Voy a Vivir el Momento

It’s strange how the experiences that seem so little and insignificant can end up being the same experiences that make your entire day. One of those moments happened to me today, and I just had to share. Today while taking a concho home from my community service, I managed to have a whole conversation (in Spanish) with an absolute stranger. This may seem silly, but I am so proud of that conversation.

            When I got into the concho this morning, there was a cute little family that had a mom, a dad, a four-year-old son, and a 2-year-old daughter.  The kids were sitting on their parent’s laps. I was squished next to the dad and the son. This little boy was absolutely adorable, so said hi, and tried to make some small talk with him. The boy was shy, so the dad apologized, and we started to talk.

            He asked about my white coat in my lap, and asked where I was studying. I told him how I was from the US, and how I was studying medicine in the US. The man and his wife smiled, and nodded, and told me that they were both Pastors.  They pointed out the direction of their church, and told me I was welcome to stop by sometime, or attend there service. They asked what I was studying here, and I told them how I was here to learn Spanish. The wife looked at me very kindly and lovingly, and told me how great it was for me to be here studying Spanish. The husband said he thought my Spanish was very good.

            I know that seems like a small compliment to receive, but it made my entire trip. When I first got here to the DR, I remember being so nervous because I was afraid that I wasn’t going to know enough Spanish to be able to communicate with anyone. The first dinner I had with my host family, I listened to my family talk, but barely talked myself. The last Spanish class I had was my junior year of high school, and I just started my sophomore year in college. And on top of that, the DR has it’s own accent, it’s own slang, and they speak at a very rapid pace. I had absolutely no confidence with my Spanish, and was worried that people would judge my “gringa” (white girl) accent. At the very beginning, I understood less than half of what I heard, and I felt like I was completely in over my head.

            Here I am not even 3 weeks later. I’ll tell funny stories to my host family, and I’ll understand the majority of what they say. My grammar and vocabulary have improved immensely. I’ve even learned a lot of medical Spanish. I’m able to understand the Dominican accent, and I’ve noticed that I’ve picked a lot of it up in my Spanish, too. I’ve learned a bunch of Dominican-specific words, like “un chin”, “qué chulo”, “qué lo qué”, and “guagua”.  I’ve even started thinking in Spanish a little bit.

            And on top of all of that, I had a complete conversation today with an absolute stranger. I understood almost everything he said, which is incredible for me. The fact that he even complemented me on my Spanish, and expressed such gratitude towards me for attempting to learn Spanish in the first place just fills me with joy. Today’s conversation with the pastor and his wife validated my entire experience abroad. I’ve learned so much, I’m adjusting to the new culture, and I’ve gotten to meet some amazing people. This journey has been so incredible already, and I’m not even halfway done. I know my Spanish is nowhere near perfect, but I have made some drastic improvements. I am so proud of how much I’ve grown already. (Shout out to my Spanish teacher, Prof. Navajas, for making this trip possible, and for helping us all absorb the language so well!)

            Anyways, I was so busy talking to the pastor and his wife in the conch that I almost missed my stop. When the concho driver pulled over, I said my goodbyes to the family, and the Pastor gave me his phone number in case I ever needed anything while here in Santiago. I am so glad to have met such a kind-hearted person, and I am so glad that I still have 3 more weeks in this country.

P.S. Here's a link to a reeeaally popular song here in the DR called Vivir Mi Vida by Marc Anthony. 

This is mostly for my little sister, Rachel, because she love music, so I think she'd find this song interesting. :) Vivir Mi Vida

 

Korea

I haven’t figured out why, but for some reason the clinic I volunteer at is called Korea. I’ve volunteered at hospital, nursing homes and other clinical settings before, but Korea is a completely different experience. Most hospitals I’ve seen before are bright, white, and so many precautions and procedures that have to be followed carefully. Even in the most basic clinic, there are machines everywhere that beep, and have a million alarms and flashing lights. Korea isn’t like that at all. It’s basically a concrete block with windows (and thank God for those, because there is no AC). The only light the clinic has is natural light, but since Korea is next to other buildings, it’s generally a very dark place. The massive machines I’m used to seeing in the US (even in the simplest clinic) don’t exist here. There are no beeps, or alarms, or flashing lights, just the sounds of the people talking in the waiting room (the walls are incredibly easy to hear through, so privacy is pretty hard to come by).

