So much going on today. We were in Pedro Vicente today. Woke up and had breakfast..consisted of yogurt with cereal and juice. We then met Joy to go see the relatively new hospital. It was built in the 2000’s by a team from Notre Dame, before there was only a Centro de Salud. Now with the hospital they are also incorporating residence training. I don’t know if I mentioned it before but in order to become a doctor here you do 4 years of med school and then one rural year and you’re a doc. There is no residency required. With this program they get a chance to do a residency, which gives them more hands on experience before becoming a doctor.
The guy talked about how for the most part treatment was free and those who could pay, pay but it’s really hard to tell, rather there is no system to tell what people’s income level is in order to know who would pay what. Regardless everything is soo much cheaper than in the U.S. Doctor consults are $2, x-rays are around $8, C-section births are $500, you get the idea.
After this we went to check out Joy’s apartment. Her family/ counterpart has a store on the 1st floor, she lives on the 2nd and they live on the 3rd. It’s a really cute set up. She practically has 2 rooms-bedroom and then the living, kitchen and dining room are all one, and then a bathroom. She pays $70/mo. And has internet through the family.
It’s amazing all the projects she has started. Cooking classes, aerobics classes, training youth in HIV/AIDS and doing sex ed classes to the colegio (high school). She seems like the ideal volunteer. For the most part it got me really excited for all the opportunity that hopefully my site will have, but at the same time I def questioned if I would be able to do this!! But what it really comes down to is ME making the most out of my time, spending time with people, etc… There was a parade so we watched that and then did some interviews with people.
Besides the giving of charlas we are expected to come up with a 10-question survey process the info and then apply it to a made up community. We did questions mainly geared towards heath (obvs). We ate lunch and were on our way to the last stop. We took a bus for about 30 min. hopped off and walked down this gravel road till Bibi met us and drove us the rest of the way.
For the next two days we are staying at this resort/farm place called Los Chisparos. It’s like a farm, they’ve got animals-pigs, chickens, cows, Cuy, tilapia, and rabbits. They also grow and harvest fruits. The landscape itself reminds me of the jungle. Many flowers, huge bamboo, even green parrots! There’s also a river to swim in! Apparently the place is used for school groups. Kids come and stay in the cabins, then learn about gardening and farming, etc..
We also met up with our other half..so nice to see them! They leave for Santo Domingo tomorrow. We swam, played vball, then ate. There was some music afterwards but no one really got into dancing. I watched a game of Yuker, thanks to all who helped teach me spades, it was pretty easy to pick up on.
We are getting up early to mild cows, yeah, that’s right dad, you never would’ve thought your daughter would mild cows BY HAND! Then more farming and picking fruit. We also have our last charla-the one today got canceled so instead we will go to a one room school house and do dental hygiene, should be interesting. Fri after lunch we head back, and after 2 weeks from today I’ll be at my site for a visit, CRAZY!!
So many girls freaking out because of the bugs, haha
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