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.