Summer 2012 brings a Teen Intercambio and Kids Camp to the Pancho Mateo

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve written on this blog, and so much has happened in the past five months, from June to November, here in the Dominican Republic, then I’m not sure how to summarize it all. This will teach me not to forget to do my blog posts every month in future! :-) But let me share a few of the wonderful highlights.

 The biggest highlight of the summer for me was the week that I took off from work, (though I still love my job at HHI,) and welcomed six teenaged young women and my friend Amy from Raleigh Mennonite church, my home church in Raleigh North Carolina, into my home here in the DR. They came on a missions trip, to learn what I call my one of their prior use leaders, was doing and seeing and learning here in the DR, and to get involved themselves. We did a wonderful friendship with five Dominican teen young women from two local churches in Poncho Mateo one of the communities where I work. We learned about each other’s cultures, interests, families, and dreams and plans for after high school. Most importantly the girls from Raleigh and the girls from Poncho Mateo planned together a kids camp for what ended up being 100 children ages 2 to 11 in the community of Poncho Mateo. With so many children of so many different ages, in a tiny Haitian church in Poncho Mateo, the first day was a challenge, until we got into the swing of things. But it was a wonderful week, in which the teens from both countries, led singing, Bible stories, and did education on dental hygiene than tooth-brushing for all those enthusiastic kids. 

 Washing Hands every day before snack time. Ritz Crackers and Water were a huge hit in this community where clean water for drinking is difficult to come by in many households.  Here little kids love water, and actually ask for refills upon refills.  We gave out lots of water on those hot summer days of playing.

                                                    Singing and Bible Story

 Coloring pictures of toothbrushing, friends hanging out, families hugging, and God's love.

                                                             Bonding

This is my little friend Alexandre, one of the kids from one of the families from Pancho Mateo that I've had the opportunity to build a special friendship with since I've lived here. He's a sweety, as is his older brother and his sisters -- all in Elementary School.

 Part of our planning group of teen girls at the Basketball court in Pancho Mateo, where we played games with the kids each day.

             Co-leader Amy playing "hair salon." : )  The girls always took this game very seriously.

                                                     Handwashing before snack again.

 The boys playing basketball while the girls jumped rope, played tag, did hair, and the younger kids colored and played with a puppy and Erin's camera.

                                                               Coloring!


Coloring pictures was a big hit, and we noticed that our crayons tended to go home one by one in the pockets of small children each day – a little prize to take home and play with with their siblings. We actually had to go buy new Crayons halfway through the week! So, if you ever want to come to the DR and give a gift to children, crayons and coloring pages are huge hit.

The kids taught us games they love: we played tag, hair salon, basketball, and at the end of the day we walked each child home so that the young women from the US and the local Pancho Mateo churches could get to know their families, and so the kids would get home safely. My favorite part of it all was how the teens from the U.S. and teens from the D.R. were able to work together and build friendships, while hugging little kids and playing ball!

Our Theme of the week was Matthew 6:33

"Seek First God's Kingdom"

It was a great week!  Thanks God! Thanks Ladies! Come back soon!

Medical Students, Presidential Elections, and Leaving it all on the Pavement. Month 10.5

It's been another month of new things here in the Dominican Republic. 
For the first time in HHI's history we've had 3 Physician Assistant students (who are about to graduate and be full-fledged PAs,) with us for an entire month, finishing their clinical rotations.  Since I'm the Clinical Director I got to supervise them, which was a bit unexpected since I'm not an actual MD, and I was a bit nervous :), but overall things went great. The PA students Kate, Lane and Rob are leaving today, to return to the U.S., and Kate told me this morning that when she filled out the HHI Internship evaluation form she "ran out of room in the box where you write good things about the experiene."  So, I'm happy to hear that they also felt that things went well.

We accomplished a lot in a short period of time this month -- the PA students, several other clinical interns, and I -- as we pounded the pavement, completing community-wide Blood Pressure and Diabetes Screenings in our 4 partner communities - in both Spanish and Haitian Kreyol, staffing clinics in all 4 communities with the HHI visiting American MD's for a week in which we treated 400 patients of all ages and medical conditions, and visiting almost 100 of HHI's chronic care patients in their homes to help them understand their hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy or asthma better. 

