I'm sorry I haven't been able to keep you guys updated about my totally awesome life here in Santo Domingo for this past week. I've been super busy, and enjoying everything I can. I can't believe that it's already been 5 weeks and I'll be back in the States tomorrow. I just finished packing, and it was quite depressing to say the least. Don't get me wrong, I'm happy to be going home. BUT, I absolutely love it here and there are many things that I'm going to miss. We're having a big barbecue tonight (although I'm sure there won't actually be any BBQ), and I just know I'm going to cry. It sucks having to say bye to all of these people who truly have become my family. Not only that, it's going to be hard having to wake up everyday in Texas - where the closest PRETTY beach is more than a 10 minute drive. What am I going to do without white sandy beaches, palm trees, and umbrella drinks?!
Anyway, I don't want to spend any more time on my computer - I wanna cherish the last few hours I have here. On that note, I hope you guys enjoyed reading about my crazy time here in the Dominican. Love you all and hope to see you soon! xoxo
Monday, June 25, 2012
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Días 27 y 28
I can't believe it - our last week en el hospital!
Since it's our last week, we pretty much get to go wherever we want. We start off by heading to surgery, but there really isn't anything that we haven't seen. Sadly, radiology was the same as well. After this less than memorable day, we pretty much want to just end our work week today. I mean, why keep going back to a place where we don't get to do anything anyway!
Thank goodness we actually did go back on Tuesday - one of the best work days in a long time! We went to surgery, only because we knew one of our favorite doctors, Carlos, would be there. He has been doing his rotations en quemado, but he was going to cirugía to help with some reconstructive surgery for the burn victims. Entonces, we get there and find him in quirofano 6, helping another doctor with something we had never seen before. This little child was born with 6 fingers on each hand as well as 6 toes on one of her feet. We were under the impression that there weren't actually any bones in the extra phalanges, because the doctor simply cut them off...with scissors. During this whole procedure, we were talking to and getting to know the doctor a little better. We simply asked him if we could help out with the next procedures, and he told us absolutely! There were 3 surgeries coming up, each of which required a skin graft - and there are 3 of us. How perfect!? I won't bore you with all of the gory details, but to sum it up: each of the 3 children had burns of different sizes and severities, and each had a skin graft taken from their thigh to be used to replace the damaged skin of the burn. All of us got to help out in different ways, whether it was holding tools or body parts or severing nerve endings. It was pretty cool to watch and help with. I had never seen a skin graft before, but you know those things you use to cut slices of cheese - the ones that you usually use on velveta? Well, that's what it reminded me of - just shaving off a thin layer of skin from the leg. Pretty crazy!
After work, we decided to head up to the park to play kickball and/or frisbee. Well since there are only 6 of us, we asked the local kids to play with us. Naturally, they said no. Instead, they asked us to play fútbol with them. Those of you hat know me pretty well, know that I am absolutely awful at soccer. Luckily, I didn't get hit in the face or anything too bad - just took one in the chest that wasn't exactly pain free. But, it was a lot of fun and we're thinking about going to play with them again tonight (Thursday)!
Since it's our last week, we pretty much get to go wherever we want. We start off by heading to surgery, but there really isn't anything that we haven't seen. Sadly, radiology was the same as well. After this less than memorable day, we pretty much want to just end our work week today. I mean, why keep going back to a place where we don't get to do anything anyway!
Thank goodness we actually did go back on Tuesday - one of the best work days in a long time! We went to surgery, only because we knew one of our favorite doctors, Carlos, would be there. He has been doing his rotations en quemado, but he was going to cirugía to help with some reconstructive surgery for the burn victims. Entonces, we get there and find him in quirofano 6, helping another doctor with something we had never seen before. This little child was born with 6 fingers on each hand as well as 6 toes on one of her feet. We were under the impression that there weren't actually any bones in the extra phalanges, because the doctor simply cut them off...with scissors. During this whole procedure, we were talking to and getting to know the doctor a little better. We simply asked him if we could help out with the next procedures, and he told us absolutely! There were 3 surgeries coming up, each of which required a skin graft - and there are 3 of us. How perfect!? I won't bore you with all of the gory details, but to sum it up: each of the 3 children had burns of different sizes and severities, and each had a skin graft taken from their thigh to be used to replace the damaged skin of the burn. All of us got to help out in different ways, whether it was holding tools or body parts or severing nerve endings. It was pretty cool to watch and help with. I had never seen a skin graft before, but you know those things you use to cut slices of cheese - the ones that you usually use on velveta? Well, that's what it reminded me of - just shaving off a thin layer of skin from the leg. Pretty crazy!
After work, we decided to head up to the park to play kickball and/or frisbee. Well since there are only 6 of us, we asked the local kids to play with us. Naturally, they said no. Instead, they asked us to play fútbol with them. Those of you hat know me pretty well, know that I am absolutely awful at soccer. Luckily, I didn't get hit in the face or anything too bad - just took one in the chest that wasn't exactly pain free. But, it was a lot of fun and we're thinking about going to play with them again tonight (Thursday)!
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Día 26
I finally got to go to church!
Like all new things in this country, church was quite an experience. First of all, the Church is usually a place where I feel like I always fit in. Well, I seriously felt so out of place. As usual, people were staring at us and whispering about us. On top of that, Mass started a las doce, but when we got there 5 minutes before, the church was hardly full at all. Me and Christina were super confused, but just waited for the mass to begin. Well once it started (which was surprisingly on time), people were still showing up - all the way until after the Gospel was over! I honestly couldn't believe it! Entonces, I know all of the responses throughout mass, but since everyone around me was saying everything in Spanish, it made it super difficult to focus on what I was saying - what I know by heart in English. Mass continues, and it comes time to offer peace to those around you. It was like a 10 minute party, no joke. Everyone was walking around the church, catching up with friends, having conversations, etc. After that, once it was time for communion, it was like a "free-for-all". There is usually some form of order when people receive the host, but it was kind of like, "If you want Jesus, go get you some Jesus!" People would just get up and rush to the line to receive the host, but then others just sat there and looked around for this 10 minute process. Also, there is typically wine that comes with the host - nope. Only for the Priest. It was just all a very strange experience.
The rest of our afternoon was quite relaxing. We went to the Blue Mall and saw Madagascar 3 - in Spanish! Honestly, I think it was funnier in Spanish than it would have been in English. Things don't exactly translate perfectly to Spanish, and it was pretty evident. But very funny! After that, we treated ourselves to and expensive dinner at a Spanish restaurant - mostly a Tapas Bar. Check it out!
Like all new things in this country, church was quite an experience. First of all, the Church is usually a place where I feel like I always fit in. Well, I seriously felt so out of place. As usual, people were staring at us and whispering about us. On top of that, Mass started a las doce, but when we got there 5 minutes before, the church was hardly full at all. Me and Christina were super confused, but just waited for the mass to begin. Well once it started (which was surprisingly on time), people were still showing up - all the way until after the Gospel was over! I honestly couldn't believe it! Entonces, I know all of the responses throughout mass, but since everyone around me was saying everything in Spanish, it made it super difficult to focus on what I was saying - what I know by heart in English. Mass continues, and it comes time to offer peace to those around you. It was like a 10 minute party, no joke. Everyone was walking around the church, catching up with friends, having conversations, etc. After that, once it was time for communion, it was like a "free-for-all". There is usually some form of order when people receive the host, but it was kind of like, "If you want Jesus, go get you some Jesus!" People would just get up and rush to the line to receive the host, but then others just sat there and looked around for this 10 minute process. Also, there is typically wine that comes with the host - nope. Only for the Priest. It was just all a very strange experience.
The rest of our afternoon was quite relaxing. We went to the Blue Mall and saw Madagascar 3 - in Spanish! Honestly, I think it was funnier in Spanish than it would have been in English. Things don't exactly translate perfectly to Spanish, and it was pretty evident. But very funny! After that, we treated ourselves to and expensive dinner at a Spanish restaurant - mostly a Tapas Bar. Check it out!
Día 25
Unlike Friday, Saturday was "blog-worthy!"
We got up around 9 on Saturday and wanted to head to La Zona Colonial to do some shopping. We went when we first got to the Dominican, but Aaron didn't get to come with us the first time and he really wanted to check it out. Well, I don't know if you guys have ever been to Chinatown, but this was like the Dominican version of that. Tons of shops with people yelling at you and telling you "we give you good price", and asking you to come see what else they have upstairs, blah blah blah. It was very overwhelming, to say the least! We pretty much got out of that area as fast as we could, and headed to the La Primera Catedral de las Americas (The First Cathedral of the Americas). I have never really been disrespected at a church, but there's a first time for everything. Last time we went to the Cathedral, we didn't have to pay for the skirts to cover our legs. Well, this guy was clearly doing anything he could for money. We walk up to get our skirts, and he just looks away from us as if we aren't good enough. A staring contest ensues, and a few minutes later he shoves the skirts in our face and tells us, "three skirts, three dollars." We look at each other, look at him, and explain that we didn't have to pay last time and refuse to pay this time. He repeats the price, and we decide that it's simply not worth the fight or the money. How unfortunate though, I mean...this is a church!
Anyway, we head over to a local restaurant en la plaza and had a nice three hour lunch. Our group just hung out and talked about our trip thus far - favorite experiences, what we'll miss the most, what we won't miss, etc. Well, I would have to say that my most favorite experience was when we went to the mountains, to Jarabacoa. It was just a beautiful city, and an extremely tranquillo (tranquil/peaceful) getaway. I'll miss the easy going way of life the most, by far. Everything here is just "fly by the seat of your pants", no schedules, nothing is ever on time. It truly is island time, and I surprisingly love it. I won't be ready to go back to the fast paced life of the US - always having to be on time...ahh! BUT, on the other hand, I will be ready to be back in a country where people aren't always staring at you. I almost have to give them credit for how much they can stare, and honestly not care that they're staring. Usually when you're staring at someone and they look at you, you'll look away. Not here. They seriously just keep staring until you look away. Pretty impressive actually!
A few weeks back, we bought tickets for a concert, and it was that night! Funny story - we asked our taxi driver what time the concert started. Well, he says "Juan Luis, well he is Christian. He say he start at 8, he start at 8. He no es Dominicana, he is Christian. So he start at 8." We were all just taken aback - their perception of things is just so funny to us! But anyway, we head to the house to get ready for the Juan Luis Guerra concert, and head over around 530 or so. We didn't have seats, only tickets for standing room en el terrano, which was actually the best idea ever. It ended up starting to pour down rain (like border-line-hurricance!), but that didn't stop us or the locals from singing and dancing until the rain got to be too much. The equipment wasn't exactly working properly, so we figured it was time to go. Well, our ride wasn't going to get there for about 20 or 30 minutes, so we headed to the park to pass the time. So I decided to go down the slide - naturally I went down a little to fast and of course fell straight on my butt and ended up covering myself in dirt. Typical me. But, other than that, it was an amazing experience! I mean, how often do you get to see the most famous Dominican artist in his own country!?
We got up around 9 on Saturday and wanted to head to La Zona Colonial to do some shopping. We went when we first got to the Dominican, but Aaron didn't get to come with us the first time and he really wanted to check it out. Well, I don't know if you guys have ever been to Chinatown, but this was like the Dominican version of that. Tons of shops with people yelling at you and telling you "we give you good price", and asking you to come see what else they have upstairs, blah blah blah. It was very overwhelming, to say the least! We pretty much got out of that area as fast as we could, and headed to the La Primera Catedral de las Americas (The First Cathedral of the Americas). I have never really been disrespected at a church, but there's a first time for everything. Last time we went to the Cathedral, we didn't have to pay for the skirts to cover our legs. Well, this guy was clearly doing anything he could for money. We walk up to get our skirts, and he just looks away from us as if we aren't good enough. A staring contest ensues, and a few minutes later he shoves the skirts in our face and tells us, "three skirts, three dollars." We look at each other, look at him, and explain that we didn't have to pay last time and refuse to pay this time. He repeats the price, and we decide that it's simply not worth the fight or the money. How unfortunate though, I mean...this is a church!
