime.
And for the record, I finished my book "Better" this morning. I read it in about 2 weeks, Jo you should be proud! :)
Make sure to check out my pictures I posted today of several of the kids. Have a great week everyone!
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/MyPictures?feat=directlink
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Relaxing Weekend!
So yesterday was a good day. I made a little "couch" out of my bed and propped myself up against the wall and the cabinet across from my bed and worked on finding free medications for physicians and others to bring down. Thanks to Dr. Smith for helping with this back home! I worked on inventory of what we had in the past and what things I thought we could use from what I saw this spring. It took a lot longer than I thought to research and compile all this information. I also worked on the layout of the units I want to be taught this spring. Each unit will be taught over 4 days so I had to figure out what topics I wanted taught and what things would be taught each day. This is what I've come up with for what will be taught:
Anatomy, Infectious Disease, Dental Stuff, Safety, General Health, Adult Medicine, Nutrition, Vaccinations, and Sexual Education
Scott Hagan was an intern last year that started the whole health curriculum and I based a lot of what I'm doing off of what he had done previously, so thanks Scott!
I've already finished the Nutrition Unit and now will start Monday with another one. I have I think 8 weeks left here and 8 units to do, so one a week! Remember, each one has 4 days of material so it will be a lot of work to get done but will be good because I may learn some in the process, especially about infectious diseases!
The group went to Dajabon in the morning to see the Haitian Market. They seemed to enjoy it, it is a very eye opening experience to say the least. Words nor pictures can describe the experience! For lunch we went to Comedor Adelea, a local restuarant and had a buffet lunch. It is always good and always way too much food.
The leaders headed back to the Institute to teach for the afternoon, the group headed with Sharon to the beach and Coco and I headed to do errands. We tried going to the Coke distributor to buy drinks for here but they were closed for siesta. So we returned to the orphanage and I worked some more on trying to find free medications for people to bring down. This lasted a couple of hours until the power went out and at that time Coco and I headed out into town again.
We went to the Coke distributor first where they just had a warehouse full of diet coke, coke, Fanta orange and grape and lots of other drinks. As we were checking out an interesting thing happened. He rang us up for 14 cases plus 2 extras that we were originally getting but then decided not to get. Coco explained to him we weren't taking those and so he scratched them off on the ticket and proceeded to say it would still be the same price. Explain to me how you take away two cases of soda and still remain at the same price?? Coco said no and had to start all over with him, he couldn't figure out how to subtract the price of the 2 from the total. It was quite interesting! And they came to the orphanage after dinner to collect about the equivalent of $5-6 dollars because he still had rung it up wrong!
After leaving there we went to 3 different hardware stores trying to find locks for the Institute. Apparently here in Monte Cristi there is only one hardware store that can copy keys but he can't copy all keys. So, we had to find locks with keys that could be copied and this was a task. The first two didn't have what we needed so we left those. Before heading to the third we went into a little store, kind of reminded me of a dollar store back home. They had all kinds of odds and ends that you could buy like bowls, cups, dolls, paper, clothes, etc. Coco bought some toilet bowl cleaners for the Institute. While she was checking out a little ~3 year old girl was hitting around a balloon and we starting hitting it back and forth to each other. She was cute!
We left there and went in search of something to drink. We went to a colmado across the street (remember these are little pop up stands within people's homes that sell snacks, drinks, etc.) and some guy was leaving with what looked like the leg of a pig. He held it up proudly for us to see. We walked in and it had just been measured on a scale, like what is in the produce dept at Kroger, and under it were juices from the meat that the owner was wiping up! Yuck! He only had cold Cokes but nothing else because the power had been out and everything got warm. Yes, it is hard to keep things well refrigerated here because power is so questionable! We left there and headed to a different one near the children's church.
We stopped at this other colmado and got some orange juice and chips. We then headed to the 3rd hardware store and they had locks that would work. He copied 6 keys for one of the them and we sat outside on a bench and enjoyed our juice and chips. The chips were tomato and olive oil flavored, they were pretty good, not much of a strong flavoring to them. As I parked at the hardware store, Coco told me we had to park half on the curb, half on the road because the road is so narrow! That was fun manuevering! As we were waiting on the bench, a truck was outside the store with a cow in it. A little boy kept looking in at the cow and throwing rocks at it. Coco seemed to think the owner had brought the cow there because the butcher shop was next door and perhaps he brought the cow for the butcher to check out and see if he wanted it.
After he cut the first set of keys for that lock, Coco asked for him to do the same with another lock that was the same kind. She tested all the keys and they fit perfectly from the first lock. However, after finishing the 2nd lock which was exactly the same, the keys were not cut well or the lock was not easy to turn for some reason. She told him she wasn't going to buy it unless he fixed them and he tried oiling the lock and shaving down the key some but it still was tough to turn to remove the key after opening the lock. She said she couldn't buy it because the keys would break, so he put the lock back in the container and stapled it together and put it back on the shelf! Great management huh!?
During this process one of his workers drove by and there was a large sound as he drove by. He had rebar on the back of his truck that was so long it hung off the back quite a bit. We are guessing this hit the ground and made the loud noise. Well the hardware store guy yelled at the driver of the truck because of the rebar hitting the ground. He had a Haitian guy sitting in the front seat with him and the store owner yelled at the driver for not having the Haitian in the back holding onto the rebar. He said, "You need the Haitian back there because if the rebar falls off and something happens, then it is the Haitian's fault and he will just get shipped back to Haiti but if he isn't back there and something happens then my store will get in trouble for the damage done". If that isn't pure racism, I'm not sure what is! The relationship between Dominicans and Haitians here is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen! I can't imagine what it was like in the US when whites and blacks were segregated!
This afternoon would have been a great time to have had my camera. We had several photo opportunities. The guy with the meat at the colmado, a dog eating out of a trashcan, an old woman whose jaw was flapping up and down like old people do while she was sweeping outside her home, two old ladies walking down the street with their umbrella, a pregnant Haitian woman walking with a tub of sandals balanced on her head for sell, and many more I'm probably forgetting!
We left there and headed back to the orphanage. After dinner I hung out with the kids some and then we had closing with the group at 8pm. After closing I came up to my room and just hung out before going to bed!
Today was an easy day. We went to the Institute after breakfast to clean for the family coming. The family that is on their way from Santiago as I type is a husband, wife, 15 and 16 year old sons and a 13 year old daughter. They are moving from CO here and plan to stay for 10 years! The kids are going to homeschool while here. They have all been here for some period of time and have loved it. I'm excited to meet them tomorrow at breakfast.
But anyway, we went and cleaned the rooms on the third floor where they will be living. The boys will share a room, the girl has her own room and the Mom and Dad have the biggest of rooms. Each room there is an old hotel room so it has a bed (bunk beds in the kids and a queen or kind sized bed in the parents), a dresser and a bathroom with shower. We had to dust all the dirt that had accumulated over the past several months. I'm sure it is already dirty again just because nothing truly gets clean here. But we made it at least presentable and put sheets on the beds, etc.
We came back, had lunch and the rest of the day was free. This afternoon I played Left, Right, Center with Christine, Vivian and some of the kids. They enjoyed this game, although here in the DR everyone is a cheater. Jochi would steal chips from the center pile while we weren't looking! It almost isn't fun to play games here sometimes because they always cheat so bad but it was fun today because it took us a while to figure out he was cheating. We played about 15 games, at one point with 9 people!
The rest of the day consisted of me just relaxing, hanging with the kids, eating dinner and as a treat we baked brownies tonight with chocolate icing! Not as good as yours Nancy but they were pretty tasty because we don't get much chocolate here. I brought a 6 lb bag of chocolate Halloween candy when I came and we finished that in 2 weeks if that tells you anything.
