Cholera, Graduation, and a Kitten at my Door - Month 4.5

November is a new month, which has brought an unexpected new topic of conversation to some of our communities here: Cholera.
There have been several cases of "suspected" cholera here in recent weeks - an unexpected, but small outbreak. I and my co-workers have had the opportunity to work with the local dept. of public health to educate one of the local affected communities about safe water, sanitation, and general prevention and treatment of Cholera. Our Community Health Workers have gone door to door, and our leadership team has attended town meetings. I've sat in the office of the medical director of the biggest local hospital, talking with nurses and doctors about what's being done about cholera. It's been an interesting couple of weeks. (But for those worriers out there -- fear not.) The local health department and organizations like ours are out in the commities spreading the word on prevention, and the people here, living so close to Haiti, are well-educated on how to squelch cholera. Nevertheless - as someone who came here planning to mostly treat high blood pressure and diabetes, :) it has been exciting to be a part of this unexpected (and likely short-lived) medical upheaval. Here are some photos from the past two weeks. (Above) My colleagues Willy and Tracy tell a community-group how to keep their water sanitized, and discuss polution from trash and sewer waste in the river.

Above left - Willy explains the polution on the local river. Above Right - two teens from one of our communities fashioned an old cool aid box and a piece of tinfoil into a "microphone" and "camera" and pretended to be the press, asking community members and HHI staff what we know about Cholera, at the community-wide prevention meeting our organization hosted last Friday. : ) What a fun way to get the word out! Now why didn't we think of that?!

Meanwhile, the next day, several of our community health workers who'd done the Cholera talk the day before had family members who graduated from high school. One of them (Willy, pictured above) even graduated from high school himself that day. As I cheered at the side of the road while the graduates marched by, it was an interesting reminder to me of how even in the midst of what for the community is a very important (teeny, tiny) cholera outbreak, that has (per local news sources) hospitalized a number of people from the community that some of these graduates are from - still - important things like life still go on every day in the midst of the disease prevention process.

I loved seeing our Community Health Worker Willy - a great health-care leader here, aged 24 - educating his community about how to purify their water to prevent cholera and other diseases one day, and graduating from high school the next! He can now hope to fulfill his dream of going on to medical school! Go Willy! He and the other community health workers are changing the world in so many ways! (Graduating from high school is a huge accomplishment here - and one that often doesn't happen until people are in their 20s due to the financial expense of attending school each year - buying uniforms, etc. These expenses cause many lower income families to have to keep their kids out of school for a year or two here and there throughout their school years when the family can't afford the uniforms or transport to and from classes. I've met a number of middle schoolers here who walk around town cleaning people's shoes in order to raise money for their school supplies for the next year so that they can go.) So - graduating here is an enormous accomplishment. Big congratulations to the graduates! They truly are the future.

There are also a lot of street dogs here, one of which my colleagues and I have recently adopted as our pet and named "Chispa" which means "Spark" (above right). I love Chispa. He's adoreable! But in truth I'm more of a cat person than a dog one. So when this little kitten showed up on my second story balcony the other night, crying for food and his mother, I sooooo wanted to adopt him. But my roommate is allergic, so I didn't take him in. I fed him 3 lids full of powdered milk - the little cutie was super hungry! Then I set out in the neighborhood in the dark, asking several neighborhood kids, until I found his home. (Luckily he is not actually homeless!) I took him back to a nice lady named Ruth who is the owner of his mother. Goodbye baby! Of course Ruth says if I change my mind I can always come on back and adopt him any time. But I think he'll be fine where he is. : ) And he's close enough that I can still visit him when I'm wanting a kitty to hug.

September 2011 Clinics (Month 2.5 in the DR).

Hello all. I've now been in the Dominican Republic working with Health Horizons International in the Puerto Plata Region, for two and a half months. My daily routine generally consists of home visits, accompanying and advocationg for medical patients that HHI serves, at appointments with local specialists, and working with the Community Health Worker program. But this week was one of our 3 annual "Medical Service Team Trips" that brings Doctors and medical students from the U.S. to our part of the D.R. to do clinics and home visits in the 4 low-income communities that HHI serves. It was a whirlwind 5 days, and we enjoyed welcoming and working alongside the visiting Doc's from the U.S. We got tired, dusty, and served over 400 chronic care patients, patients with acute medical issues, and kids in need of vitamins and meds for rashes and dewoming, in 3 clinics, and some home visits in 4 communites. Here are some photos: The one above and to the right is of HHI's volunteer Physicians from the U.S. treating a local family in the clinic. The one above and to the left is of HHI's Executive Director Laura and local toddler taking a quick break on the steps outside the church we used as our field clinic on our 4th long day of clinics.

Here, several of the doctors and local Community Health Workers smile despite the sweltering heat as they walk to the special temporary clinic we set up in a local church in one of the communities that HHI serves with medical care year round.