Anyway, we head over to a local restaurant en la plaza and had a nice three hour lunch. Our group just hung out and talked about our trip thus far - favorite experiences, what we'll miss the most, what we won't miss, etc. Well, I would have to say that my most favorite experience was when we went to the mountains, to Jarabacoa. It was just a beautiful city, and an extremely tranquillo (tranquil/peaceful) getaway. I'll miss the easy going way of life the most, by far. Everything here is just "fly by the seat of your pants", no schedules, nothing is ever on time. It truly is island time, and I surprisingly love it. I won't be ready to go back to the fast paced life of the US - always having to be on time...ahh! BUT, on the other hand, I will be ready to be back in a country where people aren't always staring at you. I almost have to give them credit for how much they can stare, and honestly not care that they're staring. Usually when you're staring at someone and they look at you, you'll look away. Not here. They seriously just keep staring until you look away. Pretty impressive actually!
A few weeks back, we bought tickets for a concert, and it was that night! Funny story - we asked our taxi driver what time the concert started. Well, he says "Juan Luis, well he is Christian. He say he start at 8, he start at 8. He no es Dominicana, he is Christian. So he start at 8." We were all just taken aback - their perception of things is just so funny to us! But anyway, we head to the house to get ready for the Juan Luis Guerra concert, and head over around 530 or so. We didn't have seats, only tickets for standing room en el terrano, which was actually the best idea ever. It ended up starting to pour down rain (like border-line-hurricance!), but that didn't stop us or the locals from singing and dancing until the rain got to be too much. The equipment wasn't exactly working properly, so we figured it was time to go. Well, our ride wasn't going to get there for about 20 or 30 minutes, so we headed to the park to pass the time. So I decided to go down the slide - naturally I went down a little to fast and of course fell straight on my butt and ended up covering myself in dirt. Typical me. But, other than that, it was an amazing experience! I mean, how often do you get to see the most famous Dominican artist in his own country!?
Monday, June 18, 2012
Día 24
Friday - just one of those days.
I don't honestly have much to say about Friday, except than it was less than memorable. Things here in the Dominican are kind of just becoming a way of life. Nothing really surprises me anymore, you know? It's weird - I've only been here a month but yet things just feel so natural. Honestly, it's going to be a culture shock going back to America. There are so many parts of this culture that I've grown accustomed to, and I don't know how it'll be without that. Even though I can't bring the Dominican home with me, there are many parts of the culture that I won't be able to get rid of. Mostly it'll be the language - I will definitely be speaking Spanglish!
Anyway, there was really nothing "blog-worthy" on Friday. Sorry to disappoint!
I don't honestly have much to say about Friday, except than it was less than memorable. Things here in the Dominican are kind of just becoming a way of life. Nothing really surprises me anymore, you know? It's weird - I've only been here a month but yet things just feel so natural. Honestly, it's going to be a culture shock going back to America. There are so many parts of this culture that I've grown accustomed to, and I don't know how it'll be without that. Even though I can't bring the Dominican home with me, there are many parts of the culture that I won't be able to get rid of. Mostly it'll be the language - I will definitely be speaking Spanglish!
Anyway, there was really nothing "blog-worthy" on Friday. Sorry to disappoint!
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Días 22 y 23
Ayer, muy mal. Pero hoy, mucho mejor. (Yesterday, very bad. But today, much better.)
Literally, we sat in a hallway for two and half hours. Just sitting there, waiting for our doctor to show up. It was absolutely ridiculous. Then, when she finally did show up, she just pawned us off on some other doctors who clearly didn't want us around. We followed them for about an hour and a half on "grand rounds", but it mainly consisted of them going to whatever room and checking out whatever patients they pleased. There was no real method to their madness, and I felt like they didn't know or care if we were there or not. When we were finally done and went back to "our" doctor, she briefly talked to us about leukemia for a little while longer and then called it a day. Yes, I'm very lucky to have this experience, but it does nothing for me if I'm just sitting in a hallway learning absolutely nothing?
Last night wasn't so bad though! We went for a run around the park, and instead of going home, we hung out and watched some of the softball games that were going on. For a while, we were standing awkwardly outside of the field. The dads that were playing were nice enough to offer us their chairs by the field, so we went around and ended up watching them play for the next two hours! We found out that all of their kids are in a baseball league, and that all of the dads play together every Wednesday. They invited us back next week, so we'll be there cheering on Los Padres!
Back to work today, and we ended up actually working - finally! We first went to oncología, but when we could find out doctor nowhere, but ditched and went back to radiology. We didn't want to sit around for another 2 hours waiting for her to show up. Well, today we asked if we could actually help out with the patients and luckily Jose said yes! Anytime a patient would come in for a CT scan or MRI, we got to take them to the bed and actually position the machines to complete whatever particular scan they needed. After that, he taught us how to work the computer and prepare the actual print-outs of the scans! Although it wasn't much, it was still something! Sadly, the day flew by - but we plan on returning tomorrow for sure.
Tonight, me and my roommate Christina are making dinner for all of our friends as well as our host mom! She cooks for us all day, every day, and we decided that she deserved a night off. We're making chicken parmesan, green beans, and pasta salad. And of course, a yummy cake for dessert! Other than that, no big plans. Maybe watching some more baseball, but we'll be heading to bed early I'm sure. Pues, necesito una siesta. Hasta mañana! (Well, I need a nap. See you tomorrow!)
Literally, we sat in a hallway for two and half hours. Just sitting there, waiting for our doctor to show up. It was absolutely ridiculous. Then, when she finally did show up, she just pawned us off on some other doctors who clearly didn't want us around. We followed them for about an hour and a half on "grand rounds", but it mainly consisted of them going to whatever room and checking out whatever patients they pleased. There was no real method to their madness, and I felt like they didn't know or care if we were there or not. When we were finally done and went back to "our" doctor, she briefly talked to us about leukemia for a little while longer and then called it a day. Yes, I'm very lucky to have this experience, but it does nothing for me if I'm just sitting in a hallway learning absolutely nothing?
Last night wasn't so bad though! We went for a run around the park, and instead of going home, we hung out and watched some of the softball games that were going on. For a while, we were standing awkwardly outside of the field. The dads that were playing were nice enough to offer us their chairs by the field, so we went around and ended up watching them play for the next two hours! We found out that all of their kids are in a baseball league, and that all of the dads play together every Wednesday. They invited us back next week, so we'll be there cheering on Los Padres!
Back to work today, and we ended up actually working - finally! We first went to oncología, but when we could find out doctor nowhere, but ditched and went back to radiology. We didn't want to sit around for another 2 hours waiting for her to show up. Well, today we asked if we could actually help out with the patients and luckily Jose said yes! Anytime a patient would come in for a CT scan or MRI, we got to take them to the bed and actually position the machines to complete whatever particular scan they needed. After that, he taught us how to work the computer and prepare the actual print-outs of the scans! Although it wasn't much, it was still something! Sadly, the day flew by - but we plan on returning tomorrow for sure.
Tonight, me and my roommate Christina are making dinner for all of our friends as well as our host mom! She cooks for us all day, every day, and we decided that she deserved a night off. We're making chicken parmesan, green beans, and pasta salad. And of course, a yummy cake for dessert! Other than that, no big plans. Maybe watching some more baseball, but we'll be heading to bed early I'm sure. Pues, necesito una siesta. Hasta mañana! (Well, I need a nap. See you tomorrow!)
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Días 20 y 21
I'm sorry I haven't been writing as much lately, I've just been having trouble finding what to say.
My first few weeks here were super exciting and we learned so many new things, but lately it just hasn't been the same. We have moved on to a new department - oncología (oncology) - but it's not what I expected I guess. I had hoped that we would be able to see more cases and patients, but the cancer wing here is rather small. On top of that, they don't have the money for expensive treatments nor do they have a large knowledge base about different types of cancer. When they see a case they've never seen before, they have to consult doctors and hospitals in the United States, and as you can imagine, that takes a lot of time and money. These past few days, we've been learning the basics of cancer - where it comes from, how it starts, why it spreads to quickly, etc. Tomorrow, we'll be learning in-depth about leukemia (which is very common in children). We have to do some research before tomorrow, so that we know the basics, but I'm very excited to hear about the most common cases here in the DR and how they treat them with such limited funds.
Being in the hospital every day, and seeing how little so many people have, makes me want to give all of my time and money to them. I've even been considering coming back and living here for a few months after I graduate. I really do love it here, but more than that, I want to do anything I can to help these people. Whether it's just coming to the hospital and playing with the children, or coming back 15 years from now and opening up my own clinic. It's going to be very hard for me to go home. It's difficult seeing so many rich people who do absolutely nothing with their money - except blow it all on themselves. There are families in this country who won't eat for days or weeks at a time, just to save money so they can afford transportation to the hospital. I feel even more guilty when I don't finish a meal here - I wish I could save it all and give it to those less fortunate.
I know that I am blessed to live in a country like America, and every day I thank God for all of my blessings. But, I'm even more blessed to be here, right now, in this country. There is so much on my mind and in my heart, but I've just been at a loss for words. I don't know how much I'll have to say these next few days, but I'll do my best to put all of these feelings into writing - and writing that will make sense to all of you. I just ask that you continue to pray for those less fortunate than you, and I pray that all of you will be fortunate enough to stumble upon an opportunity in which you can make a lasting impact on someone else's life. Dios de bendiga.
My first few weeks here were super exciting and we learned so many new things, but lately it just hasn't been the same. We have moved on to a new department - oncología (oncology) - but it's not what I expected I guess. I had hoped that we would be able to see more cases and patients, but the cancer wing here is rather small. On top of that, they don't have the money for expensive treatments nor do they have a large knowledge base about different types of cancer. When they see a case they've never seen before, they have to consult doctors and hospitals in the United States, and as you can imagine, that takes a lot of time and money. These past few days, we've been learning the basics of cancer - where it comes from, how it starts, why it spreads to quickly, etc. Tomorrow, we'll be learning in-depth about leukemia (which is very common in children). We have to do some research before tomorrow, so that we know the basics, but I'm very excited to hear about the most common cases here in the DR and how they treat them with such limited funds.
Being in the hospital every day, and seeing how little so many people have, makes me want to give all of my time and money to them. I've even been considering coming back and living here for a few months after I graduate. I really do love it here, but more than that, I want to do anything I can to help these people. Whether it's just coming to the hospital and playing with the children, or coming back 15 years from now and opening up my own clinic. It's going to be very hard for me to go home. It's difficult seeing so many rich people who do absolutely nothing with their money - except blow it all on themselves. There are families in this country who won't eat for days or weeks at a time, just to save money so they can afford transportation to the hospital. I feel even more guilty when I don't finish a meal here - I wish I could save it all and give it to those less fortunate.
I know that I am blessed to live in a country like America, and every day I thank God for all of my blessings. But, I'm even more blessed to be here, right now, in this country. There is so much on my mind and in my heart, but I've just been at a loss for words. I don't know how much I'll have to say these next few days, but I'll do my best to put all of these feelings into writing - and writing that will make sense to all of you. I just ask that you continue to pray for those less fortunate than you, and I pray that all of you will be fortunate enough to stumble upon an opportunity in which you can make a lasting impact on someone else's life. Dios de bendiga.
Sunday, June 10, 2012
Días 16 al 19
I swear, this country just keeps getting better and better! Rather than giving you every detail of my trip, I've included a lot of pictures. So, enjoy!
We left bright and early, a las ocho en la mañana, on Thursday and were in the beautiful city of Samaná by 11! We drop our stuff off at our "hotel", which is more of a motel, and head straight to the beach! Since we only had half of the day left, we drove to a beach about and hour away and enjoyed having the place all to ourselves!
The rest of the night was spent eating dinner and getting to bed early - we had a big day ahead of us. We're up by 8 on Friday morning and are off to Salto El Limon, which is a breathtaking waterfall that was well worth the trip! After about a 40 minute hike into the jungle, we find a waterfall. Needless to say, we were slightly disappointed until we found out that this was NOT the one we were here to see. 20 minutes and a trek down the mountain, we feel the spray of the massive waterfall and can't wait to dive in! Sadly, we could only jump off of the small rocks, but you can be sure that we took full advantage of those rocks. This pictures I have don't do it justice, but the 160 foot tall waterfall was beyond amazing! (Google it!) We swam around in the pool for a while, even went behind the waterfall in to a little cave. I felt like I was in a movie, no joke!
