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! :)
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
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