Tomorrow is just another day to relax, get to know the family and spend time with the kids. They get a little sad and bored when groups leave because they don't have constant interaction with people to give them attention! But we all have lots of free time tomorrow to spend with them!
Happy Birthday party to Alexa! She's almost 3! Wow!
Anatomy, Infectious Disease, Dental Stuff, Safety, General Health, Adult Medicine, Nutrition, Vaccinations, and Sexual Education
Scott Hagan was an intern last year that started the whole health curriculum and I based a lot of what I'm doing off of what he had done previously, so thanks Scott!
I've already finished the Nutrition Unit and now will start Monday with another one. I have I think 8 weeks left here and 8 units to do, so one a week! Remember, each one has 4 days of material so it will be a lot of work to get done but will be good because I may learn some in the process, especially about infectious diseases!
The group went to Dajabon in the morning to see the Haitian Market. They seemed to enjoy it, it is a very eye opening experience to say the least. Words nor pictures can describe the experience! For lunch we went to Comedor Adelea, a local restuarant and had a buffet lunch. It is always good and always way too much food.
The leaders headed back to the Institute to teach for the afternoon, the group headed with Sharon to the beach and Coco and I headed to do errands. We tried going to the Coke distributor to buy drinks for here but they were closed for siesta. So we returned to the orphanage and I worked some more on trying to find free medications for people to bring down. This lasted a couple of hours until the power went out and at that time Coco and I headed out into town again.
We went to the Coke distributor first where they just had a warehouse full of diet coke, coke, Fanta orange and grape and lots of other drinks. As we were checking out an interesting thing happened. He rang us up for 14 cases plus 2 extras that we were originally getting but then decided not to get. Coco explained to him we weren't taking those and so he scratched them off on the ticket and proceeded to say it would still be the same price. Explain to me how you take away two cases of soda and still remain at the same price?? Coco said no and had to start all over with him, he couldn't figure out how to subtract the price of the 2 from the total. It was quite interesting! And they came to the orphanage after dinner to collect about the equivalent of $5-6 dollars because he still had rung it up wrong!
After leaving there we went to 3 different hardware stores trying to find locks for the Institute. Apparently here in Monte Cristi there is only one hardware store that can copy keys but he can't copy all keys. So, we had to find locks with keys that could be copied and this was a task. The first two didn't have what we needed so we left those. Before heading to the third we went into a little store, kind of reminded me of a dollar store back home. They had all kinds of odds and ends that you could buy like bowls, cups, dolls, paper, clothes, etc. Coco bought some toilet bowl cleaners for the Institute. While she was checking out a little ~3 year old girl was hitting around a balloon and we starting hitting it back and forth to each other. She was cute!
We left there and went in search of something to drink. We went to a colmado across the street (remember these are little pop up stands within people's homes that sell snacks, drinks, etc.) and some guy was leaving with what looked like the leg of a pig. He held it up proudly for us to see. We walked in and it had just been measured on a scale, like what is in the produce dept at Kroger, and under it were juices from the meat that the owner was wiping up! Yuck! He only had cold Cokes but nothing else because the power had been out and everything got warm. Yes, it is hard to keep things well refrigerated here because power is so questionable! We left there and headed to a different one near the children's church.
We stopped at this other colmado and got some orange juice and chips. We then headed to the 3rd hardware store and they had locks that would work. He copied 6 keys for one of the them and we sat outside on a bench and enjoyed our juice and chips. The chips were tomato and olive oil flavored, they were pretty good, not much of a strong flavoring to them. As I parked at the hardware store, Coco told me we had to park half on the curb, half on the road because the road is so narrow! That was fun manuevering! As we were waiting on the bench, a truck was outside the store with a cow in it. A little boy kept looking in at the cow and throwing rocks at it. Coco seemed to think the owner had brought the cow there because the butcher shop was next door and perhaps he brought the cow for the butcher to check out and see if he wanted it.
After he cut the first set of keys for that lock, Coco asked for him to do the same with another lock that was the same kind. She tested all the keys and they fit perfectly from the first lock. However, after finishing the 2nd lock which was exactly the same, the keys were not cut well or the lock was not easy to turn for some reason. She told him she wasn't going to buy it unless he fixed them and he tried oiling the lock and shaving down the key some but it still was tough to turn to remove the key after opening the lock. She said she couldn't buy it because the keys would break, so he put the lock back in the container and stapled it together and put it back on the shelf! Great management huh!?
During this process one of his workers drove by and there was a large sound as he drove by. He had rebar on the back of his truck that was so long it hung off the back quite a bit. We are guessing this hit the ground and made the loud noise. Well the hardware store guy yelled at the driver of the truck because of the rebar hitting the ground. He had a Haitian guy sitting in the front seat with him and the store owner yelled at the driver for not having the Haitian in the back holding onto the rebar. He said, "You need the Haitian back there because if the rebar falls off and something happens, then it is the Haitian's fault and he will just get shipped back to Haiti but if he isn't back there and something happens then my store will get in trouble for the damage done". If that isn't pure racism, I'm not sure what is! The relationship between Dominicans and Haitians here is one of the ugliest things I've ever seen! I can't imagine what it was like in the US when whites and blacks were segregated!
This afternoon would have been a great time to have had my camera. We had several photo opportunities. The guy with the meat at the colmado, a dog eating out of a trashcan, an old woman whose jaw was flapping up and down like old people do while she was sweeping outside her home, two old ladies walking down the street with their umbrella, a pregnant Haitian woman walking with a tub of sandals balanced on her head for sell, and many more I'm probably forgetting!
We left there and headed back to the orphanage. After dinner I hung out with the kids some and then we had closing with the group at 8pm. After closing I came up to my room and just hung out before going to bed!
Today was an easy day. We went to the Institute after breakfast to clean for the family coming. The family that is on their way from Santiago as I type is a husband, wife, 15 and 16 year old sons and a 13 year old daughter. They are moving from CO here and plan to stay for 10 years! The kids are going to homeschool while here. They have all been here for some period of time and have loved it. I'm excited to meet them tomorrow at breakfast.
But anyway, we went and cleaned the rooms on the third floor where they will be living. The boys will share a room, the girl has her own room and the Mom and Dad have the biggest of rooms. Each room there is an old hotel room so it has a bed (bunk beds in the kids and a queen or kind sized bed in the parents), a dresser and a bathroom with shower. We had to dust all the dirt that had accumulated over the past several months. I'm sure it is already dirty again just because nothing truly gets clean here. But we made it at least presentable and put sheets on the beds, etc.
We came back, had lunch and the rest of the day was free. This afternoon I played Left, Right, Center with Christine, Vivian and some of the kids. They enjoyed this game, although here in the DR everyone is a cheater. Jochi would steal chips from the center pile while we weren't looking! It almost isn't fun to play games here sometimes because they always cheat so bad but it was fun today because it took us a while to figure out he was cheating. We played about 15 games, at one point with 9 people!
The rest of the day consisted of me just relaxing, hanging with the kids, eating dinner and as a treat we baked brownies tonight with chocolate icing! Not as good as yours Nancy but they were pretty tasty because we don't get much chocolate here. I brought a 6 lb bag of chocolate Halloween candy when I came and we finished that in 2 weeks if that tells you anything.
Tomorrow is just another day to relax, get to know the family and spend time with the kids. They get a little sad and bored when groups leave because they don't have constant interaction with people to give them attention! But we all have lots of free time tomorrow to spend with them!