About an hour later, and we were on our way to yet another breathtaking beach in Las Terranas. This was of counse another playa that I could've stayed at all day.
As the night began to fall, the night life came alive! Since we've grown to love dancing, we head down to the local car wash. Sounded strange at first, but this was the place to be if you wanted to go dancing. We ended up spending Friday and Saturday night dancing with the locals and really enjoying the culture. I know I didn't mention Saturday during the day - but it was nothing too exciting. Just spent the whole day on a smaller island, about 20 minutes from the main land. I don't have any pictures, but you can be sure that this beach was as gorgeous as all of the others!
I don't really have much else to say. It was an amazing and relaxing weekend and it makes me want to live here, without a doubt! There's is just so much beauty in this country, and I highly recommend that you visit if you ever have the chance! Until tomorrow, duerme bien!
We left bright and early, a las ocho en la mañana, on Thursday and were in the beautiful city of Samaná by 11! We drop our stuff off at our "hotel", which is more of a motel, and head straight to the beach! Since we only had half of the day left, we drove to a beach about and hour away and enjoyed having the place all to ourselves!
The rest of the night was spent eating dinner and getting to bed early - we had a big day ahead of us. We're up by 8 on Friday morning and are off to Salto El Limon, which is a breathtaking waterfall that was well worth the trip! After about a 40 minute hike into the jungle, we find a waterfall. Needless to say, we were slightly disappointed until we found out that this was NOT the one we were here to see. 20 minutes and a trek down the mountain, we feel the spray of the massive waterfall and can't wait to dive in! Sadly, we could only jump off of the small rocks, but you can be sure that we took full advantage of those rocks. This pictures I have don't do it justice, but the 160 foot tall waterfall was beyond amazing! (Google it!) We swam around in the pool for a while, even went behind the waterfall in to a little cave. I felt like I was in a movie, no joke!
About an hour later, and we were on our way to yet another breathtaking beach in Las Terranas. This was of counse another playa that I could've stayed at all day.
As the night began to fall, the night life came alive! Since we've grown to love dancing, we head down to the local car wash. Sounded strange at first, but this was the place to be if you wanted to go dancing. We ended up spending Friday and Saturday night dancing with the locals and really enjoying the culture. I know I didn't mention Saturday during the day - but it was nothing too exciting. Just spent the whole day on a smaller island, about 20 minutes from the main land. I don't have any pictures, but you can be sure that this beach was as gorgeous as all of the others!
I don't really have much else to say. It was an amazing and relaxing weekend and it makes me want to live here, without a doubt! There's is just so much beauty in this country, and I highly recommend that you visit if you ever have the chance! Until tomorrow, duerme bien!
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Día 15
Slow start today - like always, but a powerful ending.
I'm really happy to be done with infectología - it's just not the department for me. Part of it has to do with the doctors, but I also am too afraid of catching something to enjoy the work. The doctors there were not very nice to us...actually they were pretty mean to us. And los residentes. They wouldn't answer questions, and when they asked us questions we didn't know the answers to it was like the world was coming to an end. To be honest, we couldn't stand it there and left early today to head to a different department.
One of our favorite residents, Carlos, has been going to a different department every month. Well this month, he will be working en quemado (in the burn unit). As you can imagine, this is a tough place to be. Every child is covered in burns, and we find out that some have been there as long as 8 months. So the cause of the burns? It differs in every case, but the most common cause is either house fires, or hot water. The mother could walk away from the boiling water on the stove to grab something, and the child either grabs the pan or it boils over and spills on the child. Some kids only have a few limbs burned, but some are covered from head to toe in 2nd and 3rd degree burns. The burns were even so bad on some children, that they had to amputate fingers or parts of their limbs. Not only is it extremely sad to see the children crying in pain, but the worst part is hearing them be bathed. Now a bath really only consists of a light wash down with a saline solution, but evidently it's extremely painful. The room becomes filled with a child screaming bloody murder, which causes many other children to begin to scream and cry as well. I couldn't imagine being the mother of one of these children - not only seeing your kid in pain, hearing them scream, but not being able to hold them and comfort them. It just seems like an impossible feat.
Many of the children are babies and can't really talk, or are too scared to. But, there's a girl who I can tell is just dying to talk to someone. Well, for the last 30 or so minutes of my day, I spent hanging out with her and just talking to her about life in general. I found out that she was learning how to cook spaghetti and the pot of boiling water fell of the stove, severely burning the right side of her upper body as well as almost all of her right arm. She has been in the hospital for 8 months, and is obviously ready to get out. Her favorite subject is math, she loves to color, and her favorite food is anything chocolate. La semana proxíma (next week), we plan on taking her coloring books and crayons to fill her time. We're also going to buy some suckers and candies for all of the children in the burn unit. I'm very excited - they're going to be so happy!
Deep down, I know it's a good thing to be able to see these kinds of cases. But, it's very difficult. I nearly cry when I burn myself with a curling iron - I couldn't even begin to imagine what it would feel like to have half of mi cuerpo (my body) covered in burns. Especially as un niño. Again, I ask that you keep these children in your prayers!
We head to the beach tomorrow, in Samaná, for the weekend! We're all so pumped about it too! We've heard from all of the locals that some of the most beautiful beaches in the country are in Samaná, so I'll be sure to take lots of pictures! I am taking mi computadora this weekend, so I'll keep you all updated! Abrazos y besos mis amores! (Hugs and kisses my loves!)
Tuesday, June 5, 2012
Día 14
One of the less exciting days of work, but as always - it could be worse.
Actually, we saw something kind of 'exciting' on the way to work. There was significantly more traffic than usual, and it turns out that someone se murió en el parque (died in the park) we pass on the way to work. There was quite a crowd gathered around and the police we're just beginning to show up. Our driver just kind of brushed it off, as if this thing happens all the time here. Huh, rough stuff.
Once we finally arrived en el hospital, we ended up getting split up a bit and had to do a full physical exam of some of the patients. As I mentioned yesterday, when doing the physical exam, part of it is the family history including where the family lives, their jobs, etc. It's really not an easy task when you get to the portion about their pregnancy y medical history when your medical vocabulary is limited. I got lucky and the family I spoke to was very helpful. They would finish sentences for me, talk slow enough for me to understand, and would repeat anything I didn't catch the first time around. Christina, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. The mother would literally stare at her and laugh. We were doing the best we could when asking personal questions, but she just refused to help us out. She would just give a one word answer and then proceed to laugh at us. And that's not always easy to handle. You're doing the best you can, and these people are just making fun of us. We were happy when that was over, to say the least.
Sadly, the rest of our day was muy aburrido (very boring). We hung out in radiology, but we saw no exciting casos. Just the same old things - hernias, pneumonia, and abscesses. We left work around 2, and that was it for our day. I'm sorry I don't have more for you, but today was just a slow day. Tomorrow is our last day en infectología, which is honestly fine by me. We're head to Samaná en Jueves (on Thursday), which is supposed to be a beautiful beach. I'll be taking my computer this time, so I'll do my best to post some pictures of where we're staying! Hasta mañana!
Actually, we saw something kind of 'exciting' on the way to work. There was significantly more traffic than usual, and it turns out that someone se murió en el parque (died in the park) we pass on the way to work. There was quite a crowd gathered around and the police we're just beginning to show up. Our driver just kind of brushed it off, as if this thing happens all the time here. Huh, rough stuff.
Once we finally arrived en el hospital, we ended up getting split up a bit and had to do a full physical exam of some of the patients. As I mentioned yesterday, when doing the physical exam, part of it is the family history including where the family lives, their jobs, etc. It's really not an easy task when you get to the portion about their pregnancy y medical history when your medical vocabulary is limited. I got lucky and the family I spoke to was very helpful. They would finish sentences for me, talk slow enough for me to understand, and would repeat anything I didn't catch the first time around. Christina, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. The mother would literally stare at her and laugh. We were doing the best we could when asking personal questions, but she just refused to help us out. She would just give a one word answer and then proceed to laugh at us. And that's not always easy to handle. You're doing the best you can, and these people are just making fun of us. We were happy when that was over, to say the least.
Sadly, the rest of our day was muy aburrido (very boring). We hung out in radiology, but we saw no exciting casos. Just the same old things - hernias, pneumonia, and abscesses. We left work around 2, and that was it for our day. I'm sorry I don't have more for you, but today was just a slow day. Tomorrow is our last day en infectología, which is honestly fine by me. We're head to Samaná en Jueves (on Thursday), which is supposed to be a beautiful beach. I'll be taking my computer this time, so I'll do my best to post some pictures of where we're staying! Hasta mañana!
Monday, June 4, 2012
Día 13
Fuimos a infectología hoy, y fue una experiencia (we went to infectious diseases today, and it was an experience). This post gets pretty intense, and extremely sad. I have been debating about whether to post all of this, but I feel compelled to give you the whole truth. I just want to give you all a heads up, and ask that you keep these children in your thoughts and prayers.
This week, we'll be with some residents - but these residents are super helpful and I'm pretty sure all of them speak English, which is a plus. They explain everything to us in Spanish, pero if we don't understand something, they always take the time to explain it in English. They first warn us to always wash our hands antes y después (before and after) we touch any of the children. Although not all of the diseases are contagious, many are and it would be awful for one of us to pick anything up.
We see kids with anything from whooping cough, Dengue fever, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cholera, malaria, to pneumonia. Some kids even have multiple diseases. Por ejemplo, we saw a 12 year old girl who had TB, HIV, and nemonía. Just imagine being that sick, your body having no way to fight all of these diseases, and all you can do is lay in a hospital bed. It's just awful. Another little boy had Dengue Fever. Dengue fever is a virus that is spread by mosquitoes; symptoms include a very high fiebre (fever - 104 degrees or more), fatigue, dehydration, headache, joint/muscle pain, presence of a red rash, vomiting sangre (blood), and difficulty breathing. There is no real treatment for it, just fluids and acetaminophen for fever, as well as pain relievers for any muscular/joint/abdominal pain. Well, not only did the child have many of these symptoms, but he also head very swollen lips and sores in his mouth. His lymph nodes were swollen, and they were at first unsure of what else was causing all of these reactions. Upon more testing, they discovered that on top of Dengue, he also had herpes.
As the morning went on, we began asking the residents about common cases and life in the country. I asked because whenever they do physical exams, part of the paperwork includes many preguntas about how the family lives. Por ejemplo: Where do you live? How many people live en la casa? How many beds are there? How many people sleep in each cama? What kind of house is it - tile floors or dirt floors? Etc. It seemed strange at first, but after seeing some of the impoverished areas of the country, you begin to understand why. There are areas of the city called los campos o los barrios, and they remind me of the Projects almost - but worse. There are tons of houses, or apartments, with only one or two rooms in which tons of family members live. Sometimes only 5 people, but sometimes up to 15 people can live in a small house with two beds and a couch. Do the math - there's a lot of people sleeping in each bed. If one person has some contagious disease, you can bet that more than just that one person has the disease. It's extremely sad.
Not only are living conditions rough, but you can imagine the kind of life these people live. My next question was about child abuse - is it common in this country? We had our preconceptions, assuming that there was - many children come in with "trauma". Sadly, the answer is yes. They begin to tell us about some of los pacientes that they see, and my heart just broke for these children.
Caso A: First of all, we find out that burns are very common in this country. It didn't make sense at first, but after hearing this case, I was began to understand. A little boy comes in with his whole hands and forearms just burned layers and layers deep. It turns out, his mother was addicted to cocaine. I guess on one of her highs, the little boy did something to set her off. She turned on the stove and held his hands and arms down until they were sufficiently burned. Thank God, the lady next door heard the mother yelling and the child screaming, and rushed over to take the child away from her and to the hospital. The police got involved, and luckily, this poor child is no longer in the custody of his mother.
Caso B: A dad brings his little girl in to the hospital for a "routine checkup". The doctor goes to give a physical, and the dad has already taken off her Pampers - which he is supposed to let the doctor do. This instantly raised a red flag, and the doctor began to question him as to why he did this, and asks him to put them back on her. He takes the little girl away and puts the Pampers back on in a different room. When he comes back, the doctor continues to question him, and when the time has come to remove her Pampers, they are covered in blood. I don't think this needs further explanation, considering that this is a children's hospital.
