Rain, Rain, Go Away!

Some new pictures are up, click on the same link below that I added a few days ago. Not too many pictures, sorry but there are some. I'll take some tomorrow of the English Institute and get more of the orphanage kids. They are so used to having their pictures taken that they are sometimes difficult to get pictures of!

So yesterday I went to batey Juliana. This batey used to be a pretty well populated batey with nice homes and a school for the children. I can remember driving thru 2 years ago and seeing people sitting outside of one of the houses playing cards. Now, it is run down and slowly rebuilding. Apparently a Haitan killed a Dominican and all the Dominicans fled. So now, it is occupied by all Haitans and when I was there in March it was all men. Now there are a handful of women in this batey and a few children. However, we drove thru yesterday and the houses that used to be pretty nice houses for a batey are empty, dirty and overgrow with weeds, etc. We vaccinated again like before, but much fewer people than on Monday. We were only there about 1 hour. Before we stopped at Juliana, we went to the wash station.

Banelino like I said grows bananas and ships them to Europe. Well they have wash stations on the farm where the bananas are brought, inspected, cleaned in these huges basins of water and then sprayed to preserve them and boxed up to be shipped. Here at the wash station is a main building where Dr. Garcia has what actually looks like an exam room with a table, otoscope, opthalmascope on the wall and medicine. A lot of the meds he has are ones left over from this spring when we had clinics. So we stopped so that he could fill the prescriptions for the patients he saw on Monday.

Each batey has a lady that has been trained by Dr. Garcia and they are like the "nurses" in their batey. They were taught how to take BP, blood sugars, CPR, and about vaccinations, different illnesses, etc. So each time he comes to a batey, he gives the prescriptions to this lady and she comes to the wash station where he fills the prescriptions. So, he saw these people on Monday, and they were just now getting there meds on Wednesday.

I got a little frustrated while we were at the wash station because the way he filled the prescriptions was to poor about 20-30 pills into a plastic bag and put them with the prescription to be returned to the patient. However, some patients had 2-3 meds and there was no labeling of the meds or directions for how to take them. Also, 2 patients received BP meds but only got 20 days worth. I'm sure he won't be back to their batey before they run out so then what will they do...just be out until he comes again. A viscous cycle that never ends! I suppose it is better that they get some but I felt so helpless knowing that they were getting 20 days worth and then done, not to mention who knows if they were taking it correctly. Also, he gave folic acid to a lady that was pregnant, but again only gave her about 1 month worth. Just think how easy it is to get prenatal vitamins in the states and these women get maybe 30 days worth in their pregnancy! And the other thing was he has a lot of meds there but I guess if he gave every pregnant woman 9 months worth, he would only be able to supply a few of them with enough vitamins. Oh and probably 80% of them can't read, so even if the meds had names on them or directions on the prescription they can't read that anyway.

So back to Juliana...I asked the nurse if the women there went to the hospital to deliver and she said they deliver there in the batey on the dirt floors. They have a method of putting their legs up on a chair or something and delivering the baby themselves. She said often times they deliver the baby, cut the cord, and go on their merry little way! And we think 2-3 days of being the hospital isn't long enough! I'm sure there are a lot of maternal deaths due to the lack of health care and a lot of illnesses that the babies have due to lack of treatment for stuff like STDs passed during delivery and Group B strep that is treated in the states. So Jo, no complaining when Baby G arrives :)

After the batey, we had dinner and then I played with the kids. Leonel, one of the older kids here who I know from Esperanza back when I first started coming, is a trip. He makes up story and is like a father to these kids. They all love him and it is very cute to see them interact. Luis Alberto, who is in my pictures drinking water out of the bag, is my new friend. He curled up in my lap last night for about 30 minutes and just laid there like a little baby. He is 5 years old and so cute. When you ask him in English, "What is your name?" and "How old are you?" he responds correctly!

Today, I went to the hospital in the morning. Dr. Garcia took Sarah, me, and the German student on a tour of the hospital. Still the same as when I have been there in the past and words cannot even describe the poverty of this hospital. Amazingly, people from outside regions/provinces come to this hospital because it is better than theirs. Dr. Garcia refers to the hospital as an "almacen", which in basically like a storage area. He was born there in 1954, the year that it opened. We saw several diabetic patients inpatient that had amputations, horrible wounds, etc. Also, we saw 2 newborn babies. Of course I wanted to hold them but felt awkward so I didn't ask! :) One Haitan lady that must have just had a c-section was laying in her bed with nothing but a sheet covering her bottom half. She was naked from the waist up, boobs lying everywhere and a doctor and two medical students standing over her rounding on her! Crazy stuff! I also got to see two of the doctors that I taught English to when I was here for my 2 months. I always enjoy seeing them.

This afternoon we finished up plans on the health camp and I think we are almost finished!

It has been raining here tonight so all the kids are inside their comedor (kitchen area). I'll probably head over there shortly and hang out with them. Last night, some of them were watching TV towards the end of the night and they were watching Benji, an old school movie, in English! You could barely even hear it but their eyes were glued to the TV like they were watching a children's movie in Spanish. Guess that doesn't change no matter where you live!

Tomorrow I'm going to the English Institute to check it out and see how classes run and help out in the library. The library is for students who want to stay an extra hour and have more English lessons for the day. It is also the only library in Monte Cristi where they can check out books to take home with them.

Dad, have fun in Indonesia if you read this! Don't get hurt with the natural disasters that are lurking! :) I'll post a few pictures I took yesterday and today later on this evening if we still have power!

P.S. For those of you that know Jenni (Racine) Gradek, she delivered a healthy baby boy yesterday. Blake William Gradek and said everyone is doing well!