We had several weeks of rain during this time, and the PA students and interns did a great job wading through new, unexpected "lakes" and rivers with me on the roads to get to patient's houses, slip-sliding through muddy roads, riding motorcycles up steep mountains where the dirt roads were partially washed out - without hesitation. We took patients to the emergency room on motorcycles and in borrowed cars when they presented with heart attack symptoms or the injuries sustained by 2 teens and a child injured in a motorcycle wreck.  We spent the night in the hospital with a woman who had just lost her baby and had no family to sit with her in the hospitals here where family members and not nurses are responsible for your care in the hospital setting. It was a completely exhausting, overworked, overwhelming, and yet wonderful month with the PA students and other interns, and I feel like we left all of our energy, sweat, and love for these patients right there on those mountain roads, and the floors of their houses, and the heads of their pets who we petted, and their children who we hugged and we played with, and we fell into bed each night tired but feeling we'd accomplished something. We "left it all on the pavement" on might say.  And now the PA students, and interns Sarah and Andrew are leaving. : (  But here are some fun photos of our past 4 weeks, here in the Domincan Republic.

This is also an interesting time in the D.R. because the Presidential election is tomorrow, Sunday, May 20th, 2012.  We'll be staying inside tomorrow after church, and likely through Monday, as the elections take place and parades and demonstrations are expected in the streets. We will wait to see whether the white party (previously in power) or the purple party (currently in power) will win, and how that will affect the country. Keep the Dominican Republic and all of it's leaders and citizens in your prayers during this time of transition and change!

Sugar Cane, A Visit,and Some Easter Eggs (Month 9.5)

In this region of the Dominican Republic, and here in my little town of Montellano (population reported at 10,000) and in the surrounding smaller communities we've had 90% un-employment for the past 7+ years since the main employer, the local Montellano Sugar Cane Refinery, shut down, with no employer to replace it. Since then, with a lack of other employment opportunities in the area, communities full of fathers who are cane-cutters, cane-factory workers, truck drivers, etc, have struggled to feed their children. Some young adults who are now married, were in middle school when the sugar cane refinery closed. They've grown up, finished school (if their unemployed family could afford to buy their books and uniforms) and even gotten married and had childen of their own, without any hope of jobs, watching their fathers, uncles, and friends try to eak out a living with part time labor, for most of these young adults' lives. This is one big reason why HHI (www.hhidr.org) the organization that I work for chose this region. The lack of proper health care for poor families here has been a serious problem for years.

But now...there is more hope. It started as a trickle, a rumor, the same rumor that has been circulating (without a shred of truth) for 7 years or more; the rumor that "someone" was buying the sugar cane refinery and would re-open it and provide jobs. Now, it turns out that an American Company has purchased the plant and intends to make Rum (which is made using sugar cane.) They plan to provide hundreds of jobs, and to build a health clinic which will likely collaborate with HHI in some of the health work we have been doing here. So, our little town's situation is changing a bit, and with it, HHI's work will change and adapt. We're excited to see what will happen! The sugar cane refinery is pictured above in it's current rusted, abandoned and boarded up state. We look forward to watching it come to life again... Thank God for Sugar Cane!

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This Easter season my friend Karin Shank came to visit me. I was delighted to have my first visitor from the U.S. since I moved here to work with HHI last June, 2011! I took the week off from work and we went to the beach, I showed Karin the local places of interest, and we visited my friends and co-workers in several of HHI's partner-communities. We introduced the American Easter tradition of dying and hiding eggs to the extended family of one of my co-workers, Dania, a Community Health worker in Pancho Mateo. It was great fun. We started with 3 colors but most of the eggs ended up being green or blue - and so did most of our fingers.

The adults -- who had never seen such a game before -- had a great time hiding the eggs, and the children ran full-speed to go find them. I've never seen such a rough and tumble, full contact, Easter Egg hunt in my life! : ) Once each child had secured an egg, they all immediately ate them and moved on to a happy game of Dominoes, the Dominican national table game. It was a wonderful afternoon!

We tried to go to a candle-light catholic Easter service outside in the center of town with this same family the next night, but unfortunately it was cancelled on account of rain.

Also this week Karin and I went to HHI's farthest away community Arroyo de Leche. We visited two of my community health worker friends/co-workers of mine who live up there and learned more about Dominican Easter foods! We had to get off the motorcycle and hike up the one hill because the severe rains the week before had washed out too much of the dirt, making the road impassible. Below are photos of our time in Arroyo de Leche.

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Cooking HABICHUELAS CON DULCE at Mercedes' House.

This special Easter dessert that everyone eats here during Easter week is made from sweetened brown bean juice with cookies floating in it. Karin and I went up the mountain (4o minutes on a motorcycle) to learn how to make it from my friend and co-worker, HHI community Health Worker Mercedes, in her home in the Campo.