Happy Birthday party to Alexa! She's almost 3! Wow!
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Teaching is over!
Check out my newest pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/20091015?feat=directlink
So yesterday we headed back into the schools for some more Nutrition teaching. The principal here is so confused that she constantly forgot to ring the bell when class was supposed to end and when recess was over. We had to keep reminding her! The students were somewhat better yesterday, with only a small chatter and mostly paid attention. I shot a short video to give you guys an idea of how school is here in the DR.
There was a little girl in 2nd grade that we didn't even teach that clung to me day one and seemed to seek me out every day after that. She was super cute and very quite. She would just sit by me and not say anything. We played Down by the banks again with some of the kids in the morning but the game never ended because people kept joining in!
After teaching we came back here to the orphanage and Sharon and I played Yahtzee with Jochi, one of the older boys. It was fun, I like this game! Somehow he won, but I'm pretty sure he added incorrectly a few times on purpose! The whole time we were playing he had a cicada in his hand. He had accidentally broken one of the wings off so it couldn't fly so he just held on to it. He would put it in the little kids faces to get them to leave us alone while we were playing and they'd go running. Little Luis Alberto who killed a tarantula the day before was terrified of the cicada! Not quite sure how he likes tarnatulas but not harmless cicadas!
We went back and taught again in the afternoon and then afterwards headed to the English Institute to show the Villanova team what it was like there in case any of them were interested in coming back to teach. After touring there we headed to the clock tower. There is a huge clock tower in town that was constructed by the same guy that made the Eiffel Tower, it is pretty neat and in the past I have climbed to the top. I'll post some pictures so you can see it.
After this we headed back to the orphanage for dinner. Wednesday is culto with the kids, the little worship service here on the grounds and we went over for that after dinner. Before culto we had some time to hang out and one of the 11 year old girls and I hung out, me tickling her and just relaxing with her. I hadn't gotten to speak with her much yet so that was nice having some time with her. Jauri, a 9 year old boy, bought some things at a colmado (little street store) that you put in water and they grow. All the kids had containers with water and these "bolitos". They had peanut butter jars, hair gel containers, water bottles, everything filled with these. Apparently you got like 20-3o of them for 10 pesos which is about 30 cents.
After culto I just sat around and hung out before heading to bed. I was exhausted and went to bed at 9:30 last night!
Today was our final day of teaching. The students once again were pretty well behaved, at least for them. Today after the bell ring I was taking some pictures for my group of the class and before I could make it downstairs, my little 2nd grade friend had come upstairs to find me! So cute! After the morning recess, we said our goodbyes and headed back the orphanage. I hung out with some of the kids before lunch time at the mesita.
I took an hour siesta and then headed back out to see the kids. Tito, the kid with the huge gash on his foot, had no bandage and no shoes on again! So great to see them learn a lesson ;) I played left, right, center with Yanina and some of the volunteers for a bit and then just sat around and hung out. We walked into school this afternoon and it was toasty! I think I sweat for the first 20 minutes after we arrived, sorry for those of you freezing in KY! I'm sure my office staff is glad I'm gone so I'm not complaining about the cold!
After school, we went to the giftshop so the Villanova team could get some souviners. We then came back and I played chase with about 5 of the younger girls for 15 minutes. It wore me out but was fun!
Tonight is free night with kids and tomorrow is a fun day for the volunteers. They'll go to the border town of the DR and Haiti to see a free trade market which is pretty eye opening. There are some of the poorest people I've ever seen and people are running back and forth over this large bridge to buy supplies to sell or give to their families for the next weeks-months. Then in the afternoon, we eat lunch in town and a local place and they'll spend the afternoon at the beach. I will be here by myself working all day on health curriculum! Woohoo! I'm excited actually to get a little break from the group and get to work on health stuff. Since the school kids were so bad, I didn't get to go out with Dr. Garcia this week so next week I"ll go out again with him.
Happy Friday to everyone tomorrow! Miss you all!
So yesterday we headed back into the schools for some more Nutrition teaching. The principal here is so confused that she constantly forgot to ring the bell when class was supposed to end and when recess was over. We had to keep reminding her! The students were somewhat better yesterday, with only a small chatter and mostly paid attention. I shot a short video to give you guys an idea of how school is here in the DR.
There was a little girl in 2nd grade that we didn't even teach that clung to me day one and seemed to seek me out every day after that. She was super cute and very quite. She would just sit by me and not say anything. We played Down by the banks again with some of the kids in the morning but the game never ended because people kept joining in!
After teaching we came back here to the orphanage and Sharon and I played Yahtzee with Jochi, one of the older boys. It was fun, I like this game! Somehow he won, but I'm pretty sure he added incorrectly a few times on purpose! The whole time we were playing he had a cicada in his hand. He had accidentally broken one of the wings off so it couldn't fly so he just held on to it. He would put it in the little kids faces to get them to leave us alone while we were playing and they'd go running. Little Luis Alberto who killed a tarantula the day before was terrified of the cicada! Not quite sure how he likes tarnatulas but not harmless cicadas!
We went back and taught again in the afternoon and then afterwards headed to the English Institute to show the Villanova team what it was like there in case any of them were interested in coming back to teach. After touring there we headed to the clock tower. There is a huge clock tower in town that was constructed by the same guy that made the Eiffel Tower, it is pretty neat and in the past I have climbed to the top. I'll post some pictures so you can see it.
After this we headed back to the orphanage for dinner. Wednesday is culto with the kids, the little worship service here on the grounds and we went over for that after dinner. Before culto we had some time to hang out and one of the 11 year old girls and I hung out, me tickling her and just relaxing with her. I hadn't gotten to speak with her much yet so that was nice having some time with her. Jauri, a 9 year old boy, bought some things at a colmado (little street store) that you put in water and they grow. All the kids had containers with water and these "bolitos". They had peanut butter jars, hair gel containers, water bottles, everything filled with these. Apparently you got like 20-3o of them for 10 pesos which is about 30 cents.
After culto I just sat around and hung out before heading to bed. I was exhausted and went to bed at 9:30 last night!
Today was our final day of teaching. The students once again were pretty well behaved, at least for them. Today after the bell ring I was taking some pictures for my group of the class and before I could make it downstairs, my little 2nd grade friend had come upstairs to find me! So cute! After the morning recess, we said our goodbyes and headed back the orphanage. I hung out with some of the kids before lunch time at the mesita.
I took an hour siesta and then headed back out to see the kids. Tito, the kid with the huge gash on his foot, had no bandage and no shoes on again! So great to see them learn a lesson ;) I played left, right, center with Yanina and some of the volunteers for a bit and then just sat around and hung out. We walked into school this afternoon and it was toasty! I think I sweat for the first 20 minutes after we arrived, sorry for those of you freezing in KY! I'm sure my office staff is glad I'm gone so I'm not complaining about the cold!
After school, we went to the giftshop so the Villanova team could get some souviners. We then came back and I played chase with about 5 of the younger girls for 15 minutes. It wore me out but was fun!
Tonight is free night with kids and tomorrow is a fun day for the volunteers. They'll go to the border town of the DR and Haiti to see a free trade market which is pretty eye opening. There are some of the poorest people I've ever seen and people are running back and forth over this large bridge to buy supplies to sell or give to their families for the next weeks-months. Then in the afternoon, we eat lunch in town and a local place and they'll spend the afternoon at the beach. I will be here by myself working all day on health curriculum! Woohoo! I'm excited actually to get a little break from the group and get to work on health stuff. Since the school kids were so bad, I didn't get to go out with Dr. Garcia this week so next week I"ll go out again with him.