It truly breaks my heart to hear that this is common here - I have a very hard time fathoming it to be honest. This really is an experience of a life time. In America, although things like this do happen, it's not very common, and it's even less common for these children to be brought out into a public place such as a hospital. Again, I ask that you keep this children in your thoughts and prayers. Dios de bendiga (God Bless).
This week, we'll be with some residents - but these residents are super helpful and I'm pretty sure all of them speak English, which is a plus. They explain everything to us in Spanish, pero if we don't understand something, they always take the time to explain it in English. They first warn us to always wash our hands antes y después (before and after) we touch any of the children. Although not all of the diseases are contagious, many are and it would be awful for one of us to pick anything up.
We see kids with anything from whooping cough, Dengue fever, Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, cholera, malaria, to pneumonia. Some kids even have multiple diseases. Por ejemplo, we saw a 12 year old girl who had TB, HIV, and nemonía. Just imagine being that sick, your body having no way to fight all of these diseases, and all you can do is lay in a hospital bed. It's just awful. Another little boy had Dengue Fever. Dengue fever is a virus that is spread by mosquitoes; symptoms include a very high fiebre (fever - 104 degrees or more), fatigue, dehydration, headache, joint/muscle pain, presence of a red rash, vomiting sangre (blood), and difficulty breathing. There is no real treatment for it, just fluids and acetaminophen for fever, as well as pain relievers for any muscular/joint/abdominal pain. Well, not only did the child have many of these symptoms, but he also head very swollen lips and sores in his mouth. His lymph nodes were swollen, and they were at first unsure of what else was causing all of these reactions. Upon more testing, they discovered that on top of Dengue, he also had herpes.
As the morning went on, we began asking the residents about common cases and life in the country. I asked because whenever they do physical exams, part of the paperwork includes many preguntas about how the family lives. Por ejemplo: Where do you live? How many people live en la casa? How many beds are there? How many people sleep in each cama? What kind of house is it - tile floors or dirt floors? Etc. It seemed strange at first, but after seeing some of the impoverished areas of the country, you begin to understand why. There are areas of the city called los campos o los barrios, and they remind me of the Projects almost - but worse. There are tons of houses, or apartments, with only one or two rooms in which tons of family members live. Sometimes only 5 people, but sometimes up to 15 people can live in a small house with two beds and a couch. Do the math - there's a lot of people sleeping in each bed. If one person has some contagious disease, you can bet that more than just that one person has the disease. It's extremely sad.
Not only are living conditions rough, but you can imagine the kind of life these people live. My next question was about child abuse - is it common in this country? We had our preconceptions, assuming that there was - many children come in with "trauma". Sadly, the answer is yes. They begin to tell us about some of los pacientes that they see, and my heart just broke for these children.
Caso A: First of all, we find out that burns are very common in this country. It didn't make sense at first, but after hearing this case, I was began to understand. A little boy comes in with his whole hands and forearms just burned layers and layers deep. It turns out, his mother was addicted to cocaine. I guess on one of her highs, the little boy did something to set her off. She turned on the stove and held his hands and arms down until they were sufficiently burned. Thank God, the lady next door heard the mother yelling and the child screaming, and rushed over to take the child away from her and to the hospital. The police got involved, and luckily, this poor child is no longer in the custody of his mother.
Caso B: A dad brings his little girl in to the hospital for a "routine checkup". The doctor goes to give a physical, and the dad has already taken off her Pampers - which he is supposed to let the doctor do. This instantly raised a red flag, and the doctor began to question him as to why he did this, and asks him to put them back on her. He takes the little girl away and puts the Pampers back on in a different room. When he comes back, the doctor continues to question him, and when the time has come to remove her Pampers, they are covered in blood. I don't think this needs further explanation, considering that this is a children's hospital.
It truly breaks my heart to hear that this is common here - I have a very hard time fathoming it to be honest. This really is an experience of a life time. In America, although things like this do happen, it's not very common, and it's even less common for these children to be brought out into a public place such as a hospital. Again, I ask that you keep this children in your thoughts and prayers. Dios de bendiga (God Bless).
Días 11 y 12
Buen día amores! Off to Jarabacoa for the weekend!
Jarabacoa is a small little town up in the mountains, and we all decided to set our expectations pretty low as we didn't want to be disappointed. We get to the town about 3 hours after we left Santo Domingo, and it's a small little town which is fine by us. Well, we turn off on to a dirt road and all of us start to get a little nervous. There are some mansions on this road, but there are also some tiny little houses - so naturally we assume that we're going to be staying in a small little place. About 5 minutes down the dirt road, we turn into a property that's gated...ehh, maybe we missed it and are just turning around? To our surprise, a guy opens up the gate and reveals to us the mansion we'll be living in for the weekend. This place is absolutely gorgeous - something out of a magazine for sure. The entire house is made of wood, the whole second floor opens up to make a large balcony, and the whole place sits on the side of a mountain. Just look at this place, and the view we have!
As much as we wanted to just hang out at the house, Miguel (the guy who took us to the house - it's his dad's) told us that we should go check out the rivers and what not. Of course we say yes, and we're off to los rios (the rivers). A 10 minute drive and we pull into another parque nacional, and the big sign tells us that we're heading to Salto Biguate. We're in the heart of the mountains - literally walking on a ledge on the side of the mountains - heading toward a 25 meter waterfall. The place is just absolutely breathtaking, to say the least. Although the pool of water at the base isn't quite deep enough for us to dive in to, we wade in and spend la hora proxima (the next hour) swimming and just enjoying it all. I mean, how often do you get to play in a waterfall/river in the middle of the mountains?? It was just unreal!
We headed back to the house for dinner, and after dinner headed into town para bailar toda la noche (to dance all night)!! It was a little intimidating at first because everyone here is so good at dancing, but they are very good at teaching you how do dance. So, by the end of the night none of us could stop dancing el merengue, la machata, y salsa (the merengue, the machete, and salsa)! Even though we were absolutely exhausted the next day, it was well worth it. We even ended up going hiking again and wound up in another river, jumping off the small cliffs and really enjoying the little bit of time we had left in this sanctuary.
On the way home, we stopped in some town (no, I don't know el nobre) to check out a really beautiful catedral (cathedral). We haven't had time to actually go to church (I'm sorry Father Sean!!), but we have seen not only this beautiful church, but we also got to see La Primera Catedral de las Americas (The First Cathedral of the Americas). Although the outside of these churches isn't exactly flattering, the amazing architecture on the inside is just overwhelming. El primero fotó es de la Primera Catedral, y el segundo es de la otra iglesia (The first picture is the First Cathedral, and the second is the other church).
Anyway, that's all I have from the weekend! Hope yours was amazing! Con amor!
Jarabacoa is a small little town up in the mountains, and we all decided to set our expectations pretty low as we didn't want to be disappointed. We get to the town about 3 hours after we left Santo Domingo, and it's a small little town which is fine by us. Well, we turn off on to a dirt road and all of us start to get a little nervous. There are some mansions on this road, but there are also some tiny little houses - so naturally we assume that we're going to be staying in a small little place. About 5 minutes down the dirt road, we turn into a property that's gated...ehh, maybe we missed it and are just turning around? To our surprise, a guy opens up the gate and reveals to us the mansion we'll be living in for the weekend. This place is absolutely gorgeous - something out of a magazine for sure. The entire house is made of wood, the whole second floor opens up to make a large balcony, and the whole place sits on the side of a mountain. Just look at this place, and the view we have!
As much as we wanted to just hang out at the house, Miguel (the guy who took us to the house - it's his dad's) told us that we should go check out the rivers and what not. Of course we say yes, and we're off to los rios (the rivers). A 10 minute drive and we pull into another parque nacional, and the big sign tells us that we're heading to Salto Biguate. We're in the heart of the mountains - literally walking on a ledge on the side of the mountains - heading toward a 25 meter waterfall. The place is just absolutely breathtaking, to say the least. Although the pool of water at the base isn't quite deep enough for us to dive in to, we wade in and spend la hora proxima (the next hour) swimming and just enjoying it all. I mean, how often do you get to play in a waterfall/river in the middle of the mountains?? It was just unreal!
We headed back to the house for dinner, and after dinner headed into town para bailar toda la noche (to dance all night)!! It was a little intimidating at first because everyone here is so good at dancing, but they are very good at teaching you how do dance. So, by the end of the night none of us could stop dancing el merengue, la machata, y salsa (the merengue, the machete, and salsa)! Even though we were absolutely exhausted the next day, it was well worth it. We even ended up going hiking again and wound up in another river, jumping off the small cliffs and really enjoying the little bit of time we had left in this sanctuary.
On the way home, we stopped in some town (no, I don't know el nobre) to check out a really beautiful catedral (cathedral). We haven't had time to actually go to church (I'm sorry Father Sean!!), but we have seen not only this beautiful church, but we also got to see La Primera Catedral de las Americas (The First Cathedral of the Americas). Although the outside of these churches isn't exactly flattering, the amazing architecture on the inside is just overwhelming. El primero fotó es de la Primera Catedral, y el segundo es de la otra iglesia (The first picture is the First Cathedral, and the second is the other church).
Anyway, that's all I have from the weekend! Hope yours was amazing! Con amor!
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Día 10
El Viernes (Friday) - absolutely amazing! And it wasn't even the best part of my weekend!
We get to work and we were wandering in and out of different quirofanos waiting for something super exciting to happen - mostly there was just general surgery going on. Well we walk in to room number 2, and one of the nurses asks us who wants help out with the next surgery. The patient has appendicitis and needed to get it removed. Obviously I jump at this opportunity - actually getting to scrub in and help with surgery...yes please! Well there's three of us in the hospital, and after a short discussion I end up being the one who gets to do it! (We're going to head back to surgery next week though so my friend Christina can help out with one too.) All of the doctors and nurses in the room were super helpful and extremely nice, so I ended up not being nervous at all. Although I didn't get to actually cut the appendix out or anything like that, I did get to hold back layers of skin and muscle, hand instruments, soak up blood, etc. It was so freaking cool!! Christina took some pictures of me, so below you'll get to see the progression. The first picture is me before surgery, already sterile, about to get dressed. The second picture is me chatting with the doctor, and the third is me holding back some skin and what not - super exciting! After the appendix was removed, they let me take a picture with it hahaha. This thing was huge, by the way. And extremely hard - kind of like a frozen grape. So yeah, it was a successful day at work to say the least! Next week we're heading to Infectious Diseases - should be pretty interesting.
Everyone in our group got off work early on Friday, around 1, so that we could go do some sight seeing. We first head to Los Tres Ojos, which is in un parque nacional (a national park). It's 3 lagoons that are in a system of caves. There's a fourth lagoon, but isn't considered and 'eye' simply because it's not in a cave - it's just open above it. Back in the day, the Taíno people used to live in these caves, and after we saw them we understood why. It reminded me of a scene from Pirates of the Caribbean, no joke. Sadly, the pictures I have don't do it justice, but believe when I say this place was breathtaking. We seriously wanted to just dive in to the clear blue water and spend our whole day there! The fourth lagoon, on the other hand, reminded me of a scene from Avatar. I decided that if I could live in the wild somewhere, it would be there for sure. Check it out! Oh, and the random picture of the guy in the second set - funny story. We're all sitting on this bench, just admiring the beauty of it all. He comes up and tells us that the park is closing and we had to leave. Well, he was talking so fast in Dominican and none of us had any idea what he was saying, so we literally just sat there staring and smiling at him for a solid 30 seconds. He repeated what he said, and we finally realized that he was asking us to leave. So before we leave, I ask him, "Puedes tomar un fotó por favors?" (Can you take a picture, please?) We all gather and pose, and he points the lens of the camera at himself. Uhm, is this like a joke he always plays on tourists? It's not. We're just stunned. Finally, our friend Aaron goes over and shows him how to take a picture. We pose again and I guess he didn't get it, because he points the lens at himself yet again. None of us could keep from laughing, and we just let him take the picture. What else could we do!? We show him a second time how to take the picture, and finally come up with a decent picture. It was a priceless moment to say the least!
Our day isn't over, so we head to the outskirts of Santo Domingo. Well, the outskirts is actually the coast of the country. And it's absolutely gorgeous! We don't understand how people in this country ever get anything done - I feel like I would spend all of my time wandering the country seeing all of the beautiful things! It honestly doesn't seem real to me!
