Day 3
Today, we didn't go to a batey but instead went to a barrio (neighborhood) that is within the sugar cane area that is equally as impoverished as bateyes & many of the people work as braceros, but many others may have different jobs & it is a community not solely for sugar cane cutters.
We set up inside a church again & got to work!
It has been really interesting to see from various neighborhoods the differences between the churches. Religion is extremely important and a big part of Dominican & Haitian life, & it seems that sometimes the nicest building in these communities are the churches which show the amount of pride, care & love they have surrounding religion.
We set up inside a church again & got to work!
It has been really interesting to see from various neighborhoods the differences between the churches. Religion is extremely important and a big part of Dominican & Haitian life, & it seems that sometimes the nicest building in these communities are the churches which show the amount of pride, care & love they have surrounding religion.
Church Name & Entrance
Above: Pipi & Margie getting all the patients ready to come to our clinic! Every patient gets those blue cards.
Below: Laura & Chloe ready to take vital signs!
This clinic day was a lot slower than the other days. People were slowly trickling in for the clinic, most of the people were women with children, some were older adults that those from the community had assisted in walking over to the clinic. There were men around, but most of them sat outside on motorcycles observing the clinic rather than coming in to receive care/medications.
Clinic Assignments for the day were:
Presentations: Courtney, Ashley, Sarah & Kathy
Pharmacy: Elana, Sarah & Kayleigh
Diagnosing: Mike, Sara
Vitals: Chloe & Laura
Since we had a slow trickle into the clinic, giving presentations to groups of people like we hoped was difficult. However, on the other side of it, we were able to give more individualized education to patients that were interested in our topics which was very rewarding. Patients were extremely receptive to all of our presentations, especially with seeing a condom demonstration on a banana!
Clinic Assignments for the day were:
Presentations: Courtney, Ashley, Sarah & Kathy
Pharmacy: Elana, Sarah & Kayleigh
Diagnosing: Mike, Sara
Vitals: Chloe & Laura
Since we had a slow trickle into the clinic, giving presentations to groups of people like we hoped was difficult. However, on the other side of it, we were able to give more individualized education to patients that were interested in our topics which was very rewarding. Patients were extremely receptive to all of our presentations, especially with seeing a condom demonstration on a banana!
Kathy, Ashley & Courtney demonstrating proper condom use.
Ashley & Laura discussing nutrition in pregnancy, warnings in pregnancy & Zika.
Pharmacy Team! Sarah & Elana prepared while Andrea & Elana helped give medication instructions to patients.
Preparing medications
Casas in the barrio - most were made of sheet metal & wood.
Since there was more time to sit in with different providers today, many of us were able to sit with other doctors and listen to their approach to visits with clients.
Some of us were able to stomach watching the dentist pull teeth out! It was very impressive - most of the people seen were girls between 9-13. They had multiple shots to their gums (ouch) of an analgesic to numb the area. Then, the dentist proceeded to force the gum upward enough so she could pull the rotten tooth out. It was very sad to see such young girls with teeth already in bad condition, but it is also good that the dentist is also able to come and help relieve these young girls pain!
Some of us were able to stomach watching the dentist pull teeth out! It was very impressive - most of the people seen were girls between 9-13. They had multiple shots to their gums (ouch) of an analgesic to numb the area. Then, the dentist proceeded to force the gum upward enough so she could pull the rotten tooth out. It was very sad to see such young girls with teeth already in bad condition, but it is also good that the dentist is also able to come and help relieve these young girls pain!
Working to get a tooth out
Dental Set Up in Church
After a short morning at this barrio, we ate lunch, packed up & headed out! We had more to do later the day including visiting the hospital we are working with this medical trip, El Buen Samaritano and a local orphanage in La Romana.
Kayleigh, Elana & Courtney
The salt & heat & standing on our feet all day is getting to our feet - elevating to avoid swelling! 😊
In this barrio most of the people got around on motorcycles that look like this
All of us!