Below, one of HHI's volunteer medical students and one of our Dominican Community Health Workers check heights, weights, and vitals for two moms and their children in the clinic before sending the families on to the doctor consult stations hidden by the curtains in the background. I enjoyed this, my first of our 3 annual medical clinics that we organize here each year. Next week I and my co-country directors and several volunteers will begin taking approximately 40 of the sickest patients we assessed during this week's clinics to Dominican medical specialists for further in-depth consults, surgeries. We'll be getting others linked with dental work and eye-glass fittings. To learn more about the work I and the staff at HHI have been doing here in the Dominican Republic, check out our most recent blog post at: http://hhiblog.org and check out HHI on Facebook to see our monthly newsletter. You can also sign up to get the newsletter sent to your email inbox. Then you'll know a lot more about what I'm doing here. : )

Week 3: The Butterfly Park

Hi All! Well, it's my 3rd week in the DR. I've been busy meeting our 85 chronic-care patients and the other staff, orienting two grad. student research interns from the U.S. who are here to study hypertension med-compliance, and getting to know my new neighbors. I've moved into a new little apartment for the next month. It's yellow - which I love, and it doesn't have internet - which I love less. But it's got a fabulous view outside the front second story window! I sit at the window every morning and eat my breakfast looking out at the Maribal Butterfly Park that is pictured above/below. The park consists of a wall that separates the street across from my house from the acres of sugar cane fields beyond it. Last year the local residents commissioned an artist to come and paint the wall with pictures of the Maribal sisters -- three sisters who were part of the underground movement against the Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo, in the late 1950s. The Mirabel sisters were murdered in a sugar cane field near here in 1960 because of their work in that underground movement, and they are hugely famous for it, and well -loved throughout the DR. Their pictures are on the money, as well as on the wall of my park (as you can see above). They're the main characters in the book "In the Time of Butterflies" written by Julia Alvares. My neighbors sit and chat on benches in the park early in the morning and late into the evening, and they've gotten me into it too. It's a great way to get to know everybody. So, here are some photos of my favorite park in Montellano.

This is my neighbor boy and his dog, who saw me taking photos like a crazy tourist in the Maribal/Butterfly park, and sweetly took it upon himself to try to teach me about the many different kinds of tropical flowers and plants -- everything from vegies to butterfly bushes, growing in the Butterfly park. It was awesome. If only I could remember the names of half of those plants!

And this is the yellow house, just below (beside) the steps leading up to my new little yellow apartment. Apparently I'm now living in a happy yellow part of town. : ) I love it!

Above, and below, are some views of the park, the sugar cane fields behind it, and the mountains beyond that, as seen from my window in my second story yellow apartment. I think I may have the prettiest view in all of Montellano.

For those of you looking for some interesting summer reading, you might check out the book about the Mirabal sisters and their opposition to the Trujillo dictatorship here in the Dominican Republic.

The link to the Book on Amazon is here:
In the Time of the Butterflies

Happy Summer to all of you -- from me -- as I sit here on my neighbor's porch, watching rain from one of the DR's unexpected torrential downpours dump sheets of water straight down upon the sugar cane fields, and turn the street, which was dry and dusty a minute ago, into a growing puddle. Rain is a great thing here, in the summer, because it cools things down.

Today is going to be a beautiful day!

- Janelle

My First Week in the DR

Hi All, I'm not planning to write a deep-thought blog while I'm in the DR, I don't think. I'll just post photos with descriptions here once a month or so, to let you all know what I'm up to. : ) Please keep in touch via facebook and email :)! I miss you all already! Ok: 1st photos...

To the left are some of the houses in Pancho Mateo, one of the villages I'll be working in.

The website to learn more about the work is at http://www.hhidr.org/ You can follow the organization on the HHI facebook page too. (Health Horizons International).

The photo to the right shows the long hilly road to Arroyo de Leche, another one of the communities I'll be working in. I rode there on a motorcycle that was also carrying 2 other people yesterday. The ride took 40 minutes. The road was potholed and dusty, but the scenery was breath-taking.

To the right are four giggling girls I met swimming in a mountain stream in Arroyo de Leche. The stream is dirtied by sewer water. But of course the girls didn't notice or care.

Here's the living room of the house I'm staying in currently. An artist owns the home, and I love her decorations!

The mosquitos, cochroaches and pitcher-flush toilet I love slightly less. : )

I'll be getting my own apartment soon.

For those who know how much I love Chocolate Milk for breakfast :), I want you to know I have been thrilled to find a way to still have it here in the DR!

Here's the Bible Verse I found on the kitchen fridge in the house I'm staying at this week. How appropriate! It made me feel all fuzzy inside. :)

A Cat, a Fan, and a Mosquito Net: Three things I'm thrilled to have in my bedroom at the house I'm borrowing for my first week or so until I find an apartment. : )

I've also enjoyed hearing my neighbors here in the small city of Montellano singing while walking on the streets early in the morning and late at night. Dominicans love to dance, I've heard. But in Montellano apparently they also love to sing.

I think that makes them my kind of people.

Of the songs sung, I've heard a lot of church songs that I know. And 2 nights ago around 10pm I heard a teenaged girl outside the house belting out "baby, baby, baby" by Justin Beiber in a beautiful voice that made me think she's definitely ready for "American Idol," er, "Dominican idol?"

I'm currently in orientation and learning my new job, plus Dominican Spanish vocab words, as fast as I can. It's a whirlwind. But I did get to go to the beach today and that was beautiful and relaxing. At the beach it's clear that the span of lifestyles between the rich (tourists) and the poor is drastic here.

I hope that all is well with you! - Janelle