We spent the rest of the night just hanging out and packing - we had a big weekend in Jarabacoa to rest up for. I'll update you all about my weekend as soon as I can tomorrow! Buena noche mis amores!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Lo siento!
So today was a super long day, and we're leaving pretty early tomorrow to go to Jarabacoa for the weekend - in which I will not be taking my computer. So, this will be my last post until Sunday night. But don't worry, I'll fill you in on everything when I get back!
Until then, have an amazing weekend and I'll talk to you soon mis amores!
Until then, have an amazing weekend and I'll talk to you soon mis amores!
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Día 9
Every day I kind of just run through my day, but I feel like I haven't gotten to tell you about life here en la Dominicana. So, today's post is going to be all about what it's like over here. It's different.
I honestly don't even know where to begin. Coming here, I had every intention of going home being fluent in español...well that's particularly difficult when the people that live here freely admit that they themselves don't speak Spanish - they all just say that they speak Dominican. Not only do they speak extremely fast, but they also drop syllables and mash a bunch of words together and it comes out like one big sound that you can't understand. My first day here, one of the moms was talking about us going to visit a place in the mountains called Jarabacoa (which we are going to this weekend), and she was talking so fast that I swore she was asking us if we had ever had Barbacoa - you know, the meat they sell at Chipotle. Good thing I didn't open my mouth and start talking about meat. If you ask them to repeat something or slow down, they assume you don't speak Spanish/Dominican and just laugh and start talking about you in 'Dominican'. I would have to say that's my biggest hardship. And it's not an easy one to just look past. Besides that, there are the small things - no air conditioning, only cold showers (every single day), crazy drivers, never being on time, the humidity, etc.
Other than that, life is really good over here. People over here really take pride in the way they dress and look. All of the locals are always wearing beautiful colors, their make up done nicely, hair curled, etc. It almost makes me jealous! The first time we went to the Blue Mall, our host mom asked us if we wanted to change or freshen up before we went out. Well, we were just wearing shorts and a relatively casual shirt, and we just told her that no, we didn't need to. She kept insisting and we just kind of brushed it off. Big mistake. We walk in to this mall and everyone just keeps staring - they're all dressed up in heels and super nice clothes and we just look like the "stupid Americans'. Bad first impression to say the least. Since then, we always take the time to put on some nice pants and at least a little bit of make up.
Don't get me wrong, even though people take care of themselves, it doesn't mean that this is a 'nice city'. The place looks broken and a bit run down. The infrastructure is terrible - potholes in the roads, really no stop signs or stop lights, old buildings, etc. I haven't taken many pictures of the city itself, but I'll try to take and post some so you can get a feel for where I'm living. The country is said to have other beautiful areas - beaches, mountains, rain forest - but Santo Domingo doesn't exactly make the list for Top 10 Places to Visit in the Dominican.
Life itself is quite relaxing, and everyone is very friendly. The people that do speak English are always willing to help you out, and even those that don't speak English are generally willing to try and help you. It's kind of weird though, I think my English is getting worse as my Spanish gets better. In my head, I'm always translating so many things back and forth that when I speak Spanish, random English words will get thrown in there - which always leads to me getting funny looks from the locals. Then, when I speak English, I either throw Spanish words in, or I speak as if I'm literally translating the Spanish. Por ejemplo, in Spanish, they don't use apostrophe's to denote a possession. Ex: Olga's house in English would translate to La Casa de Olga in Spanish. Well, instead of me saying to my friends, "Oh, I'm going to Olga's house," I'll end up saying "I'm going to the house of Olga." And even more weird than that, none of my friends seem to notice because they're doing it too. I think it's going to be hard coming back to the US and speaking English all the time! I have also noticed that when I do speak Spanish, I'm starting to drop syllables and am beginning to adapt to the Dominican style of speech. (You have no idea how many times in this post alone I've had to go back and insert letters because my spelling is just awful - but only because the words in my head are all wrong.)
This truly is one of the best experiences I've ever had...no joke. I am really starting to love this country and the people and the culture, and although I'll be ready to see my family and friends, I know that I won't be ready to leave this place. I'm not only learning to appreciate all of my blessings at home so much more, but I'm also noticing how much the little things in life really do matter. The way the people talk to each other here just makes you feel so welcome. At the end of a sentence, they'll throw in "mi amor" and it really does give you such a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I'm really having trouble putting all of this into words, so I hope this post makes at least a little bit of sense to you guys. Basically, I'm loving it here and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Hasta luego mis amores!
I honestly don't even know where to begin. Coming here, I had every intention of going home being fluent in español...well that's particularly difficult when the people that live here freely admit that they themselves don't speak Spanish - they all just say that they speak Dominican. Not only do they speak extremely fast, but they also drop syllables and mash a bunch of words together and it comes out like one big sound that you can't understand. My first day here, one of the moms was talking about us going to visit a place in the mountains called Jarabacoa (which we are going to this weekend), and she was talking so fast that I swore she was asking us if we had ever had Barbacoa - you know, the meat they sell at Chipotle. Good thing I didn't open my mouth and start talking about meat. If you ask them to repeat something or slow down, they assume you don't speak Spanish/Dominican and just laugh and start talking about you in 'Dominican'. I would have to say that's my biggest hardship. And it's not an easy one to just look past. Besides that, there are the small things - no air conditioning, only cold showers (every single day), crazy drivers, never being on time, the humidity, etc.
Other than that, life is really good over here. People over here really take pride in the way they dress and look. All of the locals are always wearing beautiful colors, their make up done nicely, hair curled, etc. It almost makes me jealous! The first time we went to the Blue Mall, our host mom asked us if we wanted to change or freshen up before we went out. Well, we were just wearing shorts and a relatively casual shirt, and we just told her that no, we didn't need to. She kept insisting and we just kind of brushed it off. Big mistake. We walk in to this mall and everyone just keeps staring - they're all dressed up in heels and super nice clothes and we just look like the "stupid Americans'. Bad first impression to say the least. Since then, we always take the time to put on some nice pants and at least a little bit of make up.
Don't get me wrong, even though people take care of themselves, it doesn't mean that this is a 'nice city'. The place looks broken and a bit run down. The infrastructure is terrible - potholes in the roads, really no stop signs or stop lights, old buildings, etc. I haven't taken many pictures of the city itself, but I'll try to take and post some so you can get a feel for where I'm living. The country is said to have other beautiful areas - beaches, mountains, rain forest - but Santo Domingo doesn't exactly make the list for Top 10 Places to Visit in the Dominican.
Life itself is quite relaxing, and everyone is very friendly. The people that do speak English are always willing to help you out, and even those that don't speak English are generally willing to try and help you. It's kind of weird though, I think my English is getting worse as my Spanish gets better. In my head, I'm always translating so many things back and forth that when I speak Spanish, random English words will get thrown in there - which always leads to me getting funny looks from the locals. Then, when I speak English, I either throw Spanish words in, or I speak as if I'm literally translating the Spanish. Por ejemplo, in Spanish, they don't use apostrophe's to denote a possession. Ex: Olga's house in English would translate to La Casa de Olga in Spanish. Well, instead of me saying to my friends, "Oh, I'm going to Olga's house," I'll end up saying "I'm going to the house of Olga." And even more weird than that, none of my friends seem to notice because they're doing it too. I think it's going to be hard coming back to the US and speaking English all the time! I have also noticed that when I do speak Spanish, I'm starting to drop syllables and am beginning to adapt to the Dominican style of speech. (You have no idea how many times in this post alone I've had to go back and insert letters because my spelling is just awful - but only because the words in my head are all wrong.)
This truly is one of the best experiences I've ever had...no joke. I am really starting to love this country and the people and the culture, and although I'll be ready to see my family and friends, I know that I won't be ready to leave this place. I'm not only learning to appreciate all of my blessings at home so much more, but I'm also noticing how much the little things in life really do matter. The way the people talk to each other here just makes you feel so welcome. At the end of a sentence, they'll throw in "mi amor" and it really does give you such a warm and fuzzy feeling.
I'm really having trouble putting all of this into words, so I hope this post makes at least a little bit of sense to you guys. Basically, I'm loving it here and I wouldn't trade it for anything! Hasta luego mis amores!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Día 8
BEST DAY EVER. Seriously though, we saw so many cool things!
It didn't start out that way though - more classroom stuff to start off our day. Or at least we thought. Turns out, we were just getting briefed on the patients that would be going in to surgery today. Thirty minutes later, and we're being dragged into some room with the residents. We make a collective decision that we don't want to be stuck doing nothing again for an entire day, so we walk out and head to surgery. You could say that we acted like we owned the place - grabbing masks, head covers, and little booties to cover nuestros zapatos (our shoes).
Off to Quirofano 7. We walk in, and the baby laying on the table has this huge pink mass of something protruding from his estómago (stomach). The large mass resembles a heart, but it's coming out of the area where you would imagine his belly button to be. Turns out, this large mass is most of his internal organs. This poor child was born without an abdominal wall to keep his insides from falling out, so basically all of his organs came out of his belly button - or so I assume from what I can see and what I can make of the doctor's explanation. In this mass, we found his kidneys, stomach, bladder, colon, and what would develop into his genitals. The doctor makes an incision above the mass and begins pulling intestines out of the incision. He has eventually pulled out so much of his intestines that he's now able to pull some of this mass back inside the gaping hole it's all hanging out of. Well that's a start. They begin to sew the baby back together, and we decide to leave. We didn't get to see the outcome, but I'm sure it ended better than it began.
And now, neurocirugía (neurosurgery). This kid's head is literally the size of a cantaloupe, or small watermelon. I'm somewhat in shock, but I can't control my laughter. That's mean, I know. But honestly, if doctors got upset about every sick child or patient that they saw, how would they make it through a day? You have to joke about your job when it's something as serious as this. I couldn't imagine being sad all the time, I would be so depressed. So instead, we laugh. The nurse explains to us that this child has a genetic defect that doesn't allow his cerebral spinal fluid to flow naturally. Instead, it all collected in his brain when he was first born, causing his skull to expand. The insane amount of pressure makes his head look like an alien's head, and his eyes look like they're about to pop out. Babies have a soft spot in their heads, called a fontanelle that allow them to come out of the birth canal with much more ease than with nothing but a hard skull. Well, over time, the soft spot becomes hard as the skull grows and closes the gap. Sadly, this baby already has a completely hard skull, thus leaving him with a permanently large head. The doctor makes a superficial incision in his stomach and forces a metal rod under his skin and up through his abdomen, neck, and finally into the skin covering his skull. He replaces the rod with a catheter that he inserts into the brain that contains the spinal fluid. In doing this, he has created a place for the fluid to go - somewhere into his abdomen - that allows the fluid to circulate through his body. Although he'll have to keep the catheter forever, there will be less pressure in his skull and less pain in every day life.
There are so many different things I saw today, each of which I could write a novel about. But I'll try to keep the rest of these cases as brief as I can. We saw something called a Sistrunk Procedure, which removes a thyroglossal cyst. This is a cyst that forms right around where an Adam's Apple would be. We watched a circumcision in a 4 year old boy - not too exciting. The last surgery we attempted to watch (before we had to leave), was another neurosurgery. We didn't get a whole lot of information on what was about to happen, but I do know what I saw. This poor 3 month old little girl, had part of her brain coming through her sinuses and sitting on the front of her face. No joke. By looking at the MRI pictures, it looked there was an enormous build up of fluid in the brain that wasn't allowing her brain to rest naturally in the skull. The only place it had to go was through her sinuses and out on to her face. I'm not sure how they planned on fixing it, but it was pretty crazy to see.
Most of these extreme cases are the result of congenital defects, and are the worst of the worst in the entire country. They may also be the result of such poor living conditions in this country - anything from toxic water, poor sanitation, bad hygiene, to poor habits during pregnancy. I wish that there was something I could do to help them all out...one day I will though. Fortunately, we met a doctor who I guess really liked us, because he told us that if we wanted to we could scrub in to surgery and actually help with the procedures. UHM YES PLEASE. Much like the 'taking blood' situation, I'm not going to get my hopes up too high until it actually happens. But this was very promising and we were told that on Friday there will be lots of surgeries that we can help out with. I'm soooo excited! Wish me luck! Adios!
