Field Day and El Limon


Today, we were on the bus to Altagracia School by 7:30. Our schedule called for only one session of English classes today because it was the Day of the Child. The school was celebrating with special activities, much like what we might call a field day.

There were games and, we helped to make a special drink, cutting up fruit. There was dancing and fun, and it was all very loud, but the kids loved the opportunity to interact with us. After the drink-making, we all played several games of “thumb war” and everyone enjoyed that very much.



While most of us were at the school, Keith (a physician) and Henry (the interpreter) spent another day with Dr. Albert Sanchez at the Hospital de Immaculada Concepción. While there, Keith and Henry were able to experience the different styles of treatment offered at the public health clinic. A completely different experience from the private offices that were visited the day before. They observed Doctor Sanchez treat patients for a variety of issues ranging from ingrown hairs to hydroceles. They were able to see firsthand the impact and personal connection Dr. Sanchez has with the community and the friendliness with which he conducts his business.





Around 11:30, we all met back at the hotel for lunch and a chance to relax and eat. Lunches are as substantial as dinners -  chicken, pork, two types of rice, vegetables, salad, tomato salsa, and many kinds of fruit for dessert. There was also a delicious watermelon juice.





Our afternoon excursion was a drive into the country and a visit to the El Limón Rural Health Clinic, which the DR Projects helped to build in 2009-11. The clinic is small (three rooms) but provides an invaluable resource to the people in the countryside. It is staffed by a recent medical school graduate (a regulation that all graduates serve for a year in rural clinics) and a few nurses who live in the area. They provide basic medical care, treating conditions like hypertension, diabetes, and infections. More complicated cases are referred to medical facilities in Cotui. We shared with them our donations of medical and dental supplies as well as clothing.







A highlight was a visit with Biada who donated the land for the clinic and lives next door. We also met several women with the Women’s Collaborative who showed us the bags they make from recycled plastic - very decorative and durable.







On the ride home, we stopped at the home of Maribel: a nurse and one of our hosts. Her husband gathered starfruit and other exotic Dominican-exclusive fruits from the trees in their yard, and they shared other fruits from their land - pineapple, coconut, guava, and more. We even saw the Dominican Republic's national bird on one of the trees!









Another sunny, warm, and beautiful day in the DR!




Comments

  1. shelties11February 22, 2025 at 6:07 PM

    Another great blog post and a particularly interesting one. Reading about and seeing pictures of various medical facilities was really important.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

February 16th: Church, Las Auyamas, and Carnival

Image
  Today, we started by walking to church for their Mass. They had several people in the choir loft, someone playing the keyboard, and someone playing the guitar. There was a lot of singing. During the service, an infant got baptized, and someone also had Happy Birthday sung to them, and we all sang that. At the end of the service, we all got invited to the front of the church, and he congratulated us and blessed us. We also all got holy water flung on us.  There must have been more than 250 people there - it was packed! After church, Glen drove us to a small village called Las Auyamas. There we visited Ana Maria and her family and their home, and it was a house the DR group had helped build about 7 or 8 years ago. Some of us also took a walk down the road and saw many (for us) exotic plants and animals! There is this very interesting plant called Sensitive Plant, and when touched, the leaves instantly curl up!  They had some fresh avocado, made into a salad with some pick...
Read more

February 15, 2025 - Arriving in the DR

Image
We’re a bit slow sharing our trip with you, so we will do a quick start with Friday and bring you up-to-date with Saturday. Friday, the bus left on time! We all found food at the airport!  The plane left on time!  And we all had seats! The plane was overbooked, but none of us offered to give up our seats. Some of us slept on the plane, some of us watched movies. But the time went quickly and we arrived on time in Santo Domingo around 5 AM.  Getting through their customs was easy but interesting. They were curious about our big bags that held T-shirts wrapped around toothpaste and toothbrushes. So they pulled those over; were we bringing something in to sell? But as soon as we explained, everything was fine. We were met curbside by our wonderful hosts who were there to greet us with smiles and hugs. We piled our suitcases - all 26 of them! - Into the back of the shuttle bus and drove through the dark to our hostal Sana-  El Jardin Secreto (The Secret Garden), where we...
Read more

A School, a Birthday, and the Fire Department

Image
  We started the day off with a nice breakfast of scrambled eggs instead of the usual fried eggs. Then, we went to the school and as we got off the bus, and a lot of kids greeted us with warm hugs. Since today was not opening ceremonies or the day of the child, there were no special dances in the morning assembly, but they still sang the Dominican national anthem and the United States national anthem. After the assembly, we went to a sixth-grade class where we stood in front of the class while the kids wrote fruits down on the smart board. Then we pronounced the fruits and they repeated them back. We also played a matching game where the students had to match a picture of the fruit to the English word for that fruit. The kids were very shy in the first part, but once we started playing the matching game, they all wanted to participate. After spending time with the sixth-grade class, some of the people in our group went to teach the fourth graders animals in English outside with fla...
Read more