Happy Friday to everyone tomorrow! Miss you all!
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Run Forest Run
So this morning the Villanova team that is here went on a sunrise hike. They left at 5:45 to drive to El Morro and hike up little El Morro to catch the sunrise. Christine and I decided we would run (jog) to El Morro and catch a ride back with them so we did. We left around 6:25 and started on our journey. The run was 4 miles which was a great run. We passed many Dominican women walking out by the salt flats getting their exercise, passed pink flamingos in the ocean, and had a gorgeous view of the ocean and El Morro most of the way! The only kicker is to get to the top of the national park, you have to climb a hill that is about as steep as the hill from Vine Street up to High Street but 2-3 times longer. It was a bear to jog, although it may have been at a 20 minute mile pace, but I did it. That started out the day in a nice, refreshing way.
This quickly was erased when we showed up at the school and the kids were horrible today that we taught. They wouldn't stay seated, only about 4 out of 20 were paying any sort of attention and they were talking the whole time they tried to teach. I was the evil dictator walking around the room telling students to sit down and be quite. This is a 5th grade classroom, they should not have to be reminded every 2 seconds but they needed it today. The teacher was already gone when we showed up so all chaos broke out. It was quite stressful because I felt mean yelling at them but there was no control. Eventually we had to get the principal who came in and things turned around 180 in about 5 seconds. The straightened up their desks, sat in their own seats, and didn't make a peep. She stayed in there for 10-15 minutes and they were so good and participated and listened. Hopefully, they will be good tomorrow but we'll see. I threatened not to come back if they weren't good but it didn't seem to help. Be glad you teach in the states if you are a teacher!!!
At recess one of the little girls, that I didn't even know, brought me and Sharon a Skim Ice. These are like the flavored popsicles that are long and basically just flavored ice in the long plastic wrap that you buy in bulk as liquid and then freeze. They are so good and it was a nice treat especially since we were a little frustrated! I had tamarino, which is hard to explain but it is a fruit that they eat here but it kind of tastes like apple cider.
There is a little girl from 2nd grade named Emily that took a liking to me yesterday and found me immediately today and stayed by my side. She is super cute and very sweet! After recess, we walked back to the orphanage and the group had time to plan for tomorrow's lesson.
After lunch today, I took a nap because I was sleepy from the run this morning. I then went to play with some of the kids. I sat with Nicol, one of the oldest girls here, and just talked about nothing. It is always fun to hang out with some of the older kids and just talk instead of having to run around, chase, and hold the little ones. Both are nice but it was a great time to catch up with her and relax. Later the little ones were climbing up an old swing pole and hanging from the top and dropping onto an old mattress that had a big hole in it. Well about 2 minutes into playing, they started screaming and telling me to come over there. Another tarantula! Luis Alberto killed it with one of the girls shoes. Gross! We played here for a few minutes before I had to leave to go to school this afternoon.
This afternoon was much better than this morning. The class was pretty calm and seemed to pay attention pretty well. One kid was "dancing" dirty behind me when I was in the doorway and I didn't see it. Bryson happened to walk up at that point and disciplined the kid and threatened to take him to the principal. He got a frightened look on his face and said he was only dancing. Here they use corporal punishment so it isn't uncommon for them to get spanked, or an ear tugged, etc. After class, we had 15 minutes recess with the kids. At the end, I got to break up what was about to be a fight between two boys, luckily we were leaving and one of the teachers saw it and took control. It's amazing what happens at these schools!
After teaching, we went to a little museum here in Monte Cristi and then for ice cream. The lady at the ice cream shop kept telling us the flavors but they were all wrong. Eventually I asked what one was and she said "I'm not sure". Great business huh? Oh well, the volunteers enjoyed their ice cream. We came back to the orphanage and had about 30 minutes before dinner.
After dinner I went and hung out with the kids for a bit and then went to shower. I felt so sticky and nasty from sweating all day today. After showering, I came back and Koral, a 12 year old girl here was sitting on my lap like the little ones. She was wearing me out but she was funny also. Later David, a little 5 year old with the cutest smile but very mischevious, was sitting on the ledge crying so hard. I went and picked him up and rocked him until he fell asleep. I'm still not sure what he was crying about but he was so sad and cute b/c he just cuddled in my arms and was out in about 10 minutes. I went inside the comedor and tickled some of the little ones again. They love this for some reason!
I'm going to call it a night early tonight, the run made me tired. Will continue to try to get more pictures, especially of the orphanage kids. I might have to borrow some from Coco on Facebook so I can introduce you to all the kids because they often avoid pictures!
This quickly was erased when we showed up at the school and the kids were horrible today that we taught. They wouldn't stay seated, only about 4 out of 20 were paying any sort of attention and they were talking the whole time they tried to teach. I was the evil dictator walking around the room telling students to sit down and be quite. This is a 5th grade classroom, they should not have to be reminded every 2 seconds but they needed it today. The teacher was already gone when we showed up so all chaos broke out. It was quite stressful because I felt mean yelling at them but there was no control. Eventually we had to get the principal who came in and things turned around 180 in about 5 seconds. The straightened up their desks, sat in their own seats, and didn't make a peep. She stayed in there for 10-15 minutes and they were so good and participated and listened. Hopefully, they will be good tomorrow but we'll see. I threatened not to come back if they weren't good but it didn't seem to help. Be glad you teach in the states if you are a teacher!!!
At recess one of the little girls, that I didn't even know, brought me and Sharon a Skim Ice. These are like the flavored popsicles that are long and basically just flavored ice in the long plastic wrap that you buy in bulk as liquid and then freeze. They are so good and it was a nice treat especially since we were a little frustrated! I had tamarino, which is hard to explain but it is a fruit that they eat here but it kind of tastes like apple cider.
There is a little girl from 2nd grade named Emily that took a liking to me yesterday and found me immediately today and stayed by my side. She is super cute and very sweet! After recess, we walked back to the orphanage and the group had time to plan for tomorrow's lesson.
After lunch today, I took a nap because I was sleepy from the run this morning. I then went to play with some of the kids. I sat with Nicol, one of the oldest girls here, and just talked about nothing. It is always fun to hang out with some of the older kids and just talk instead of having to run around, chase, and hold the little ones. Both are nice but it was a great time to catch up with her and relax. Later the little ones were climbing up an old swing pole and hanging from the top and dropping onto an old mattress that had a big hole in it. Well about 2 minutes into playing, they started screaming and telling me to come over there. Another tarantula! Luis Alberto killed it with one of the girls shoes. Gross! We played here for a few minutes before I had to leave to go to school this afternoon.
This afternoon was much better than this morning. The class was pretty calm and seemed to pay attention pretty well. One kid was "dancing" dirty behind me when I was in the doorway and I didn't see it. Bryson happened to walk up at that point and disciplined the kid and threatened to take him to the principal. He got a frightened look on his face and said he was only dancing. Here they use corporal punishment so it isn't uncommon for them to get spanked, or an ear tugged, etc. After class, we had 15 minutes recess with the kids. At the end, I got to break up what was about to be a fight between two boys, luckily we were leaving and one of the teachers saw it and took control. It's amazing what happens at these schools!
After teaching, we went to a little museum here in Monte Cristi and then for ice cream. The lady at the ice cream shop kept telling us the flavors but they were all wrong. Eventually I asked what one was and she said "I'm not sure". Great business huh? Oh well, the volunteers enjoyed their ice cream. We came back to the orphanage and had about 30 minutes before dinner.