            The medical tools that they do have in the clinics are very limited, so if you need an x-ray, or a blood/urine/stool test, or basically any test at all, the doctor has to write you a referral to the Second Level of medical care. Even then, the technology isn’t the best. For example, almost every doctor’s office in the US use digital x-rays. It wasn’t until I started volunteering in Korea that I saw an actual x-ray film.

             I don’t think I realized how ill equipped Korea was until today. The stethoscopes barely work, and clinics are noisy, so it’s nearly impossible to listen to someone’s heartbeats (especially if it’s a fetal heartbeat). If you want to take someone’s blood pressure, they don’t even use the stethoscope, because it’s easier to feel the pulse manually than to listen for it through a stethoscope. And (obviously) the blood pressure cuff is manual too. Temperature is taken with a mercury thermometer, rather than the fancy electronic ones we have. They use the most basic tool they can that will still get the job done.       

            This is fine and all, but I really want to share with you all what I saw today, because it was extremely eye opening, and I think it will help you understand how little this clinic has. So today we had a patient who needed a Pap smear done (Pap Smears are basically where they use this device called a speculum to open the vagina, and then collect some cells to screen for things like cancer). So the doctor was about to do the procedure, when she realized that there wasn’t enough light in order to see (it was a cloudy day outside). The clinic didn’t have a flashlight, or any type of light, for that matter, so the doctor as anyone if they had a phone on them. The CNA handed over her go-phone, and the doctor turned on this dim LED light. She then handed me the phone, and told me to hold it over the patient while the doctor did the procedure. I was so shocked that they had to resort to using a phone in order to see well enough to do a Pap smear. I don’t know about you, but I would have been so uncomfortable if I had been the patient on the table today. Pap Smears are invasive enough, and on top of that you have some random person’s phone right next to you’re privates. Eeeek. And on top of that, it was still nearly impossible to see anything. Fortunately, I told ISA about this, and they’re going to donate a flashlight to the clinics.

            In completely unrelated news, I had a fantastic weekend. Catherine, Nathania, and I went on an overnight trip to some of the beaches to the north of us. We took a guagua (a small bus) up to a city called Puerto Plata, and from there we took a van-sized concho to the town of Caberete, which was about 30 minutes east of Puerto Plata. The mega-concho was definitely an experience. The guy who was sitting in front of Catherine had a live chicken in a plastic bag in his lap. The chicken actually freaked out mid-trip, and started clucking and flapping it’s wings, while there were probably 18 people stuffed into this concho. It was definitely an interesting experience. Once we finally got to Caberete, we checked into our hotel, and headed to the beach, which was absolutely beautiful, and was lined with different bars and hotels.

            We laid on the beach for a few hours, and left around 5 to go back to our hotel. Apparently, laying out on the beach was exhausting, because once we got back to the hotel, we ended up crashing, and we slept until 10 PM. When we woke up, we got ready to go out, and headed back to the beach around 12 or so. The first thing we did was grab some food. The only place that was still open was called The Lazy Dog  Grill, which served “American” food. I ordered a hamburger and fries, and I was surprised at how off it tasted. The bun was basically regular bread, the actually meat tasted like sausage, and the fries just didn’t taste like fries. But it was definitely interesting seeing their take on American food.

            After that, we walked along the beach to check out the nightlife. Caberete is a very touristy place, so there were way too many drunken American midlifers. There was this one 50 year old was belligerently drunk who tried to talk to us. He was screaming things like “How did you guys get here to the DR? I got here on a boat! It was AWFUL because they made us eat f***ing SANDWICHES!” and “What, you’re ignoring me?? Is that what you’re going to do? Show up and just IGNORE PEOPLE? Because I will NOT be ignored!” It was interesting, to say the least.

            The Saturday morning we headed over to a beach in Sosua, which was about 15 minutes west of Caberete. Sosua is absolutely gorgeous. You can see the mountains in the background, and there are no shells or trash on the beach. The water was absolutely clear, and when we swam in the water we could see some small fish swimming by our feet. After we were done swimming, we laid out in the sun some more, drank some Piña Coladas, and then finally headed back to Santiago. This weekend was so much fun, but I’m really looking forward to this upcoming weekend too. The entire group is headed to the capital, Santo Domingo, and I’m super excited for it! I’ll keep you guys updated!