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This Purple seeded fruit is Cacao fruit, which when dried and ground into powder makes cocoa to make chocolate! This, and bananas, and other fruits and flowers grow in my friend and co-worker Corina's garden high on the mountain in Arroyo de Leche. Corina's the woman in the white clothes with the tall plant. : )

Here's Karin and I in the garden. I love all of Corina's plants and try to visit her garden and her household of kids every month!

Quakes, Whales, and Shriners - (Month 7.5)

Mid-February has arrived, and our “cool” refreshing 70 degree rainy weather here on the North Coast of the D.R. has turned back into sweaty mid-80s with too much humidity and lots of sun. Some bigger-than- usual things are happening here in addition to my normal work of monitoring patients and supervising and collaborating with the Community Health Workers. So I’m going to highlight those things this month.
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A Medical Service Team of Doctors from the U.S. joined our team in the D.R. for a week in January, 2012.

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1.) DOCTORS IN THE HOUSE
In January we had one of our 3 annual Medical Service Trips in which Doctors
and Medical Students from the U.S. came to spend a week treating more than 400 of our HHI patients in 4 local communities. It was a busy, exhausting, but great week.

2.) INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL EMERGENCY:
One unusual thing that’s happened this winter is that I have a 19 year old patient (slash-baseball lover) named Jansel who will be coming to the U.S., (Boston), to receive life-saving leg surgery at Shriners Hospital in March. Though my job is usually to link HHI’s patients and clients to doctors in the Dominican Republic, we’ve consulted with a number of Surgeon’s here and found that the treatment he requires to save his leg from amputation and likely even to save
his life, is not available here. So, after weeks of phone calls, emails, and months of accompanying Jansel on doctors’ visits, Jansel (and hopefully his mom) will be traveling to Boston for several
months of free medical sugery and treatment at Shriners Hospital. Huge thanks to Shriners for their wonderful generosity! I hope everyone will support them the next time you see them in a parade! Though the medical care will be free, HHI still needs to raise funds for the family’s plane travel back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., as well as providing housing, food, and winter clothes for Jansel (who is hilarious; has never seen the
inside of an airplane, nor snow, and who certainly isn’t prepared for cold weather clothes :)) whilehe is in treatment. For more info. onJansel and how you can donate money,
clothes, Spanish sports books, or other items to help him while he is in the U.S., check out HHI’s newsletter which will be posted this coming week. http://hhidr.org/newsletter/

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3.) EARTHQUAKE!
In January our little town here experienced 4 or 5 small earthquakes, one of which (a 5.4) woke me straight out of my sleep one night. We all decided we were “Shaking but we weren’t Quaking” (in fear :)) and we’ve been pleased to note no more quakes in the past few weeks. Word on the street is that little quakes sometimes are just correcting problems in the fault-lines so that big quakes don’t happen in the future. It’s amazing how a little thing like a baby earthquake can bring neighbors together, though. I had some great conversations with strangers after the quakes, and that was great!

4.) INTERESTED IN WATER?
If anyone’s interested in coming to the D.R., HHI as looking for a summer intern!
The link for more info and the application are here. Come visit me for the summer!

Here’s a synopsis:
The 2012 HHI Public Health Internship Program aims to improve water, sanitation and
hygiene (WASH) conditions in HHI partner communities by facilitating a community-driven
latrine project along with clean water and hygiene education and promotion. The internship provides a valuable opportunity for up to 2 students or professionals to develop and lead a community WASH project in the challenging yet rewarding setting of the Dominican Republic.

5.) SURF AND WHALES
In the midst of quite a number of medical
emergencies that I and my co-workers have been dealing with here among HHI’s several
hundred patients, I’ve been able to sneak a few weekends here and there for short
weekend trips, to experience more of the D.R.’s beautiful coastline as
well. Here are some photos of those great experiences this winter.

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Watching the Christian Surfers International Surf Competition in Cabarete (100 surfers competed) with local missionary and expat friends... And a photo I snapped of a whale jumping in Samana.

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Boat Trip - Watching the Humpbacked whales in Samana. They travel here from all over the world, each year, to the warm waters of the Atlantic, to give birth.

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This was the first trip I’ve been on with a private rented car, instead of public transportation, since I arrive in June! :) It was awesome!

Everyone Needs a Support Network (month 6.5 in the D.R.))