After dinner I went and hung out with the kids for a bit and then went to shower. I felt so sticky and nasty from sweating all day today. After showering, I came back and Koral, a 12 year old girl here was sitting on my lap like the little ones. She was wearing me out but she was funny also. Later David, a little 5 year old with the cutest smile but very mischevious, was sitting on the ledge crying so hard. I went and picked him up and rocked him until he fell asleep. I'm still not sure what he was crying about but he was so sad and cute b/c he just cuddled in my arms and was out in about 10 minutes. I went inside the comedor and tickled some of the little ones again. They love this for some reason!
I'm going to call it a night early tonight, the run made me tired. Will continue to try to get more pictures, especially of the orphanage kids. I might have to borrow some from Coco on Facebook so I can introduce you to all the kids because they often avoid pictures!
Monday, October 12, 2009
Teaching Day 1
I was finally able to download my pictures. I changed websites to Picasa, so hopefully you won't have any problems seeing them. These are from the past week, including today.
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/October2009?feat=email#
So this morning we went to Rosa Semestre to teach Nutrition. Our first class was 5th graders and it went well. It was a little rough at the start as it always is, trying to figure out how to jump in and start teaching but as the hour progressed the group did well and the kids were well engaged and having fun. I just sat in the classroom and helped out as needed. After teaching about carbohydrates, proteins, and fats we had 30 minutes of recess with the kids. We went outside and played Down By The Banks with several of the kids. They love it when the Americans come, and sometimes get a little wild! But it is fun to get to hang out with some other kids in town.
After teaching we walked back to the orphanage for the group to prepare more lesson plans and get ready for lunch. I checked a few emails and did some work for other stuff. After lunch I went and hung out with the kiddos. The kids were still eating/finishing up lunch so I went in their eating area and found my boyfriend, Luis Alberto. He had finished eating so we went outside and sat at the mesita. Jochi, one of the older boys, had returned to me a coloring book I had let him borrow. This had all kinds of dinosaurs and large cat/tiger like prehistoric creatures on the front. Luis Alberto was naming all of the animals on the book with names of the volunteers here. It was cute and he and I were the Tyrannosauras Rex so we won because we could eat everyone else!
Vivian brought out a baseball and bat and a couple of boys went to play baseball. It was super cute because Luis Alberto was in the way back of the field, which is in one of my pictures. He was back by the workshop and could only catch the balls once they stopped. He'd try to catch them as the were rolling towards him and he couldn't. It was adorable but he kept trying hard! I saw Tito's foot again, which was covered by a new band-aid but still looked pretty clean. But the sad part of it all is that he came out walking on the grounds with no shoes again, just the band-aid. Apparently a large gash with painful cleaning wasn't enough to teach him to wear his shoes!
I came inside around 2pm and read some more of my book before heading off for afternoon teaching at the local school. We walked into school for the afternoon. This time my group was teaching 6th grade. They were a little more challenging, not wanting to participate or pay attention. Some wanted to go to the bathroom and leave but I laid the law down and made them stay put!
After school we went to Lilo's the super market to give them a chance to buy snacks and stuff they want to take back with them. I got some Lime Lay's chips which are always tasty. I ate like half a small bag and shared the rest with two of the orphanage kids that were on the bus that picked us up to take us back to the orphanage.
After returning I took a shower and got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving dinner because today is Candian Thanksgiving and Coco is from Canada. It was tasty!
After dinner we watched Hotel for Dogs with the kids and they seemed to love it. The group that is here brought some candy to give them so I know they loved that!
After the movie, one of the boys starting screaming inside his ramada (where they are sleeping) and there was a huge tarantula in there. Coco had to go kill it and apparently she said it was about the size of a hamburger patty. I'm glad I didn't see that alive! AHHH!
Hopefully they won't be in my room! :) Good night, I'm running to El Morro tomorrow with Christine in the morning. About a 45 minute run, so it should be fun times! :)
http://picasaweb.google.com/Geedz913/October2009?feat=email#
So this morning we went to Rosa Semestre to teach Nutrition. Our first class was 5th graders and it went well. It was a little rough at the start as it always is, trying to figure out how to jump in and start teaching but as the hour progressed the group did well and the kids were well engaged and having fun. I just sat in the classroom and helped out as needed. After teaching about carbohydrates, proteins, and fats we had 30 minutes of recess with the kids. We went outside and played Down By The Banks with several of the kids. They love it when the Americans come, and sometimes get a little wild! But it is fun to get to hang out with some other kids in town.
After teaching we walked back to the orphanage for the group to prepare more lesson plans and get ready for lunch. I checked a few emails and did some work for other stuff. After lunch I went and hung out with the kiddos. The kids were still eating/finishing up lunch so I went in their eating area and found my boyfriend, Luis Alberto. He had finished eating so we went outside and sat at the mesita. Jochi, one of the older boys, had returned to me a coloring book I had let him borrow. This had all kinds of dinosaurs and large cat/tiger like prehistoric creatures on the front. Luis Alberto was naming all of the animals on the book with names of the volunteers here. It was cute and he and I were the Tyrannosauras Rex so we won because we could eat everyone else!
Vivian brought out a baseball and bat and a couple of boys went to play baseball. It was super cute because Luis Alberto was in the way back of the field, which is in one of my pictures. He was back by the workshop and could only catch the balls once they stopped. He'd try to catch them as the were rolling towards him and he couldn't. It was adorable but he kept trying hard! I saw Tito's foot again, which was covered by a new band-aid but still looked pretty clean. But the sad part of it all is that he came out walking on the grounds with no shoes again, just the band-aid. Apparently a large gash with painful cleaning wasn't enough to teach him to wear his shoes!
I came inside around 2pm and read some more of my book before heading off for afternoon teaching at the local school. We walked into school for the afternoon. This time my group was teaching 6th grade. They were a little more challenging, not wanting to participate or pay attention. Some wanted to go to the bathroom and leave but I laid the law down and made them stay put!
After school we went to Lilo's the super market to give them a chance to buy snacks and stuff they want to take back with them. I got some Lime Lay's chips which are always tasty. I ate like half a small bag and shared the rest with two of the orphanage kids that were on the bus that picked us up to take us back to the orphanage.
After returning I took a shower and got ready for dinner. For dinner, we had Thanksgiving dinner because today is Candian Thanksgiving and Coco is from Canada. It was tasty!
After dinner we watched Hotel for Dogs with the kids and they seemed to love it. The group that is here brought some candy to give them so I know they loved that!
After the movie, one of the boys starting screaming inside his ramada (where they are sleeping) and there was a huge tarantula in there. Coco had to go kill it and apparently she said it was about the size of a hamburger patty. I'm glad I didn't see that alive! AHHH!
Hopefully they won't be in my room! :) Good night, I'm running to El Morro tomorrow with Christine in the morning. About a 45 minute run, so it should be fun times! :)
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Week 2 Complete...WOW!
It is crazy to think I've been here only 2 weeks, it feels like much longer than that!
Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. In the morning we took a boat ride out in the ocean to the mangroves which are trees that grow in the salt water to protect wildlife such as baby fish, crabs, etc. We drove back into the mangroves and hung out at this little dock area. We sat around, swam in the water that was about shoulder deep on me and clear so you could see the bottom. It was very relaxing and nice to get some sun!
After leaving the mangroves we came back for lunch and then helped clean up the almacen, where all the supplies are stored. We had to put away donations from the team that came before I arrived so that we would have space to unload the donations the new team would bring. After cleaning we went to town and went to the grocery store to get snacks and went for ice cream! It was very yummy!