             

Playa Sosua

            

Carnaval Dominicano

Hola Amigos! I have SO much to tell you about this past week, so I hope you’re ready. On Wednesday, a few of my friends decided to go out and get piercings! They had been debating getting their belly buttons pierced, but since it was only 200 pesos ($4) or so, they decided to go for it. In the US, it’d probably cost around $60, so for only $4, they figured that if they didn’t like it, they could take it out. And it’s surprisingly safe to get them here, as long as you go to the right place. Nathania recommended this accessory store called Inca’s, because she had gone there before to get her cartilage pierced. She said it was all really sanitary, and it had actually healed faster than the one she got in the States.

            So three of my friends and I went out to Inca’s. One friend got her cartilage pierced, another got her belly button pierced, and the other got her belly button and some other part weird of her ear pierced. I thought about getting one, but there wasn’t really one in particular that I wanted. I have two piercings now on each earlobe, and I don’t really wear them too often, so I figured I probably would wear any other ones either. So I basically showed up to hold my friends hands, offer moral support, and to take videos. They said that the piercings weren’t quite as painful as they thought they’d be, but they looked pretty painful to me. The videos we have are pretty hilarious.

            After that adventure, we went out to ladies night again. We ran into another ISA group that was from Grand Valley State University in Michigan. I talked to one of the students from GVSU, and found out that they are all here to study Kinesthesiology with PUCMM’s baseball team, and to take a Latin History class. Their program is completely in English, and they only know a few words of Spanish. I cannot imagine how stressful it would be to study abroad with out knowing any of the language of the country! It’s been hard enough for me to navigate around the city, and order food, and talk to my host family, and I’ve been studying Spanish for over 4 years. One guy was even saying that they don’t really communicate with their host family at all. The family doesn’t know English, and they don’t know Spanish, so they basically gesture and point at things. Props to them, because I would not be able to go 6 weeks this country without Spanish.

            Thursday morning I decided to go back to the clinics for an extra day. Apparently, Thursdays are the best days to go to clinics, so I’m probably going to go every week. I got to clinics around 10am, and around 10:15 or so, all of the medical students started to arrive in their lab coats. Med school here is different than in the States. For me to get an MD in America, I have my 4 years of undergraduate school, and then I have 4 years of medical school. For the students here, they have 1 year of pre-med requisites, and then 5 years of medical school. So by the standards here, I’m technically a med student. It was super confusing before I figured this out, because my conversations with the students would go like this: “Oh, so you’re in the clinics, you must be a medical student!” “No, not yet. I’m pre-med.” “So it’s your first year in school?” “No, I’m in my second year.” “So you’re a medical student?” And we would just go around in circles like this, until I figured out how different their system was.

            Anyways, once the med students got there, we started walking towards this really poor neighborhood. The students have been working with around 20 or so families who have depression. Most of them don’t even know that they have a problem, and don’t know anything about depression. The medical students were promoting a support group/ club called “Smile With Me”. The club had discussion groups where they could go and talk about their problems and struggles, and receive support from the other members, who understand what they are going through. The discussions are also moderated by one of the medical students, who helps to show people different ways to manage their depression. In addition to the discussion groups, there was also a calendar of events with fun things like game nights, and cooking classes so that the patients could go out and have fun and get to know the other patients. 

            I was in complete awe of the neighborhood we were in. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in all of Santiago. The houses were basically one-room concrete shells, with the basic necessities inside. Some even had walls made out of curtains.  Kids were wandering all over the streets, and one house even had a baby sitting unattended on the front steps, chilling and drinking out of a bottle. I honestly wish I could have taken a picture, but I felt like taking out my iPhone would almost mock the residents. I actually found the neighborhood to be kind of beautiful in a way, because even though everyone had so little, it was still such a vibrant community.

            The med students all split up to go on house visits. When my med student and I got to our first house, the family welcomed us in with (literally) open arms, kissed us on the cheek, and told us to sit in the few chairs they had in the house. The doctor told the patient about the club, and how it was for people who often feel sad, or feel like they have a lot of troubles. She explained that these types of feelings can be a problem, and how the club would help her deal with her feelings. I thought the most interesting part was that the family was invited to take part in the club and all of its activities too. In the Dominican culture, family is very important, and very tightknit. By including the family in the treatment process, the patient is more likely to get better, because they have their family there to help support them through difficult times. I was very impressed with the program, and it reminded me a lot of my health disparities class that I took in the spring.