It didn't start out that way though - more classroom stuff to start off our day. Or at least we thought. Turns out, we were just getting briefed on the patients that would be going in to surgery today. Thirty minutes later, and we're being dragged into some room with the residents. We make a collective decision that we don't want to be stuck doing nothing again for an entire day, so we walk out and head to surgery. You could say that we acted like we owned the place - grabbing masks, head covers, and little booties to cover nuestros zapatos (our shoes).
Off to Quirofano 7. We walk in, and the baby laying on the table has this huge pink mass of something protruding from his estómago (stomach). The large mass resembles a heart, but it's coming out of the area where you would imagine his belly button to be. Turns out, this large mass is most of his internal organs. This poor child was born without an abdominal wall to keep his insides from falling out, so basically all of his organs came out of his belly button - or so I assume from what I can see and what I can make of the doctor's explanation. In this mass, we found his kidneys, stomach, bladder, colon, and what would develop into his genitals. The doctor makes an incision above the mass and begins pulling intestines out of the incision. He has eventually pulled out so much of his intestines that he's now able to pull some of this mass back inside the gaping hole it's all hanging out of. Well that's a start. They begin to sew the baby back together, and we decide to leave. We didn't get to see the outcome, but I'm sure it ended better than it began.
And now, neurocirugía (neurosurgery). This kid's head is literally the size of a cantaloupe, or small watermelon. I'm somewhat in shock, but I can't control my laughter. That's mean, I know. But honestly, if doctors got upset about every sick child or patient that they saw, how would they make it through a day? You have to joke about your job when it's something as serious as this. I couldn't imagine being sad all the time, I would be so depressed. So instead, we laugh. The nurse explains to us that this child has a genetic defect that doesn't allow his cerebral spinal fluid to flow naturally. Instead, it all collected in his brain when he was first born, causing his skull to expand. The insane amount of pressure makes his head look like an alien's head, and his eyes look like they're about to pop out. Babies have a soft spot in their heads, called a fontanelle that allow them to come out of the birth canal with much more ease than with nothing but a hard skull. Well, over time, the soft spot becomes hard as the skull grows and closes the gap. Sadly, this baby already has a completely hard skull, thus leaving him with a permanently large head. The doctor makes a superficial incision in his stomach and forces a metal rod under his skin and up through his abdomen, neck, and finally into the skin covering his skull. He replaces the rod with a catheter that he inserts into the brain that contains the spinal fluid. In doing this, he has created a place for the fluid to go - somewhere into his abdomen - that allows the fluid to circulate through his body. Although he'll have to keep the catheter forever, there will be less pressure in his skull and less pain in every day life.
There are so many different things I saw today, each of which I could write a novel about. But I'll try to keep the rest of these cases as brief as I can. We saw something called a Sistrunk Procedure, which removes a thyroglossal cyst. This is a cyst that forms right around where an Adam's Apple would be. We watched a circumcision in a 4 year old boy - not too exciting. The last surgery we attempted to watch (before we had to leave), was another neurosurgery. We didn't get a whole lot of information on what was about to happen, but I do know what I saw. This poor 3 month old little girl, had part of her brain coming through her sinuses and sitting on the front of her face. No joke. By looking at the MRI pictures, it looked there was an enormous build up of fluid in the brain that wasn't allowing her brain to rest naturally in the skull. The only place it had to go was through her sinuses and out on to her face. I'm not sure how they planned on fixing it, but it was pretty crazy to see.
Most of these extreme cases are the result of congenital defects, and are the worst of the worst in the entire country. They may also be the result of such poor living conditions in this country - anything from toxic water, poor sanitation, bad hygiene, to poor habits during pregnancy. I wish that there was something I could do to help them all out...one day I will though. Fortunately, we met a doctor who I guess really liked us, because he told us that if we wanted to we could scrub in to surgery and actually help with the procedures. UHM YES PLEASE. Much like the 'taking blood' situation, I'm not going to get my hopes up too high until it actually happens. But this was very promising and we were told that on Friday there will be lots of surgeries that we can help out with. I'm soooo excited! Wish me luck! Adios!
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Día 7
Today has been the biggest let down of the trip, by far.
Getting up at 6:30, only to find out that it's 'Academic Day' and I'll be spending most of my day in a classroom, is a really sucky feeling. We get to el hospital a las siete y media, and are hustled into a classroom for more case studies. They are pretty boring to say the least - just medical school students reading off of Powerpoints and diagnosing more kids with sickle cell anemia or nemonía (pneumonia). I dozed off for about 20 minutes...oops. We head upstairs towards cirugía (surgery), and I get overly excited. I was ready to head back in to the operating rooms and watch some more kids get cut open and fixed up. Just as we're approaching the swinging double doors, we make a quick turn a la derecha (to the right), and are whisked into yet another classroom. Naturally, the only available seat is at the front of the room, and I find myself directly in front of the doctor who is head of surgery. Awesome. Two hours, and a few small naps later, I see that it is 10:30 and we have yet to see anything exciting in the least bit. While coming in and out of consciousness, I remember hearing bits and pieces of a conversation regarding sarcomas, carcinomas, malignancy, and many other cancers of the sort. Hmmm, we did see a kid down in Urgency with some sort of brain tumor...maybe this is him? Maybe he needs surgery? Maybe we'll get to watch? I really hope so..not today though. Ugh.
We finally get released from the confines of this awful room, and find out from one of the residents that we can expect the rest of the day to be very similar. More classrooms, more case studies, and no patients. No thanks. We briskly head down to radiology and spend the rest of our day (which is only like an hour), following the radiologist around the hospital. Ayer (yesterday), he promised he would show us a place to eat that's only about a one minute walk away. It's finally time to eat, and he shows us this little restaurante, very similar to the one from yesterday, and equally as cheap. 130 pesos, and a full plate later, we dig in to more rice, beans, and carne. Jose (the radiologist), excuses himself and comes back with two bottles of El Presidente - the best beer in the country..both of which are 1 liter. Is he for real? Apparently..he starts pouring glasses for us. And come on, it's rude to say no when someone has so generously bought you a gift like this. I must admit, this has been the best part of our day thus far. Is that bad? Ehh, maybe. But, I feel like it's only appropriate for me to thoroughly embrace the culture while I'm here. And la cerveza is most certainly a part of that.
It's one o'clock and our ride is waiting. Off the grocery store - we made an executive decision to buy bread/peanut butter/jelly...it's much cheaper than going to buy lunch somewhere every day. The rest of my afternoon consists of napping, running, eating...and the best part - lounging by a pool. Jose (our cab driver), is a member of a country club and he invited us to go whenever. So, we spend a few hours lounging around and enjoying the rest of our day in the sun. It really takes it out of you though, I must admit that I am thoroughly exhausted and ready for some sueño muy necesario (much needed sleep).
On that note, it's time for me to go. Tomorrow, we are under the impression that we'll be en los quirofanos otra vez (in the operating rooms again). I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high just yet, but I really need some blood and guts. Hasta mañana y duerme bien (and sleep well)!!
Monday, May 28, 2012
Día 6
Unfortunately, this is an early week. We have to be at the hospital a las siete y media todos los días (7:30 everyday). And I'm not a morning person, to say the least.
We get there this morning and meet the doctor that will be taking care of us during our week in the surgery wing. He tells us that today, there are two very important procedures, and that we can watch either. The first is something called a Kasai procedure. Basically, your liver produces a substance called bile that drains through ducts into your intestines to help with the digestion of your food. Whenever those ducts are blocked, your body can't effectively digest food. This procedure basically removes the blocked ducts, takes part of your intestine and creates a new passageway for the bile to drain. The other procedure that we can watch is a colostomy. In this particular colostomy, the patient's colon needs to be inserted into the rectal muscles so that he/she can control her bowel movements. Currently, they have no control over this and suffer from incontinence. We chose to watch this procedure, but I won't go in to detail about what we saw, as I know most of you don't have to stomach that I do when it comes to blood and guts.
Although their quirofanos (operating rooms) are not as pristine as ours, they get the job done. They only have the materials they need for the particular procedure, and they only have basic machines at their disposal. Surprisingly, the rooms were nicer than I expected. After what I had seen in the urgency room, this was really nice (although nothing compared to the US). If you can imagine what a hospital would look like in a poor and run down area of town - maybe like The Projects, for example - this is what we are working with. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's the best comparison I can make. I'll try to snap a picture this week if I can! Anyway, the area where the patient is being worked on is obviously sterile and they take this very seriously - thank God. Although we are in close proximity with the work area, I feel at least a bit more comfortable here. Sadly, laproscopic procedures (or minimally invasive procedures - google it), are not common and I wish there was some way I could change that. The risk for infection in this hospital is high enough as it is, and for the insides of these children to be so exposed to the air and other bacteria - it really does scare me. I want them to have an easy and healthy recovery, and watching the doctors pretty much pull intestines in and out of the child's stomach - it freaks me out. I don't see how this is safe, let alone what they were taught in Medical School. But I guess they do it all the time.
Anyway, since we are so sick of la comida en la cafetería, we decide to ask the guy who picks us up from work to take us to a place that is cheap and has local Dominican food. Best idea ever. We go to this place where we get our entire meal for 150 pesos. And let me tell you, it was at least 3 times the amount of food we got in the cafeteria, and 100 times better. Today, I indulged in arroz blanco, habichuela, y carne de pollo (white rice, habichuela - which is a lot like charro beans, and chicken). I finished my meal with empanaditas de dulce (empanadas filled with sweet guava sauce, and covered in sugar). This is the only type of empanada that I can bring myself to really enjoy.
We get home around 2 and spend most of the afternoon just lounging around. We originally had plans to go to the Blue Mall, but those get tossed by the wayside when Danny, our country director, stops by to see how our jobs are going and to wish my roommate, Christina, a happy birthday. I guess the Blue Mall will have to wait until later this week - which I can't wait for. This mall has 6 floors, and a ridiculous amount stores. An entire floor is nothing but rich people stores (Louis Vuitton, Cartier, etc.), one is nothing but food and a movie theater, the top is an entire play place for kids, and the rest of the floors are for the normal people. Lots of boutiques, tons of shoe stores - basically, it's heaven. Me and the other girls can't wait to spend an afternoon here! It'll be some much needed retail therapy.
Well, I have an early day tomorrow, along with the rest of the week, so I'm off to bed! Hasta mañana mis amores! (See you tomorrow, my loves!)
We get there this morning and meet the doctor that will be taking care of us during our week in the surgery wing. He tells us that today, there are two very important procedures, and that we can watch either. The first is something called a Kasai procedure. Basically, your liver produces a substance called bile that drains through ducts into your intestines to help with the digestion of your food. Whenever those ducts are blocked, your body can't effectively digest food. This procedure basically removes the blocked ducts, takes part of your intestine and creates a new passageway for the bile to drain. The other procedure that we can watch is a colostomy. In this particular colostomy, the patient's colon needs to be inserted into the rectal muscles so that he/she can control her bowel movements. Currently, they have no control over this and suffer from incontinence. We chose to watch this procedure, but I won't go in to detail about what we saw, as I know most of you don't have to stomach that I do when it comes to blood and guts.
Although their quirofanos (operating rooms) are not as pristine as ours, they get the job done. They only have the materials they need for the particular procedure, and they only have basic machines at their disposal. Surprisingly, the rooms were nicer than I expected. After what I had seen in the urgency room, this was really nice (although nothing compared to the US). If you can imagine what a hospital would look like in a poor and run down area of town - maybe like The Projects, for example - this is what we are working with. Maybe that's an exaggeration, but it's the best comparison I can make. I'll try to snap a picture this week if I can! Anyway, the area where the patient is being worked on is obviously sterile and they take this very seriously - thank God. Although we are in close proximity with the work area, I feel at least a bit more comfortable here. Sadly, laproscopic procedures (or minimally invasive procedures - google it), are not common and I wish there was some way I could change that. The risk for infection in this hospital is high enough as it is, and for the insides of these children to be so exposed to the air and other bacteria - it really does scare me. I want them to have an easy and healthy recovery, and watching the doctors pretty much pull intestines in and out of the child's stomach - it freaks me out. I don't see how this is safe, let alone what they were taught in Medical School. But I guess they do it all the time.