Afterwards we returned back to the orphanage and I took a nap because the sun wore me out from earlier and Sharon had done a workout with me that wore me out that morning. After my siesta I went and played with the kids and got to visit with two older boys that are from Monte Cristi that grew up hanging out here. They go to college now about 2 hours away so they were in visiting for the weekend and I got to catch up with them.
After dinner, I met with Coco to discuss the mission of the Health Corps program and lay out our goals for this coming spring. This led up until movie night in Coco's apartment. We watched Twilight and it was good, I enjoyed it! After the movie Coco and I finished up working on a slideshow presentation that I needed to do this afternoon. The team from Villanova arrived about 11:30 and we helped them unload and get settled. After that I headed to bed!
Today was a little different because we have a group here now and the dynamics always change a little. We had breakfast and then orientation. We played an ice breaker, get to know you game, followed by introductions and the Orphanage Outreach principles. The group is small, only 15 people so it is nice and they all seem friendly and like they are going to be fun to have around. After this, I met again with Coco to finish up what we had worked on last night and this lasted until lunchtime.
Tito, one of the 5 year old boys, apparently cut his foot outside yesterday playing without his shoes on. This is a big problem here, the kids constantly running around without shoes and getting cuts on their feet because of all the trash on the ground. One of the interns mentioned it to me so I took a look and he had a nice 1 inch gash on the bottom of his foot full of dirt and gravel. We asked Marta, Pastor Ramon's wife, if I could help by cleaning it out and I sat down, with some help of others to hold him still and we washed it out as best as I could. I then wrapped it up trying to keep it clean from his dirty shoes and the dust that flys around constantly. I felt bad because he was crying because it was so tender but maybe it will teach some of the kids to wear their shoes...probably not!
After "doctoring" his foot I went to finish a short picture slideshow that I made for a small group of girls that are going to be teaching Nutrition this week in one of the local schools. I then met with them and we discussed a little bit about health care in the DR, I showed them some pictures of the hospital and some clinic outreach we did in the spring and I gave them an outline for what they will be teaching this week.
After this I went to spend time with the kiddos because I didn't get to see them much at all on Saturday or this morning. I hung out with some of the town boys that were back visiting. They all speak English really well so it is nice to speak to them! I then went and saw the perrito. There is a little puppy here about 1-2 months old that the kids love playing with. Merry took me over to see the puppy for a little while. They are so mean to pets here so I have a hard time "playing" with the puppy!
Yanina is the oldest girl here, she is 19 years old but mentally handicapped so she has been allowed to stay to help out and take care of the younger kids. She understands a lot of English but told Coco she wants to learn more to be able to speak it. I worked with her some having her say the alphabet and count up to 40. She knows more than this I think but she is so shy she just laughs and won't talk. Yesterday I was saying one of the boys names, Mancho, and she started singing Macho Macho Man, I want to be a Macho Man. It was hilarious!
For the last 20-30 minutes before dinner some of the little girls were playing baseball, or just hitting the ball back and forth with Bryson. Joanni, a girl that is about 5-6 wanted to play so I pitched to her and she was hitting it pretty well. She would get so excited and yell, look how far I hit it! We played this for a while and it was fun although I got my exercise chasing after her hits!
After dinner I got ready for church and we went to church. This week Pastor Ramon was preaching so it was a lot more enjoyable.
Tomorrow I go to Rosa Semestre, one of the local schools, and help the Nutrition group out with anything they might need. I'm excited to see how this goes because this is the first health unit that I have worked on and I am interested to see how things go and what activities, ideas this group comes up with. They will teach for an hour in the morning and then have recess for 15 minutes. They will then do the same thing in the afternoon and then afterwards we'll go do some cultural activity in town with them before dinner. It should be fun hanging out and getting to know them better.
I'm still working on pictures and hope to get some up tonight!
And a late and apologetic shout out to LauraMarie who got married on Friday! Wow, that is crazy but I am so happy for you and wish you the best as you start your new adventure in NY. We'll miss you in KY but know you will do great and be so happy with your new husband! :)
Yesterday was a nice relaxing day. In the morning we took a boat ride out in the ocean to the mangroves which are trees that grow in the salt water to protect wildlife such as baby fish, crabs, etc. We drove back into the mangroves and hung out at this little dock area. We sat around, swam in the water that was about shoulder deep on me and clear so you could see the bottom. It was very relaxing and nice to get some sun!
After leaving the mangroves we came back for lunch and then helped clean up the almacen, where all the supplies are stored. We had to put away donations from the team that came before I arrived so that we would have space to unload the donations the new team would bring. After cleaning we went to town and went to the grocery store to get snacks and went for ice cream! It was very yummy!
Afterwards we returned back to the orphanage and I took a nap because the sun wore me out from earlier and Sharon had done a workout with me that wore me out that morning. After my siesta I went and played with the kids and got to visit with two older boys that are from Monte Cristi that grew up hanging out here. They go to college now about 2 hours away so they were in visiting for the weekend and I got to catch up with them.
After dinner, I met with Coco to discuss the mission of the Health Corps program and lay out our goals for this coming spring. This led up until movie night in Coco's apartment. We watched Twilight and it was good, I enjoyed it! After the movie Coco and I finished up working on a slideshow presentation that I needed to do this afternoon. The team from Villanova arrived about 11:30 and we helped them unload and get settled. After that I headed to bed!
Today was a little different because we have a group here now and the dynamics always change a little. We had breakfast and then orientation. We played an ice breaker, get to know you game, followed by introductions and the Orphanage Outreach principles. The group is small, only 15 people so it is nice and they all seem friendly and like they are going to be fun to have around. After this, I met again with Coco to finish up what we had worked on last night and this lasted until lunchtime.
Tito, one of the 5 year old boys, apparently cut his foot outside yesterday playing without his shoes on. This is a big problem here, the kids constantly running around without shoes and getting cuts on their feet because of all the trash on the ground. One of the interns mentioned it to me so I took a look and he had a nice 1 inch gash on the bottom of his foot full of dirt and gravel. We asked Marta, Pastor Ramon's wife, if I could help by cleaning it out and I sat down, with some help of others to hold him still and we washed it out as best as I could. I then wrapped it up trying to keep it clean from his dirty shoes and the dust that flys around constantly. I felt bad because he was crying because it was so tender but maybe it will teach some of the kids to wear their shoes...probably not!
After "doctoring" his foot I went to finish a short picture slideshow that I made for a small group of girls that are going to be teaching Nutrition this week in one of the local schools. I then met with them and we discussed a little bit about health care in the DR, I showed them some pictures of the hospital and some clinic outreach we did in the spring and I gave them an outline for what they will be teaching this week.
After this I went to spend time with the kiddos because I didn't get to see them much at all on Saturday or this morning. I hung out with some of the town boys that were back visiting. They all speak English really well so it is nice to speak to them! I then went and saw the perrito. There is a little puppy here about 1-2 months old that the kids love playing with. Merry took me over to see the puppy for a little while. They are so mean to pets here so I have a hard time "playing" with the puppy!
Yanina is the oldest girl here, she is 19 years old but mentally handicapped so she has been allowed to stay to help out and take care of the younger kids. She understands a lot of English but told Coco she wants to learn more to be able to speak it. I worked with her some having her say the alphabet and count up to 40. She knows more than this I think but she is so shy she just laughs and won't talk. Yesterday I was saying one of the boys names, Mancho, and she started singing Macho Macho Man, I want to be a Macho Man. It was hilarious!
For the last 20-30 minutes before dinner some of the little girls were playing baseball, or just hitting the ball back and forth with Bryson. Joanni, a girl that is about 5-6 wanted to play so I pitched to her and she was hitting it pretty well. She would get so excited and yell, look how far I hit it! We played this for a while and it was fun although I got my exercise chasing after her hits!