            Being here has really shown me all of the different aspects that affect people’s health. It’s all very connected. Those who can read are stuck with jobs like street vending, that don’t make a lot of money. People get sucked into the cycle of poverty, and there is no easy way to get out. Getting an education is nearly impossible. The public schools get very little funding, so they’re not very good. The teachers themselves aren’t very well educated, and there is no structure at all to the schools. For a good education, you have to go to private school, which is extremely expensive. If you don’t have birth certificate, you can’t go to school. Most of the kids who were born in poverty don’t have a birth certificate, so there is basically no way for them to climb out of poverty. It’s super depressing, but it also makes me glad that I’ve studying health disparities. Hopefully I’ll be able to work on reducing these kinds of disparities someday in the future.

            I don’t want to leave you on a heavy note, so I’ll tell you about really cool mini-excursion we had today! One huge part of the Dominican culture (that I had no clue about until I got here) is the Dominican Carnival, which is celebrated in February. The Carnival dates all the way back to the time of Christopher Columbus. The celebration displays an upside-down world, where the devil rules, and everything is opposite. It’s a giant satire of the Devil. Each part of the country has it’s own unique form of the Devil. Here in Santiago, it’s a Lechon, which is a troll-like Devil. Every year for the carnival, people will dress up in these amazingly elaborate masks with giant horns, and these body suits that are covered in bells and whistles and beads. The decoration on the horn tells you what part of Santiago the Lechon is rom. Then the Lechones will march down the street, cracking their whips and dancing around. They also carry around these rattles made out of cow bladder than has been cleaned, sanitized, and dried, and they use it to hit people with, until they hit somebody so hard with it that the rattle breaks.

            Today we went to the workshop of one of the costume makers. He told us all about the history, showed us how they made the masks, and even let us help a little with making one. After that, we had a mini Carnival, and two of the workers dressed up, and cracked their whips, danced around, hit us with the rattles, and then had us dance with them. It was so much fun. They let us hold and try on the masks, and everything! I’m so used to going to a museum and not being allowed to touch anything, but at the workshop we were allowed to touch and wear and dance around with the masks! It was soooo much fun! If you want to watch the video I took from today's mini-Carnival, I posted a link below the picture! :)

 

I got to try on my favorite Carnival mask!

CLICK TO WATCH TODAY'S MINI CARNIVAL

27 Charcos

Hey everyone! I know I haven’t written in a couple of days, but that just means I have TONS to tell you now! But first of all, I wanted to say how surprised at how many people have been reading my blog so far, considering that I only really wrote it for my family and some close friends! I’ve actually gotten over 200 page views so far, and I even have people reading in from the DR, Russia, Germany, Spain, and Ukraine! So I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for letting me share my travels with you! Anyways…

            Wednesday was a pretty laid back day for me. I got to sleep in for the first time since I’ve gotten here, which was beautiful. We had class as usual in the afternoon. I don’t know about the rest of my classmates, but to me, the class can be mentally draining sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, I’m having so much fun in that class, and I’m learning a lot, but since I’m not fluent in Spanish, it can be exhausting trying to listen and speak Spanish for two hours straight. I think this is especially true for class because we’ve been focusing a lot on the grammar of the language, and that has always been one of my least favorite things to learn in school, even when it was in English. It just never came easily to me. So on Wednesday when we spent 2 hours doing grammar exercises, I walked out of class feeling like a zombie.

            But it all worked out because Wednesday night ended up being really fun. Wednesday night here is ladies night, so going out is really cheap. A group of about 8 of us went to two different clubs and even took a taxi to get there, and each of us only spent around 50 pesos (which is slightly more than a dollar). We got there around 10:30, which is a pretty normal time for US clubs, but here we were very early. It was funny though, because there was another group of Americans there too, and they stood out quite a bit. Our program has been trying to teach us blend in as much as possible, instead of reinforcing the American stereotype. After seeing that group, I can see why it’s so important. They were the epitome of the American stereotype. The way the girls dressed stuck out from the rest of the people there. While girls in the DR dress conservatively during the day, at night they wear short shorts, skirts, and dresses (basically the same way that we do in the US). The Americans we saw were wearing maxi dresses, jewelry that looked expensive, and their hair up in messy looking buns and headbands, which are all things that scream American here. They were also talking VERY loudly in English, which is kind of disrespectful here (it shows that you aren’t even going to attempt to learn their language or culture while you’re here.) The club didn’t start getting full until around 12:30 or so. It was definitely a strange experience for me, because guys here are definitely more forward than guys in the US. For example, I was sitting at a table talking to a few of my friends from our group, and some guy came up to me and said, “You’re pretty, can I have your number?” I told him no, obviously, since I didn’t know him at all.