Anyway, since we are so sick of la comida en la cafetería, we decide to ask the guy who picks us up from work to take us to a place that is cheap and has local Dominican food. Best idea ever. We go to this place where we get our entire meal for 150 pesos. And let me tell you, it was at least 3 times the amount of food we got in the cafeteria, and 100 times better. Today, I indulged in arroz blanco, habichuela, y carne de pollo (white rice, habichuela - which is a lot like charro beans, and chicken). I finished my meal with empanaditas de dulce (empanadas filled with sweet guava sauce, and covered in sugar). This is the only type of empanada that I can bring myself to really enjoy.
We get home around 2 and spend most of the afternoon just lounging around. We originally had plans to go to the Blue Mall, but those get tossed by the wayside when Danny, our country director, stops by to see how our jobs are going and to wish my roommate, Christina, a happy birthday. I guess the Blue Mall will have to wait until later this week - which I can't wait for. This mall has 6 floors, and a ridiculous amount stores. An entire floor is nothing but rich people stores (Louis Vuitton, Cartier, etc.), one is nothing but food and a movie theater, the top is an entire play place for kids, and the rest of the floors are for the normal people. Lots of boutiques, tons of shoe stores - basically, it's heaven. Me and the other girls can't wait to spend an afternoon here! It'll be some much needed retail therapy.
Well, I have an early day tomorrow, along with the rest of the week, so I'm off to bed! Hasta mañana mis amores! (See you tomorrow, my loves!)
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Día 5
Feliz Día de las Madres! (Happy Mother's Day!) En la Dominicana, they don't celebrate Mother's Day until today. You can bet that we had quite a long but wonderful day!
We wake up around 7:30 to shower and get ready, and we're out the door and on our way to La Romana by 8:30. La Romana es la ciudad donde vive la madre de Olga (La Romana is the city where Olga's mother lives). It's about a 2 hour drive, but well worth it - this city is beautiful! There are so many colors and we're told that this is a typical Dominican city. We arrive at Olga's mother's house, but are only there for 5 minutes before Olga's son takes us to a place called the Casa de Campo. It's an all-inclusive resort about 10 minutes from the city, and it is absolutely beautiful!! It has everything from the most elegant houses, to beautiful beaches, to marinas and yachts, to even a shopping center. Francisco, Olga's son, tells us that within this resort is a city that some rich guy gave to his daughter for her quinceñera (15th birthday). Just think about that, you're turning 15 and your dad tells you that he's built a whole city for you - and this is what it looks like...
I just can't believe that this is real, I'm only used to seeing pictures like this in magazines and movies. And it's funny, Francisco said that these aren't even the most beautiful beaches in the country. He told us that the most beautiful beaches are in Punta Cana..and as luck would have it, one of the family members invited us to come stay with her this weekend! I'm so pumped, you have no idea. AND, I finally get to go diving! I could go through everything we did and saw, but I feel like a picture is worth a thousand words - and here are 9 of them. So enjoy - and there will only be more to come this weekend!
Tomorrow we get to go into surgery, and I have very high hopes for this coming week! Until then, hasta luego, y tiene un buen noche! (see you later and have a good night!)
We wake up around 7:30 to shower and get ready, and we're out the door and on our way to La Romana by 8:30. La Romana es la ciudad donde vive la madre de Olga (La Romana is the city where Olga's mother lives). It's about a 2 hour drive, but well worth it - this city is beautiful! There are so many colors and we're told that this is a typical Dominican city. We arrive at Olga's mother's house, but are only there for 5 minutes before Olga's son takes us to a place called the Casa de Campo. It's an all-inclusive resort about 10 minutes from the city, and it is absolutely beautiful!! It has everything from the most elegant houses, to beautiful beaches, to marinas and yachts, to even a shopping center. Francisco, Olga's son, tells us that within this resort is a city that some rich guy gave to his daughter for her quinceñera (15th birthday). Just think about that, you're turning 15 and your dad tells you that he's built a whole city for you - and this is what it looks like...
I just can't believe that this is real, I'm only used to seeing pictures like this in magazines and movies. And it's funny, Francisco said that these aren't even the most beautiful beaches in the country. He told us that the most beautiful beaches are in Punta Cana..and as luck would have it, one of the family members invited us to come stay with her this weekend! I'm so pumped, you have no idea. AND, I finally get to go diving! I could go through everything we did and saw, but I feel like a picture is worth a thousand words - and here are 9 of them. So enjoy - and there will only be more to come this weekend!
Tomorrow we get to go into surgery, and I have very high hopes for this coming week! Until then, hasta luego, y tiene un buen noche! (see you later and have a good night!)
Día 4
What a waste of un Sábado (a Saturday). We have an entire country waiting to be seen, and we spend our day lounging around.
First, we sleep in until like 11 o'clock - which if I were at home, I wouldn't have cared, but the fact that we wasted the whole morning in another país (country) is kind of irritating. Granted, we did have a long week and it was much needed sleep, but still - I can sleep when I'm dead. We finally get up to eat breakfast, and decide that we should go to the store - and this is our big trip of the day. One of the guys needs clothes, and we kind of want to get some normal comida to snack on. How exciting. Seriously though, that's all we did all day.
After dinner, we head to another casa and hang out there for the evening. We end up playing dominos - which according to los Dominicanos, we play the wrong way. Well, we're about to start a new game when the father of the house comes out to introduce himself. A little bit of small talk, and we ask him (or try to ask him) about an area called Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes). They are a set of caves that are supposed to be beautiful. One of the guys accidentally calls it Los Dos Ojos (The Two Eyes), and this old man goes off on this long tangent, and we aren't exactly sure about what. We come to the conclusion that he has this huge conspiracy theory about the United States, the FBI, and the CIA. He claims that they drugged him and messed with his brain, and that we aren't truly a democratic society, and how our government kills off anybody that has new ideas (like President Kennedy..not sure how he got to that extreme). It's a good 30 minutes before he's done bashing the US and claiming that La Dominicana is the best country, blah blah blah. Part of me feels bad, because the whole time I can't stop laughing about how we got to this. We just wanted to know if he'd seen the caves, and now we're bashing the US. Hmm, interesante (interesting).
Anyway, that pretty much sums up my day. Super boring. Until next time, buen día (good day)!
First, we sleep in until like 11 o'clock - which if I were at home, I wouldn't have cared, but the fact that we wasted the whole morning in another país (country) is kind of irritating. Granted, we did have a long week and it was much needed sleep, but still - I can sleep when I'm dead. We finally get up to eat breakfast, and decide that we should go to the store - and this is our big trip of the day. One of the guys needs clothes, and we kind of want to get some normal comida to snack on. How exciting. Seriously though, that's all we did all day.
After dinner, we head to another casa and hang out there for the evening. We end up playing dominos - which according to los Dominicanos, we play the wrong way. Well, we're about to start a new game when the father of the house comes out to introduce himself. A little bit of small talk, and we ask him (or try to ask him) about an area called Los Tres Ojos (The Three Eyes). They are a set of caves that are supposed to be beautiful. One of the guys accidentally calls it Los Dos Ojos (The Two Eyes), and this old man goes off on this long tangent, and we aren't exactly sure about what. We come to the conclusion that he has this huge conspiracy theory about the United States, the FBI, and the CIA. He claims that they drugged him and messed with his brain, and that we aren't truly a democratic society, and how our government kills off anybody that has new ideas (like President Kennedy..not sure how he got to that extreme). It's a good 30 minutes before he's done bashing the US and claiming that La Dominicana is the best country, blah blah blah. Part of me feels bad, because the whole time I can't stop laughing about how we got to this. We just wanted to know if he'd seen the caves, and now we're bashing the US. Hmm, interesante (interesting).
Anyway, that pretty much sums up my day. Super boring. Until next time, buen día (good day)!
Friday, May 25, 2012
Día 3
Today was one of those days. Pretty slow, and no blood or sutures. Just another day en el hospital.
We hung out in radiology for the entire morning, and we actually saw some pretty interesting cases.
I don't understand why these pictures aren't rotated, but anyway...the case to my left is of a little boy with a massive tumor that has actually changed the shape of his skull and is protruding out of his head. The case to the right is of a little girl who was hit by a car (and yes, she actually was hit - not just a metaphor). Her ojos (eyes) were swollen and bruised and she was unable to open them. Also, by looking at the MRI, you can see that there is massive swelling on the outside of her skull - I don't need to explain that this isn't good. If you look at the top of the picture, you can see that there are two fractures - one on the left and one on the right, in the temporal area. Luckily, the doctor made it clear that there was no brain damage (but I could have misinterpreted that as well), and he said that after surgery she would be just fine. I certainly hope so!
Lunch time. Yesterday I said that empanadas were beginning to get old...well so is ALL of the cafeteria food. I think they take the same meat and cheese and simply put it in a different type of bread and call it something different just to try and trick us. No joke. I had "pizza" today - it was the same insides as yesterday, but it was mashed between two pieces of bread that were cut in the shape of a slice of pizza. I just can't do it anymore. And I guess it makes sense, the place is empty every day we go eat. - now I see why. Although I'm excited to venture out and find new food, my wallet is not going to feel the same way after about a week. Our first Dominican meal cost us 600 pesos each - I can't afford that every day!
Back en el área de urgencía, we see the same pacientes from the previous dïa and it's just starting to get boring. Oh, and I've never seen so many women openly breast feed their children in public. Sorry if that mental image isn't what you were expecting, but really, at any given time there are at least three moms just hanging out (literally), feeding their kids. I mean, there are curtains in the room for a reason, but they just don't seem to care. Anyway, we finally get to see something somewhat interesting. This little baby comes in and they suspect that she has meningitis, so they have to take fluid from in between her vertebrae to send off for testing. As we watch the procedure happen, I'm a little disturbed as to how rough they are with this baby, as well as how little they are worried about sterilization. A little background - once an area has been deemed 'sterile', it instantly loses its sterility if anything or anyone who isn't sterile comes in contact with that area. We watch the procedure from close range and neither doctor really worries about anything but the fluid they need to retrieve. It's shocking.
As the days go on, I'm starting to understand this hospital more and more. I found out that this hospital is run by the government, and it is 100% free. And I mean completamenta gratis (completely free). It's just crazy to me! But it all makes sense now. This hospital has virtually nothing, and by that I mean no supplies in excess. There's never toilet paper or paper towels en los baños (in the bathrooms), no gauze or bandaids or cotton balls, not enough gloves to waste even a single pair, and the worst one of all - not nearly enough blood. (Again, I don't know why the top picture isn't rotated, but bear with me). So the picture on the top shows the entire blood supply...for the ENTIRE hospital. I couldn't believe it. The wouldn't even last an hour in any hospital in the US. The picture below it shows what each shelf within these fridges look like. There's seriously no blood to sustain the hospital and all of the many children that pour in every day. And when I say pour, I mean it. Like I said, this is the best children's hospital in the entire country...and it's completely free. Just imagine the amount of people that come through every day. Esta loca! (It's crazy!)
Well, that was pretty much my whole day. We ran en el parque (in the park) after work, and we're just planning out our evening. Maybe the movies, or maybe la discoteca (a club). I'll let you know mañana, but until then, hasta luego!
We hung out in radiology for the entire morning, and we actually saw some pretty interesting cases.
I don't understand why these pictures aren't rotated, but anyway...the case to my left is of a little boy with a massive tumor that has actually changed the shape of his skull and is protruding out of his head. The case to the right is of a little girl who was hit by a car (and yes, she actually was hit - not just a metaphor). Her ojos (eyes) were swollen and bruised and she was unable to open them. Also, by looking at the MRI, you can see that there is massive swelling on the outside of her skull - I don't need to explain that this isn't good. If you look at the top of the picture, you can see that there are two fractures - one on the left and one on the right, in the temporal area. Luckily, the doctor made it clear that there was no brain damage (but I could have misinterpreted that as well), and he said that after surgery she would be just fine. I certainly hope so!Lunch time. Yesterday I said that empanadas were beginning to get old...well so is ALL of the cafeteria food. I think they take the same meat and cheese and simply put it in a different type of bread and call it something different just to try and trick us. No joke. I had "pizza" today - it was the same insides as yesterday, but it was mashed between two pieces of bread that were cut in the shape of a slice of pizza. I just can't do it anymore. And I guess it makes sense, the place is empty every day we go eat. - now I see why. Although I'm excited to venture out and find new food, my wallet is not going to feel the same way after about a week. Our first Dominican meal cost us 600 pesos each - I can't afford that every day!