We left and headed out the the hospital for our tour. It's a 5 story building in the middle of downtown La Romana that looks very similar to the other cement buildings and apartment complexes that are spread throughout the city. It is built with partial openings to the outside within the cement and wooden/metal roof similar to all the other buildings.
When we arrived we had a little time to kill so we spent time hanging out in the garden area of the hospital where many employees spend their breaks. In the garden was the most beautiful rooster and a few hens that we (tried) to have a photoshoot with.
When we arrived we had a little time to kill so we spent time hanging out in the garden area of the hospital where many employees spend their breaks. In the garden was the most beautiful rooster and a few hens that we (tried) to have a photoshoot with.
I always wonder what locals think of us taking so many pictures of all the animals around walking freely in La Romana & the bateyes. Everyone here completely ignores animals in the street. However, when we see animals we all get really excited & whip out our phones to take pictures!
After 20 minutes they were ready to give us a tour of the hospital. Andrea showed us around & explained to us much of the history, story & future for El Buen Samaritano. It was really interesting to see similarities and differences from a Dominican Hospital versus an American Hospital. For me, I couldn't get over the size of the Dominican Hospital - it felt extremely small! The emergency room appeared to have no more than 10-12 beds, and of those they were divided into adult - pediatric - infants. After we proceeded on, the floors were divided up into outpatient and inpatient settings.
Outpatient: Floor 2/3
The outpatient floor felt like a big waiting room with a bunch of chairs everywhere. They are also building a dental wing on floor 3, so a lot of it was under construction. Something that is a bit different in the DR is many doctors practice in multiple settings. Many of the doctors employed by the hospital worked there from 8-12 and then go to other settings where they work.
Inpatient: Top Floor
The maximum number of patients allowed to stay in the hospital was 54-55. In some American hospitals, that is the number of patients on a single floor! Similarly to American hospitals, there were different levels of "rooms" ranging from private suites to shared rooms. Since El Buen Samaritano is considered a "private" hospital (i.e. no patients with public health care/insurance can come to this hospital unless they pay out of pocket), depending on their insurance people pick & choose what type of room they would like.
Outpatient: Floor 2/3
The outpatient floor felt like a big waiting room with a bunch of chairs everywhere. They are also building a dental wing on floor 3, so a lot of it was under construction. Something that is a bit different in the DR is many doctors practice in multiple settings. Many of the doctors employed by the hospital worked there from 8-12 and then go to other settings where they work.
Inpatient: Top Floor
The maximum number of patients allowed to stay in the hospital was 54-55. In some American hospitals, that is the number of patients on a single floor! Similarly to American hospitals, there were different levels of "rooms" ranging from private suites to shared rooms. Since El Buen Samaritano is considered a "private" hospital (i.e. no patients with public health care/insurance can come to this hospital unless they pay out of pocket), depending on their insurance people pick & choose what type of room they would like.
Day 2 - Lechuga!
Hola! Elana here, narrating day 2 straight outta Casa Pastoral (our dormitory).
So we learned from our mistake of the first day as there were MULTIPLE alarms going off starting at 6am. We were all sleepy from our action packed first day but got up on time this morning. We were actually even early to breakfast! Speaking of breakfast, it was amazing again. Desayuno consisted of really delicious oatmeal with some sort of exotic spices and vanilla flavoring that nobody could figure out. There were also blood sausage, fresh fruit, and fresh bread right out of the oven.
I stuffed myself so much I didn't think I would ever be hungry again.
Then we packed up the big ol' school bus and were out on the road by 8:15. We drove through the city for a little while and then once again we pulled off into the rural sugar cane fields. Since we were all prepared to be on a bumpy road this time, it didn't feel as long, though we traveled about 35ish minutes until we arrived in the Batey Lechuga.
Based on our short drive through the bateye, it seemed as though Lechuga was slightly less impoverished and had access to more resources and more stable housing. We soon found out once we started seeing residents that there was a hospital within the bateye where a lot of the residents can go to get their blood pressure checked and get medicines, although they don't always have access.