            Thursday was pretty easy going too. I slept in again, and then went to class. I went to the gym afterwards, and it felt so great to stretch and workout again. The only thing is that here, it’s more acceptable for you to stare at people than the US, so I found it a little uncomfortable to have guys staring me down while I worked out. But it was a very nice gym, and even had a small dance room that was open, so I got the chance to work on my technique a little. That night, some of us went to the gas station down the street to hang out (Yes, hanging out in the gas stations is a thing here). The gas stations look about the same as those in the states, but they also have a bunch of tables and chairs. You’ll see people there go and buy a drink or two, and then drink it there at the tables. I think part of this is because people here rarely take things to go. They always take the time to sit down and eat their food (weird concept, right?)

            On Friday, Jane and I headed back to the clinics. Apparently, it was OB/GYN day. I’m going to skip all of the graphic details so I don’t scare you all away, but let’s just say we got to watch the doctor examine the patients. Honestly, I didn’t mind it too much, because I found it to be very informative. I learned a lot, and I’ve been able to understand a little more medical Spanish than I did last time. I learned that here, the common name for diabetes is “azucar”, which means “Sugar”. Mind blown. Jane and I got to practice taking blood pressure on each other, but they’re blood pressure cuff and stethoscope aren’t the best, and the clinics are always very noisy, so it was nearly impossible to pick out the heartbeats the way needed to. I’m amazed that they are able to take patient’s blood pressures at all when their equipment seems to be falling apart.

            Yesterday we had our first excursion, to a beautiful park called 27 Charcos (27 Waterfalls). It was absolutely beautiful, but I wasn’t able to take pictures, because we weren’t allowed to bring anything at all with us. With the help of some tour guides, we took a 45-minute hike up the side of a mountain. It was beautiful and green, and kind of nice to be out in nature without any electronics at all (I’ve been using my cell phone less and less anyways). But it was a very hard hike, and by the end I was absolutely exhausted. It was very hot outside, and since we couldn’t bring anything with us, we didn’t have any drinking water. When we finally got to the top, we got to swim in a small little stream. The water was crystal clear, cold, and uncontaminated. After jumping in, the tour guides started heading us towards the waterfalls. They were all absolutely GORGEOUS. We got from one little pool of water to the next by either sliding down some natural water slides, or jumping off of the ledges into the water. There was one waterfall where we jumped from a ledge that was about 23 feet above the water down into a really deep pool. The tour guides were absolutely hilarious. They’d help us climb all over the rocks, and helped us slide down and jump off of the waterfalls. When we got to the 23-foot waterfall, one of the tour guides climbed up even higher on the ledge, climbed up a tree, made monkey noised, and then jumped from the tree down to the water. At the end, there was a natural lazy river, like those in the water parks, and a large pool where it let out. It was such an adventure going down the charcos, but it was also relaxing because you could let your life jacket keep you afloat so that you could focus on taking in all of the nature instead of worrying about swimming after such an intense hike.

            After a nice long power nap, my roommates went back to the same club we went to for ladies night, except this time we brought along the three guys from our group, their house brother, and one of our other friend’s house brothers. I danced the merengue and bachata with all of the guys in our group, and we also all hung out and talked. Later in the night, we were all starving, so we headed out to get empanadas from a food cart the locals trusted. It was right next to the monument, which all lit up and glowing in the night.

            Once we got up this morning, we went with our family, their sister and niece, and our upstairs neighbors to the pool at the country club. We laid out in the sun, swam around, an even saw a 2 year old dance like it was her job. A couple of guys started talking to Nathania, and when she introduced me to them, she mentioned that I was American, and that I was studying in the DR to learn some Spanish. I guess they thought that meant that I didn’t know any at all, because then they tried to talk in loud, over-enunciated Spanish to me, and then tell me the translation in English immediately afterwards. They would also talk amongst themselves in Spanish about me, assuming I didn’t understand any of it. It was pretty funny to me, because I was able to catch the majority of what they were saying. My Spanish is bad, but it’s not THAT bad. Once I get past the accents and how it’s hard to hear in general because the country as a whole is loud, I’m able to understand quite a bit. But overall, the day at the pool was fun and relaxing, and I didn’t get sunburned, so that’s always good.

            Anyways, I’ll try to write again soon! Bye for now!

(PS, I’d love to hear back from you guys too! Feel free to comment or message me if there’s anything you’d like to know about my experiences here in the DR so far!)    

       

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!