Dominican Republic Seven

February 22, 2008

This is a recap of the events that went on Friday, which was two days before we left to head home. Breakfast was amazing like usual, but I lacked an appetite because I was going through some things. I mean I still ate the food because there was no telling what I was going to have for lunch. I mean it could have been another "ham"burger or maybe some fried chicken ankles, who knows? My feelings got the best of me for a while, but once we started seeing patients that all changed. My problems seemed so trivial, I realized people were sick and going through some serious problems; my issues did not seem as big anymore. I changed my attitude and quickly got to work translating each person's problems with my partner. At least I did not run into a wicked case of scabies like I did the other day, thank goodness I packed the ointment. Also, thank goodness I actually did not get anything.

One of the classrooms.

The beautiful bathroom.

The front line.

The coolest interpretors ever! Okay, maybe not ever.

Being attacked by gnats. Oh, good times!

He made laugh, so he deserved a picture.

I also snapped out of my funk because I got to give out some of the shoes that the Wake Forest Community donated. It is funny how giving can change a person's attitude. The boy was so happy to get the shoes. I mean they were girl shoes, but he did not care.

I was pleasantly surprised about our lunch. It was a wonderful lunch for the most part. It was fried chicken, mashed plantains, and pineapple. I gave up fried food for life, but this time I made an exception. I made a really big exception and ate two boxes of it to be exact. I passed on the mashed plantains, but I ate two pineapple slices. I will definitely miss the delicious fruit.

The red cross mascot . . . I gave her some of my food.

I got to meet the cutest boy in the world. His name was Ricky Tomato. Yes, folks, his last name was Tomato and it is the coolest. I played with him as much as I possibly could because it was near the end of our day. One of the adults spanked him to keep him from running around. To keep him from crying, I ran and got him a lion stuffed animal. He enjoyed it so much. He really enjoyed it because he broke the other toy that they gave him earlier. Oh, Ricky Tomato!

Ricky Tomato

Ricky showing us his whip skills!



A pretend patient . . . she had a lot of problems.

We were swamped!

She loved my children's gummy vitamins that I swear by.
I was her sexy chocolate husband . . . he he he!

To end the day, all the kids played Red Light, Green Light, who would have known that this game was universal? Anyway, watching the kids play red light, green light was so much fun. I tried to take as many pictures as I possibly could, but I did not realize my camera had the rapid picture option until after the children were done playing the game.

Aw, don't run from the fun!!!

Friday night, some members of our group, including myself, took a trip to the discoteca. All I am allowed to say is "what happens in the discoteca remains in the discoteca!"

Dominican Republic 6

February 21, 2008

Well, I could not post the blog yesterday because my computer lost its internet connection. Yeah, I do not know how a computer completely loses access to a wireless connection, but mine did. I was freaking out all night because I could not get on the internet. I am so American, I cannot go anywhere without an electronic device. I'm sorry, I am who I am. So I get up this morning and the internet still was not on; thus, I went to the front desk. Let me reiterate, I went to the front desk in a Spanish speaking country with a complaint. Ugh, yeah . . . as you can imagine it was a little rough. I told the woman that "La internet no funciona." Well, she understood that part and then the verbal onslaught began. I simply said, "Lo siento, un momento por favor." I found the closest person who could translate and help me understand this electromechanical Spanish I have never heard before. Basically, I had to leave my computer at the front desk while we were gone and hope that their technician can get it to work. I am going to be brutally honest; I thought that computer was good as gone. I kissed my baby goodbye and boarded the bus.