I have always wanted to be able to make a prayer
card. You know, they’re the little postcards
that “Christian missionaries” send out to their prayer and financial supporters each year, showing photos of what they are doing in their work and lives in their “foreign land”, so that their supporters know how to pray, and how to encourage them, and how to be a part of their work – whether that work be
medical care for people in war torn countries, teaching soccer as a way to build community in South Africa, or starting a church or a school or a foster care system in Bangladesh or Morroco or Laos. I always thought – `what a neat idea.’ People who receive the little postcards then put them on the fridge and keep the missionaries in their prayers and thoughts throughout the year. Sometimes they even send “care packages!” Hooray!

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So, this is the first Christmas that I made one – a
prayer card. I thought I’d make one since I now live in the Dominican Republic, and I am doing Humanitarian work, and definitely on most days could really use the prayer support and encouragement of at least 100 people! I waffled a bit before making the card, though,
thinking that perhaps since I’m not an “official” missionary sent by a church,
but rather a humanitarian worker getting paid by a non-profit (albeit not much J) to work in the D.R., that maybe I didn’t “get” to consider myself ‘official”
enough for a prayer card.

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I mean, other people go to jobs all day in the U.S., and
take care of their families, and volunteer to mentor local kids in their towns
in North America – and they never send out a prayer card asking for others to remember them, and support them, and hold them up in prayer before God, so that God will guide them in their
everyday tasks.

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But then I thought – you know, probably everybody should send out prayer cards. We should all take a few photos of our work, our family, the kids we mentor, the organizations we lead, and we should make a little collage and send it out to at least 15 people who love us and really know us, and can really use the information on the card to pray for and support us in
our daily lives throughout the year. (I think this used to be part of what happened when most families used to send Christmas letters every year. Some people still do this, but I think the practice is waning. Yet I know that during my childhood my mom always used to put 15 or 20 of the photos and letters that came at Christmas each year on the fridge, so we could remember
those families and what they were up to, and keep them in our minds and hearts throughout
the year.)
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Well, it’s Christmas again. And we’re all having an important impact on some part of the world right now – whether big or small, and we need the support of others, and their prayers, to
help us `keep on keeping on’ in the work we’re doing throughout the year.
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So, above is my Prayer Card, with photos of a few of the things that I am involved in here.
Thanks for your support, prayers and encouragement. (And special thanks to those of you who’ve sent encouraging facebook notes and emails, offered to send a care package, and helped
to manage my house and other life stuff in the U.S. while I am gone. You know
who you are! And you’re wonderful!) Let me know how I can pray for and remember you in the things you’re doing in your life as well!
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A lot of new friends in the D.R and old tried-and-true friends in the US have supported and helped me in my work and life here thus far through Health Horizons. And while there is not nearly enough room in this (overly-long) blog post for all of them, I want to highlight a few here for you to see, with photos and Thank you notes :
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Thanks to my neighbors Tata (with toddlers on bench) and her mom Fefita (with Candle, above) and their entire extended family, for welcoming me and making me a part of their family when I was new in Montellano and knew nobody; for helping me learn Spanish, for teaching me about culture, food and politics, for introducing me to their entire neighborhood - now my good friends - and litterally keeping the light (er, candle) burning for me when the power went out, repeatedly.

Thanks to my Friend and Colleague Luz (laughing with me) who has shown me what it means to truly love and care for others above and beyond yourself.

Thanks to my co-workers and friends Willy, Claudia and Carlito (shown here push-starting a moto for some stranded high schoolers) who have shown me what it means to truly go out of your way for others.

Thanks to my colleagues and friends Estela (feeding a pig and laughing with her neighbors) and Dania who have taught me not to take myself too seriously!

Thanks to everyone at Raleigh Mennonite Church, especially Karin, Todd and Janet, Brenda and Craig, Amy, Anne, my entire small group, the MYF and the MYF parents and the youth team, the IDR young adult group, and all the rest of you, who have shown so much support as I made the decision to move here, and who continue to support me with prayers, notes, emails, and more.

And huge thanks to my Mom and Dad for all their help and support! Thanks to all of my relatives who are keeping in touch! Enormous thanks to the Goalies - who have bent over backwards to keep me connected, though I'm so far away! And to all my old colleagues at CAS, ATC and ACC who continue to keep in touch across the miles!

What a wonderful support team I have! I'm so grateful for all of you - those in the U.S. and also those in the D.R! Thanks for the continued prayers as HHI's work will get busy again here as Christmas comes to a close! Happy New Year to All!

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. : )