Back en el área de urgencía, we see the same pacientes from the previous dïa and it's just starting to get boring. Oh, and I've never seen so many women openly breast feed their children in public. Sorry if that mental image isn't what you were expecting, but really, at any given time there are at least three moms just hanging out (literally), feeding their kids. I mean, there are curtains in the room for a reason, but they just don't seem to care. Anyway, we finally get to see something somewhat interesting. This little baby comes in and they suspect that she has meningitis, so they have to take fluid from in between her vertebrae to send off for testing. As we watch the procedure happen, I'm a little disturbed as to how rough they are with this baby, as well as how little they are worried about sterilization. A little background - once an area has been deemed 'sterile', it instantly loses its sterility if anything or anyone who isn't sterile comes in contact with that area. We watch the procedure from close range and neither doctor really worries about anything but the fluid they need to retrieve. It's shocking.
As the days go on, I'm starting to understand this hospital more and more. I found out that this hospital is run by the government, and it is 100% free. And I mean completamenta gratis (completely free). It's just crazy to me! But it all makes sense now. This hospital has virtually nothing, and by that I mean no supplies in excess. There's never toilet paper or paper towels en los baños (in the bathrooms), no gauze or bandaids or cotton balls, not enough gloves to waste even a single pair, and the worst one of all - not nearly enough blood. (Again, I don't know why the top picture isn't rotated, but bear with me). So the picture on the top shows the entire blood supply...for the ENTIRE hospital. I couldn't believe it. The wouldn't even last an hour in any hospital in the US. The picture below it shows what each shelf within these fridges look like. There's seriously no blood to sustain the hospital and all of the many children that pour in every day. And when I say pour, I mean it. Like I said, this is the best children's hospital in the entire country...and it's completely free. Just imagine the amount of people that come through every day. Esta loca! (It's crazy!)Well, that was pretty much my whole day. We ran en el parque (in the park) after work, and we're just planning out our evening. Maybe the movies, or maybe la discoteca (a club). I'll let you know mañana, but until then, hasta luego!
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Día 2
I'm just going to warn you now, I know I built up a lot of anticipation for today's post so this might be a let down for you guys. But nonetheless, it was still a lot of fun and I'm learning some pretty exciting things - well at least I think they're exciting.
When we first got there, there wasn't much to do - just examine los pacientes (patients) and check their vitales. Let me make this clear - there's two different areas in the emergency rooms. Una es el área de Emergencía y el otro es el área de Urgencía (one is the emergency area and the other is the urgency area). The emergency room is typically where the older kids are, as well as cases that require immediate atención (attention). The urgency room on the other hand (where I have been hanging out), is more babies and cases that require frequent attention. Also, the kids are generally there for a longer period of tiempo (time). With not much to do, we eventually head to a meeting which is nothing but a few cases studies regarding bullying and the effect it has on mental health. I must admit, I was hoping for a study about a child who's condition has been troubling them, or a child with a rare disease. I was disappointed to find out it was bullying - don't get me wrong though, bullying is a serious issue and attention does need to be called to it as well as its traumatizing effects.
Anyway, after the case studies, we head to lunch. Coming to La Dominicana, one of my favorite dishes was empanadas. I'm beginning to enjoy them less and less. I've had empanadas every day, in almost every way you could imagine - con queso, con pollo, con carne, con vegetales (with cheese, chicken, meat, vegetables). I mean what's next, just fried bread? Also, I'm slightly disappointed en la comida thus far. I expected dishes that were muy deliciosa (very delicious), and all of the food is somewhat bland. There's not a whole lot of flavor when there's no sauces involved - I can't wait to have some ranch when I get home. On top of that, I had very high expectations for el café (the coffee). Not only have we not had any for breakfast (which I desperately need for these early mornings), but I was surprised at what I got when I ordered some at lunch. I ask for a CUP of coffee, and although it was a cup that my coffee was in, it was a cup that you see at the dentist...you know, the ones you put mouthwash in. Barley enough for a pick-me-up. And no cream. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted my black coffee and found they had already added azúcar (sugar). Now, don't get me wrong, the food is good and satisfying despite what you may think. On top of that, my entire lunch meal has been less than 80 pesos a day, which is barely $2 US.
So back to work. After almuerzo (lunch), we had to the radiology department again. It's funny how easily things can get lost in translation. The doctor begins to show us a case where a little boy was in un acidente (an accident), and his spine had been displaced. It looked kind of like he had two spines, with some of the vertebrae actually overlapping. The doctor begins to explain what happened, and my heart dropped. I couldn't believe that this little boy was hit by a train, and the worst damage he experienced was the loss of feeling and use of his legs! Turns out, he was only trying to explain what happened to the boy's spine in relation to a train being derailed. Wow. Thank God I was wrong!! It's amazing the things you can tell from simply looking at an x-ray, MRI or a CT scan. We check out some x-rays of children who have pneumonia, or simply fluid in their lungs. By simply seeing what areas are darker than others can indicate anything, from fluid in the lungs, to air in the stomach, to the pathway of liquid through the body. By having a patient drink a fluid generally known as 'contrasto' (contrast), you can watch how that fluid flows and where in the body there is blockage based on where the contrast stops flowing. Pretty cool, huh?
Sadly, there was no blood to be drawn today or bodies to sew up. I have high hopes for tomorrow though. I mean, the doctor doesn't want us to learn how to do these things on babies or small children. With this, I am totally ok with - babies scream and small children squirm too much. No thanks! We'll likely head over to Emergencía tomorrow and learn some hands on skills with some of the older kids.
I promised some pictures today, so here's a picture of the crazy traffic from this morning. It was a bit rainy so there were less people wandering through traffic, but look closely and you'll find a few crazies amongst the cars. (Our driver, José, actually made one of the guys with us jump out of the car in the middle of the traffic! Los Dominincanos están locos!) Also, you can check out my "cup" of coffee! Hasta mañana!
Anyway, after the case studies, we head to lunch. Coming to La Dominicana, one of my favorite dishes was empanadas. I'm beginning to enjoy them less and less. I've had empanadas every day, in almost every way you could imagine - con queso, con pollo, con carne, con vegetales (with cheese, chicken, meat, vegetables). I mean what's next, just fried bread? Also, I'm slightly disappointed en la comida thus far. I expected dishes that were muy deliciosa (very delicious), and all of the food is somewhat bland. There's not a whole lot of flavor when there's no sauces involved - I can't wait to have some ranch when I get home. On top of that, I had very high expectations for el café (the coffee). Not only have we not had any for breakfast (which I desperately need for these early mornings), but I was surprised at what I got when I ordered some at lunch. I ask for a CUP of coffee, and although it was a cup that my coffee was in, it was a cup that you see at the dentist...you know, the ones you put mouthwash in. Barley enough for a pick-me-up. And no cream. I was pleasantly surprised when I tasted my black coffee and found they had already added azúcar (sugar). Now, don't get me wrong, the food is good and satisfying despite what you may think. On top of that, my entire lunch meal has been less than 80 pesos a day, which is barely $2 US.
So back to work. After almuerzo (lunch), we had to the radiology department again. It's funny how easily things can get lost in translation. The doctor begins to show us a case where a little boy was in un acidente (an accident), and his spine had been displaced. It looked kind of like he had two spines, with some of the vertebrae actually overlapping. The doctor begins to explain what happened, and my heart dropped. I couldn't believe that this little boy was hit by a train, and the worst damage he experienced was the loss of feeling and use of his legs! Turns out, he was only trying to explain what happened to the boy's spine in relation to a train being derailed. Wow. Thank God I was wrong!! It's amazing the things you can tell from simply looking at an x-ray, MRI or a CT scan. We check out some x-rays of children who have pneumonia, or simply fluid in their lungs. By simply seeing what areas are darker than others can indicate anything, from fluid in the lungs, to air in the stomach, to the pathway of liquid through the body. By having a patient drink a fluid generally known as 'contrasto' (contrast), you can watch how that fluid flows and where in the body there is blockage based on where the contrast stops flowing. Pretty cool, huh?
Sadly, there was no blood to be drawn today or bodies to sew up. I have high hopes for tomorrow though. I mean, the doctor doesn't want us to learn how to do these things on babies or small children. With this, I am totally ok with - babies scream and small children squirm too much. No thanks! We'll likely head over to Emergencía tomorrow and learn some hands on skills with some of the older kids.
I promised some pictures today, so here's a picture of the crazy traffic from this morning. It was a bit rainy so there were less people wandering through traffic, but look closely and you'll find a few crazies amongst the cars. (Our driver, José, actually made one of the guys with us jump out of the car in the middle of the traffic! Los Dominincanos están locos!) Also, you can check out my "cup" of coffee! Hasta mañana!
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Día 1
My first full day at work En La Dominicana! In the US, people love to complain about everything...there is absolutely nothing to complain about.
First of all, I'm shocked that I made it to work alive and in one piece. I've never seen rush hour traffic like this. There were people just walking across 6 o más carriles (lanes) de traffico expecting that no one would hit them. Drivers don't use signals - just their horns. Por ejémplo, one honk means 'watch out', two honks mean 'get out of my way', one long honk means some form of profanity, and so on. And people don't use the lanes - half the time we were driving on the wrong side of the road and people were honking at each other and traffic was merging and it was just insane. Thank God I don't ever have to drive in this country.
We finally get to work, and I'm amazed at how many people look at me and think I'm already a doctor. Seriously, families coming up to me, "Doctora, Doctora, tenemos una pregunta!?" I'm just like, "Sorry I'm not a doctor?" Bien, we finally find our head doctor, and she kind of just lets us loose. Honestly. She basically told us to go read any of the patient's charts and familiarize ourselves with them. Uhm...what? After wandering around aimlessly, another doctor finally explains what to look for, what the charts mean, etc. Then as she's about to take someone's blood, she looks at me and asks if I want to do it. Of course I want to! But I've only seen it in movies, so she decides that she'll teach us tomorrow. She makes the mistake of asking me if I want to suture a patient, and after learning that I've only ever sutured a banana, she realizes just how much she's going to have to teach us. We agree that today she'll explain everything to us, but that tomorrow we better be ready to examine new patients, take their vitals and medical history, as well as learn the art of a needle along with a suture. As the day goes on, we learn so much information, from reading x-rays to reading blood work. I just feel like a little kid again, so much to look at and learn!
On top of all that, I realize just how lucky I am to live en Los Estados Unidos and how lucky we are to have an awesome and substantial form of health care. Trust me, I never would have expected to say that - but at least I know that when I go to any sort of doctora, I can be sure that I will be treated with sterile equipment and that all of my information is private, among other things. I felt like I was in a zoo - anyone wearing clothes that even mildly resembled scrubs or a lab coat, along with a decent amount of medical knowledge and some español could walk up to any patient, read their charts, and essentially begin to treat this patient. Not only that, but nothing is sterilized in quite the same fashion as in the US. Sure, people lavarse sus manos (wash their hands) and clean the area before any procedure, but used needles with blood are simply marked with tape and placed in a drinking cup on a desk in the room for later tests. And I don't mean an individual's room, I mean a huge room with 20 beds all filled with screaming children.
On that note, as most of you know, me and children don't exactly go together. But I'm doing much better than I had initially expected. I can handle seeing the sick children, and I'm learning to deal with all of the crying and bloody murder screams. But, I do think that my future lies elsewhere.
Bueno, yo necesito una siesta (well, I need a nap). It was a long day, and I know that tomorrow will be filled with even more to learn and do. Until then, tiene un día maravilloso! (have a wonderful day!)
PS. I'm going to do my best to take pictures of the crazy traffic and other oddities of the country, so trust me - pictures will come!
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Hola!
Hola desde La Republica Dominicana! I figured it would be a good idea to start a blog, mostly so I don't have to keep telling everyone about my trip every day. I'll do my best to keep you updated and post some pictures every now and then. I'm also going to try and work some Español in to my blogs, mostly for my benefit, but also so that you guys can learn a little on the way! Enjoy!
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