After dinner I got ready for church and we went to church. This week Pastor Ramon was preaching so it was a lot more enjoyable.
Tomorrow I go to Rosa Semestre, one of the local schools, and help the Nutrition group out with anything they might need. I'm excited to see how this goes because this is the first health unit that I have worked on and I am interested to see how things go and what activities, ideas this group comes up with. They will teach for an hour in the morning and then have recess for 15 minutes. They will then do the same thing in the afternoon and then afterwards we'll go do some cultural activity in town with them before dinner. It should be fun hanging out and getting to know them better.
I'm still working on pictures and hope to get some up tonight!
And a late and apologetic shout out to LauraMarie who got married on Friday! Wow, that is crazy but I am so happy for you and wish you the best as you start your new adventure in NY. We'll miss you in KY but know you will do great and be so happy with your new husband! :)
Friday, October 9, 2009
El Fin De La Semana (The End of the Week)
Just a little belated Happy Birthday wish to Tracy because I didn't post it yesterday! Sorry but hope you had a great birthday! Also, a little shout out to Laura and Brian who are running the Bourbon Chase tonight and tomorrow, hope you are having fun!
So today was just a work day around the orphanage. I drove the teachers into the English Institute and then went to the bank and post office with Coco for a little bit. After I got back I worked some on the health slideshow presentation that I am going to help put together for the groups as a basic information/background about the DR health care system and what our goals are for education and clinic outreach. This took a while because there are a lot of statistics that I had to read through, etc.
For lunch we had Italian day. Coco made veggie lasagna, pesto pasta and bruschetta. It was all very good! After lunch, I read some of my book, Better. For those of you reading this in healthcare, I highly suggest it and that is big coming from me who doesn't enjoy reading! :)
I then took advantage of the siesta because I was tired for some reason today!
After siesta, I worked again for several hours on the slideshow information, basically until time to leave for dinner. I did get to go over and say high to the kids for about 10 minutes before dinner. Pastor was passing out sugar cane candy and gave me a piece. It was very sweet and tasty. I was going to save it for after dinner because we were leaving so soon but one of the twins, Arianni kept screaming at me, Eat it, Eat it, Eat it, so I gave in to her cute irresistible smile.
I once again drove the troops to the pizza place for dinner. Coco wanted me to experience driving in the dark. It is a little different because there were people walking down the streets, etc. with no street lights and some motos don't have lights so it made it interesting. Also, somewhere on one of the streets I had shifted to 3rd instead of 1st and was trying to go through the dips and take off in 3rd and stalled twice. I couldn't figure out why when I was laying my foot on the gas it still was chugging along and trying to stall. Well after not being able to start the car twice in a row, Coco suggested that maybe I wasn't in 1st and I wasn't! Oops! It got a lot easier after that! :)
We had dinner at the pizza place and about 5-10 minutes into dinner the power went out and it was pitch black. All we had were our cell phones to add light to the table. The power would come on and turn off because apparently their generator wasn't working, until about the 3rd time it went out for good. Luckily the oven was a big fire pizza oven so they were able to keep cooking. They brought out several candles for us to eat by candlelight and it was actually very nice. They don't have candle holders here, instead they brought out what looked like french onion soup bowls and to get the candle to stand upright you had to drip some wax into the bottom of the bowl and then stick the candle into the wax and let it dry. Very creative!
So after dinner, I got drive home again! It is more fun sitting in the back and just chatting it up instead of driving because there is so much to pay attention to while driving. For example, a child was running within arm's length distance from my door on the way home and scared me when I turned my head to look out my window. He was so close and it was dark so I could have easily hit him especially since you are constantly driving all over the road to avoid dips and holes.
Tomorrow we are headed to the mangroves where we will take a boat ride out to where the mangrove trees grow and we can swim and hang out on the "beach" area. I'm looking forward to this to get some rest and relaxation.
Today I found out that next week I'll be taking a group of 4 students to one of the local schools where they will be teaching Nutrition all week. It should be a nice change in the schedule although I still have a lot of work to do here!
Have a great weekend! I'm still working on uploading my pictures but Kodak changed their website and it isn't working correctly. I may have to change which website I use! I'll post a new link once I get some new ones up!
So today was just a work day around the orphanage. I drove the teachers into the English Institute and then went to the bank and post office with Coco for a little bit. After I got back I worked some on the health slideshow presentation that I am going to help put together for the groups as a basic information/background about the DR health care system and what our goals are for education and clinic outreach. This took a while because there are a lot of statistics that I had to read through, etc.
For lunch we had Italian day. Coco made veggie lasagna, pesto pasta and bruschetta. It was all very good! After lunch, I read some of my book, Better. For those of you reading this in healthcare, I highly suggest it and that is big coming from me who doesn't enjoy reading! :)
I then took advantage of the siesta because I was tired for some reason today!
After siesta, I worked again for several hours on the slideshow information, basically until time to leave for dinner. I did get to go over and say high to the kids for about 10 minutes before dinner. Pastor was passing out sugar cane candy and gave me a piece. It was very sweet and tasty. I was going to save it for after dinner because we were leaving so soon but one of the twins, Arianni kept screaming at me, Eat it, Eat it, Eat it, so I gave in to her cute irresistible smile.
I once again drove the troops to the pizza place for dinner. Coco wanted me to experience driving in the dark. It is a little different because there were people walking down the streets, etc. with no street lights and some motos don't have lights so it made it interesting. Also, somewhere on one of the streets I had shifted to 3rd instead of 1st and was trying to go through the dips and take off in 3rd and stalled twice. I couldn't figure out why when I was laying my foot on the gas it still was chugging along and trying to stall. Well after not being able to start the car twice in a row, Coco suggested that maybe I wasn't in 1st and I wasn't! Oops! It got a lot easier after that! :)
We had dinner at the pizza place and about 5-10 minutes into dinner the power went out and it was pitch black. All we had were our cell phones to add light to the table. The power would come on and turn off because apparently their generator wasn't working, until about the 3rd time it went out for good. Luckily the oven was a big fire pizza oven so they were able to keep cooking. They brought out several candles for us to eat by candlelight and it was actually very nice. They don't have candle holders here, instead they brought out what looked like french onion soup bowls and to get the candle to stand upright you had to drip some wax into the bottom of the bowl and then stick the candle into the wax and let it dry. Very creative!
So after dinner, I got drive home again! It is more fun sitting in the back and just chatting it up instead of driving because there is so much to pay attention to while driving. For example, a child was running within arm's length distance from my door on the way home and scared me when I turned my head to look out my window. He was so close and it was dark so I could have easily hit him especially since you are constantly driving all over the road to avoid dips and holes.
Tomorrow we are headed to the mangroves where we will take a boat ride out to where the mangrove trees grow and we can swim and hang out on the "beach" area. I'm looking forward to this to get some rest and relaxation.
Today I found out that next week I'll be taking a group of 4 students to one of the local schools where they will be teaching Nutrition all week. It should be a nice change in the schedule although I still have a lot of work to do here!
Have a great weekend! I'm still working on uploading my pictures but Kodak changed their website and it isn't working correctly. I may have to change which website I use! I'll post a new link once I get some new ones up!
Thursday, October 8, 2009
The Running of the Bulls
Ok so maybe the running of the single bull but on my run home this morning there was a cow/bull running in front of me on the neighborhood street. This is something we see commonly here, cattle being herded, goats roaming around for food and dogs everywhere. It was funny, because I think the cow thought I was herding it so it kept running when normally they just walk slowly but it turned up a different street and I kept going. Not something you do everyday in the states, unless you work/live on a farm of course!
