Que extraño!

There are so many things about the DR that are different than the US. Some are pretty easy to get used to, but others are going to take some time. Here, when you say hello or goodbye, it’s customary for guys to kiss girls on the cheek (girls and girls greet each other this way too. Guys usually hug or give a handshake). I’ve gotten used to that one pretty quickly, and I even do it when I greet or say goodbye to the other UF students.

            Something that’s harder for me to get used to is the way they treat animals. Here, there are cats and dogs all over the streets of Santiago. In the US, if there were any stray animal, they’d be immediately taken to a shelter, and they would have a good chance of getting adopted into a family that would love them, and treat them almost as if it were a child. Here, there are so many stray, and they view them as pests. Even those who have dogs as pets aren’t very affectionate with them. But the strays often get kicked and shooed away. They think it’s so strange how much we love our dogs. It’d be like if some foreigner came over to the US, and oogled over the rats, and felt bad when they were shooed out of the house, or when someone set out a mouse trap or rat poison. The dogs in the DR are pests in the same way that rats are in the US. Except there are WAY more stray dogs here than I’ve ever seen rats in the US. I’m not used to it yet.

            Another thing that is very hard to get used to is how common cat calls are. When a girl walks down the street (whether American or Dominican), its VERY common for guys to yell out things that sound half like compliments, and half super creepy. They’ll say things like (note, this is a rough translation) “Pssssssstt, Hey you pretty girl, you beautiful person, come here, I love you, woman, woman, you’re so pretty, I could be your boyfriend. Can you understand me? I love you with all of my heart, you’re so beautiful, girl, oh my god, girl, I love you.” Yesterday when Catherine, Natania and I were at a corner store, one even said “I want a wife like that someday”. It’s strange. You’re supposed to just ignore them like you don’t hear anything, but honestly it’s really hard not to bust out laughing! It’s just so forward and much more aggressive than guys in the States. That one is just so weird to me.

            Anyways, I guess I’ll tell you a little more about what I’ve been up to so far. Sunday night around 8 or so of us hung out with Natania and some of her friends at a local restaurant/bar. Her friends even tried to teach us how to Salsa and Merengue dance. For me, figuring out how to Salsa was so much harder than the merengue. But Natania’s friends said I would be able to figure it out soon enough.

            Yesterday we all went to a Barbeque by a pool with all of the PUCMM volunteers. It was so beautiful, and so much fun. We swam, and played games, and laid out in the sun, and ate a lot of food. The PUCMM kids taught us how to salsa and merengue a little bit more. I LOVE the music here. It’s a combination of Latin, and electronic/club music, so it is impossible NOT to dance. After they taught us their dances, we taught them some popular American dances, like the “Wobble”.

            When we got home, Maria made a delicious dish for dinner that is called “mangu”. It’s mashed plantains (with a few other ingredients mixed in) with white cheese on top. I would have never have thought to put cheese with plantain, but it was SO good. In fact, I actually had the leftovers for breakfast this morning.

            Today was the first day that we actually started our service programs and our classes. When I went to the ISA office this morning, I got a white lab coat and a name tag to wear in the clinics. We’re all split up for our service, so everyone volunteers on different days and at different locations, but the majority of us have partners. My partner is Jane, and our days are Mondays and Tuesdays. Jane and I took a concho down the street from the ISA (with the help of one of the ISA workers, Jose) and arrived at this tiny little building that had a waiting room, a pharmacy, and two exam rooms. The whole clinic was probably the size of my parent’s living room and kitchen back in Melbourne.

            We met the community health promoter, who showed us how to find charts, how to sign in everyone who came in, and different materials that they gave the patients. Once the doctors came, Jane and I got to observe their consultation with the patients (The health system in the DR has three levels of medical care, level 3 has all of the very specialized doctors, level 2 is a typical hospital, and level 1, which is what our clinic is, has your primary care physician). The first patient we saw sounded like she was from Haiti. She couldn’t speak Spanish, and had to have a friend translate the whole time from Haitian to Spanish, and then back to Haitian again. The patient was just a couple weeks pregnant, but she had AIDS. It was kind of hard translating the medical Spanish, but the doctor helped her set up an appointment for when she was a little further along. We also saw a patient that was pregnant and was having urinary problems, a tree year old with a flu, and a man who had some heart condition. It was very interesting to listen to the doctor, because she would take much more time with each patient than they would in the US. Also, instead of just making small talk, and then getting down to business, she would have full on conversations with her patients about different aspects of their life, like their work, and their marriage, and things like that. It wasn’t one-sided either. The patient would tell the doctor all about their life, even things that seem personal to us Americans, and the doctor would share just as much personal information about her life back.

            Once things died down, we got to talk to the doctor and her resident a little bit more. The resident taught us how to take blood pressure, and told us to go home and figure out how to do a physical exam. She told us all about how the poorest people had horrible health because it was their last priority. They’d rather spend their time selling things on the streets. It was very interesting, because it sounded like the health disparities that we have back in the US, except more exaggerated. She also told us about her internship in New York, and how hard it was for her to try to learn the new language, so she told us to feel free to ask the doctors in English our questions, and let them know if we didn’t understand. It was great, because then we were able to talk to her in Spanglish (with more Spanish than English).

            I know some of you have been asking how well I have been able to understand everyone. I’m able to figure out the gist of things fairly well. There are some things that I’ll understand completely, and others that I’ll have absolutely no clue. It depends on the person and the subject. It’s also hard because of the accent and the dialect. They have words here that aren’t used in other countries, and they also talk very fast, and in doing so cut the majority of their words short. But at the same time, I’ve already picked up quite a bit, since I’m surrounded by it. I’m learning more of the idioms and informal language. (It’s funny, because instead of saying “Hola” and “Adios” for hello and goodbye, it is much more common for them to say “Hi” and “Hello”, or “Bye” and “Bye bye”. Maria said that adios is only really used when someone dies, and it is good-bye forever.)

            With my American friends, the language we use changes depending on the situation. If we are in private, we usually talk in English/Spanglish. If we are with Dominicans who are our age, like Natania’s friends and the kids of the host families (most are our age or a little older), we talk in Spanglish. But, when we are with someone who doesn’t speak English, we try to speak completely in Spanish, because it can make people who don’t understand feel uncomfortable, and it is perceived as rude if you are blatantly speaking English, and not even trying to practice Spanish. Whenever we are in public, we HAVE to speak Spanish, or whisper in English. We already stick out a bunch, and English only makes it even more obvious that we’re American. There are a lot of negative stereotypes about Americans, and so we have to try to act in ways that combat them. Also, speaking in English can be dangerous if you speak it around the wrong people. Basically you are advertising “I’m a foreigner, so I probably have a lot of money on me, and probably and expensive phone, and maybe even a camera!”. Which is not good. You have to be as discrete with money/iPhones as possible. You would never want to walk around texting people the way you do in the US.

            That’s actually something I’m getting used to pretty well. I have to have wifi to be able to send or receive any texts, so there is no reason for me to have my phone out anyways. The harder part is to remember to put it back in my purse when I leave the house, instead of back in my pocket like I’m used to. Luckily, I always seem to catch it before I leave the house!

            Bye bye!