Guess where I went today? Can you guess? Was it the Bateys or the hospital? Which one was it? You have 30 seconds. Is that your final answer? Are you sure? They have locked in their answer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Your answer is incorrect. Whether you picked the Bateys or the hospital your answer is incorrect. Today, I went to Jaquimeyes, which is a town in the area that was submerged during the hurricane in November. For you Americanos, do not pronounce the J, I was doing that for a bit in the beginning and I looked like a complete fool. I forgot you do not pronounce J's along with H's in Spanish. If someone gives you a strong J sound, most likely it is a Y in front of the word. You start with the A and then you most likely will say it right. But I digest, the government did a good job at coming in and removing the mud, you can barely tell that this area is any different from the other areas we have been. The facilities in which we were working were some of the nicest we have worked in all week doing triage. This facility was very similar to the one in which we worked in Batey 7, but appeared newer.

I am 40 . . . wait 60! Yeah, that is better!

My partner in crime was Ranita and Johnette and Susan worked together across from us. Let me just say that combination of people doing triage is crazy! Susan is the calm one, but Ranita and Johnette . . . you might as well envision two people with my personality or worse. Yeah, I told you that was a crazy mess. For the most part we were good today; I do not recall us doing anything too crazy. You know something crazy will happen and we will all just give each other a look and we knew that we were all on the same page. Especially, when Kate, our translator, had to run off and help someone. We were just sitting up their lost and confused sometimes. You know I can hold my own for the most part figuring out what's wrong with people, but then you get that person that shows up who speaks really fast. You know I basically hit them with one of my signature looks, with my head cocked to the right, and just stare blankly. Then they repeat themselves and I just laugh because I am totally confused. Senora Batista, Lo siento! David, Johnette's husband, was doing a good job dealing with my pronouncing his name with a Spanish accent and weighing the patients.

The whole time while I was translating information from these patients, I was sitting there thinking about how many pieces my computer has been separated into and for how much. Am I crazy or am I crazy? I had two slices of cantaloupe, honey and peanut butter crackers, and two bottles of water for lunch . . . and 8 pieces of trail mix for lunch. I could not identify the food except for the fried ham. Don't look at me like that; I did not want to eat that food. During our lunch break, I realized that someone had packed gummy vitamins in my suitcase and I handed them out to the kids. Handing those vitamins out was a lot of fun, but the children thought they were candy and wanted more. "I'm pretty sure I saw this little girl three times already." Anyway, as the day wound down I confused a case of scabies with chicken pox. The doctor called me back and explained that I might want some ointment because I may have the scabies. OMG! So far I am fine.

Get it momma!

She's mad because the boys are in her picture.

The scabies confusion came after going outside and playing with some of the children. I was play fighting with 2 boys and a girl, which was very cute. Then more ninos showed up and wanted me to take their picture. Next, one of the little boys asked if I could take a picture with him. Well, you know children and when you give one of them something, everyone wants it. I took pictures with all the kids and then they started jumping all over me. They were hanging from me like a jungle gym . . . that was a lot of fun until Johnette pointed that one of the boys had ring worm all over his head. You know the party stopped then. I quickly ran back inside my fortress of protection and whipped myself down in Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. My final episode in Jaquimeyes involved me handing out baseballs from the WFU Baseball team. I was jumped by 20 children all wanting six baseballs. I kept yelling "Silencio" and "Pare" . . . it worked for 3.5 nanoseconds and then I just started handing them out dragging the pile of children with me to the bus.

We got back to the hotel and I went to the front desk. This time it was a different woman and I was pretty sure the original woman had run off to pawn my computer. You know you would think the same thing . . . I mean 9 hours away from you computer, that thing is bound to be in parts somewhere on the black market. So I asked the lady at the front desk and she did not know anything about a computer. Then I took a deep breath and actually explained everything Spanish. Next thing you know, my computer came from behind the desk, back to daddy. I was about to kiss it, but these bugs crawled out of the computer when I opened it. Why am I itching now? Anyway, my mind got the best of me and my baby was okay.

I'm so dirty!!!

She made me laugh too.

Tomorrow will be one of our final days and we will get to go to la discoteca. Most likely they will do a lot of salsa dancing, but I will incorporate my ghetto-fabulousness. Hopefully, it will take.