After breakfast I finished up the Nutrition Unit working on the food borne illnesses that a person can get from contaminated food. Makes me want to wash my hands really well after reading about Shigella and all the nasty bacterias! Over 60% of chicken and its juices contains Campylobacter so make sure you cook it well and wash your hands well after touching raw chicken!
For lunch today Coco make Green Curry which was pretty good. Not sure I've had it before but I enjoyed it. After lunch I went to the mesita (a little table) where the kids like to hang out and we read some books with the kiddos. I also had a tickling fest with Lisy one of the younger girls.
This afternoon I went to Batey Isabel and Sharon came with me just to see what it was like. I didn't do much today because they had 2 facilitator women, plus the nurse and the Korean nurse Sarah. Today is Sarah's last day before heading back to Korea so I let her do the vaccinations and stuff since she's been there 2 years and I figured she would like to get to do stuff her last day. I did look in a little 10 month old boy's ear and he had otitis externa. Brian, you should be proud! :) He was crying so hard because his poor little ear hurt. Dr. Garcia then saw the patient and asked what I thought he had. To examen the baby, instead of using his otoscope he smelled his ear. Talk about rural medicine! They brought us Orange Fanta to drink while we were there which is so nice because these people with so little are always so giving!
After leaving we returned to the orphanage where I played with some kids again before dinner. Arianni, one of the twins, was standing on the patio wall and jumping out to me. She kept telling me to move further back and she would jump to my arms, like a little kid does off the side of the pool. Then out came her sister, Ari, who wanted to participate although she was a little more scared and I couldn't go quite as far away for her. They are so crazy and daring here!
We went to the mesita again and read some more books. Well, they just flip through the books and "read". Arianni was reading a book about chickens and she was saying, this little one wanted to go to church but he couldn't because he was dirty, she turned the page and said and this little bitty one wanted to go to school but he couldn't. She was too funny!
After dinner it was free night with the kids so again I played with them. I went out to the playground for a little bit and they have been vaccinating in the public schools this week so Yessica, an 11 year old girl, was telling me that her arm hurt and was swollen from her shot today. I told her it would be better in a few days and better than getting tetanus but had to explain to her what that was because she had no clue what her shot was for. I pushed some of the 10-12 year old girls on the swings. There were four of them going at once, and just needed starter pushes. The two swings on the ends are close to trees so two of the girls were swinging half way into the tree limbs!
After this I went back over to the patio because it started getting dark. I was tickling Carmelo for a while and he was too funny. He'd lift his arm up for a split second and I'd try to tickle him real quick. Then he started walking around with his arms up in the air and I would try to tickle him but then pick him up and hold him upside down by his knees and tickle his inner knees! This went on for a while, until Lisy again came up and wanted tickled! Later I played with Merry, the mentally handicapped little girl and she was wanting me to do what I had done with Carmelo and at one point was jumping off a step and counting 1,2,3 (which is big for her!) and jumping like I had done with the little girls earlier. It is amazing the progress she has made and how much she understands but just cannot speak.
After parting from the kids, some of us went up to Coco's apartment for popcorn that she made on the stove top. It was pretty tasty! We just sat around and chatted for a while until time to come back to our rooms to call it a night.
Tomorrow I'll be at the orphanage all day working on a health care slideshow to show the teams what the hospital, rehab center, and drug rehab center look like along with giving them a taste of what the DR's health system is like. I'll also probably start another unit and get moving on that one! We get to go for pizza again tomorrow night so that is exciting!
Hope everyone is doing well. Looks like it is getting chilly there, at least at night! Think of me if you feel cold, know that I'm sweating constantly but enjoying it! :) Miss you all! I'll try to download my pictures tomorrow but couldn't get them to go yesterday either! Sorry but maybe tomorrow if everyone is gone and off the internet the speed will be a little better!
After breakfast I finished up the Nutrition Unit working on the food borne illnesses that a person can get from contaminated food. Makes me want to wash my hands really well after reading about Shigella and all the nasty bacterias! Over 60% of chicken and its juices contains Campylobacter so make sure you cook it well and wash your hands well after touching raw chicken!
For lunch today Coco make Green Curry which was pretty good. Not sure I've had it before but I enjoyed it. After lunch I went to the mesita (a little table) where the kids like to hang out and we read some books with the kiddos. I also had a tickling fest with Lisy one of the younger girls.
This afternoon I went to Batey Isabel and Sharon came with me just to see what it was like. I didn't do much today because they had 2 facilitator women, plus the nurse and the Korean nurse Sarah. Today is Sarah's last day before heading back to Korea so I let her do the vaccinations and stuff since she's been there 2 years and I figured she would like to get to do stuff her last day. I did look in a little 10 month old boy's ear and he had otitis externa. Brian, you should be proud! :) He was crying so hard because his poor little ear hurt. Dr. Garcia then saw the patient and asked what I thought he had. To examen the baby, instead of using his otoscope he smelled his ear. Talk about rural medicine! They brought us Orange Fanta to drink while we were there which is so nice because these people with so little are always so giving!
After leaving we returned to the orphanage where I played with some kids again before dinner. Arianni, one of the twins, was standing on the patio wall and jumping out to me. She kept telling me to move further back and she would jump to my arms, like a little kid does off the side of the pool. Then out came her sister, Ari, who wanted to participate although she was a little more scared and I couldn't go quite as far away for her. They are so crazy and daring here!
We went to the mesita again and read some more books. Well, they just flip through the books and "read". Arianni was reading a book about chickens and she was saying, this little one wanted to go to church but he couldn't because he was dirty, she turned the page and said and this little bitty one wanted to go to school but he couldn't. She was too funny!
After dinner it was free night with the kids so again I played with them. I went out to the playground for a little bit and they have been vaccinating in the public schools this week so Yessica, an 11 year old girl, was telling me that her arm hurt and was swollen from her shot today. I told her it would be better in a few days and better than getting tetanus but had to explain to her what that was because she had no clue what her shot was for. I pushed some of the 10-12 year old girls on the swings. There were four of them going at once, and just needed starter pushes. The two swings on the ends are close to trees so two of the girls were swinging half way into the tree limbs!
After this I went back over to the patio because it started getting dark. I was tickling Carmelo for a while and he was too funny. He'd lift his arm up for a split second and I'd try to tickle him real quick. Then he started walking around with his arms up in the air and I would try to tickle him but then pick him up and hold him upside down by his knees and tickle his inner knees! This went on for a while, until Lisy again came up and wanted tickled! Later I played with Merry, the mentally handicapped little girl and she was wanting me to do what I had done with Carmelo and at one point was jumping off a step and counting 1,2,3 (which is big for her!) and jumping like I had done with the little girls earlier. It is amazing the progress she has made and how much she understands but just cannot speak.
After parting from the kids, some of us went up to Coco's apartment for popcorn that she made on the stove top. It was pretty tasty! We just sat around and chatted for a while until time to come back to our rooms to call it a night.
Tomorrow I'll be at the orphanage all day working on a health care slideshow to show the teams what the hospital, rehab center, and drug rehab center look like along with giving them a taste of what the DR's health system is like. I'll also probably start another unit and get moving on that one! We get to go for pizza again tomorrow night so that is exciting!
Hope everyone is doing well. Looks like it is getting chilly there, at least at night! Think of me if you feel cold, know that I'm sweating constantly but enjoying it! :) Miss you all! I'll try to download my pictures tomorrow but couldn't get them to go yesterday either! Sorry but maybe tomorrow if everyone is gone and off the internet the speed will be a little better!
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