We set up our clinic in what looked like a church.
Unlike yesterday, Sara was the only adult primary care provider, though the dentist, family planning specialist, and the pediatrician were there as well. The roll call for stations were as follows
Diagnosing - Elana & Courtney (later) supervised by Sara & Kathy.
Presentations: Courtney (HIV/condom use), Kaylie - Nutrition during pregnancy, hypertension, and Zika, and Sarah - Rehydration and diarrhea
Pharmacy: Chloe, Sarah, Kaylie, Laura (who also did med instruction), and Ashley
BP/Temperature/pulse: Michael and Ashley
Today we saw 64 patients. A bulk of the diagnosing consisted of "pain everywhere," yeast infections, cold/flu symptoms, and allergies. I found diagnosing to be a bit challenging because of patients had complains of generalized symptoms that they have had "all their life." We suspect that many of the patients are suffering from life long stress and inadequate medical care and nutrition that adds to their feelings of pain. We also suspect that patients are complaining of symptoms that they might not have at this moment, but it's their chance to collect medications for the future, which is completely understandable when you don't know when you'll next have access to basic medications like tylenol, ibuprofen, multivitamin, tums, omeprazole, miconazole, etc.
One of the more interesting patients included a child with a large umbilical hernia (who had no complications). It was eye opening to see so many young pregnant women and mothers again today. However during the HIV and condom presentation the participants seemed to already have knowledge about how to put on condoms and didn't need as much instruction as yesterday.
Unfortunately, today there was a lot of pouring rain! So much so that we had to cut our clinic day short and leave after lunch. We had to leave early because we knew it was going to rain more and the bus could easily get stuck in the muddy paths through the sugar cane fields. At one point the bus driver had to stop and reverse for a while because we came upon a flooded path. All the men on our bus were joking and encouraging the driver to power through but he kept his cool and took us a different route so we could get out safety. Also on the bus ride home some of the local gentleman introduced us to some popular music that they listen to in the DR. A bunch of us were dancing in our seats and having great time. In total we stayed at la Lechuga bateye until 1:30pm and got back around 2:20 pm.
When we got back a lot of us went to finally exchange our american dollars for dominican pesos and Elana and Kathy went for another long run with Issac. Now we are refilling our medical supplies for another clinic day tomorrow! Tonight we are going to a pizza place for dinner and then might even have a bebida after, who knows!
That's all for today! Enjoy a few pictures and we'll update tomorrow! Adios!
So we learned from our mistake of the first day as there were MULTIPLE alarms going off starting at 6am. We were all sleepy from our action packed first day but got up on time this morning. We were actually even early to breakfast! Speaking of breakfast, it was amazing again. Desayuno consisted of really delicious oatmeal with some sort of exotic spices and vanilla flavoring that nobody could figure out. There were also blood sausage, fresh fruit, and fresh bread right out of the oven.
I stuffed myself so much I didn't think I would ever be hungry again.
Then we packed up the big ol' school bus and were out on the road by 8:15. We drove through the city for a little while and then once again we pulled off into the rural sugar cane fields. Since we were all prepared to be on a bumpy road this time, it didn't feel as long, though we traveled about 35ish minutes until we arrived in the Batey Lechuga.
Based on our short drive through the bateye, it seemed as though Lechuga was slightly less impoverished and had access to more resources and more stable housing. We soon found out once we started seeing residents that there was a hospital within the bateye where a lot of the residents can go to get their blood pressure checked and get medicines, although they don't always have access.
We set up our clinic in what looked like a church.
Unlike yesterday, Sara was the only adult primary care provider, though the dentist, family planning specialist, and the pediatrician were there as well. The roll call for stations were as follows
Diagnosing - Elana & Courtney (later) supervised by Sara & Kathy.
Presentations: Courtney (HIV/condom use), Kaylie - Nutrition during pregnancy, hypertension, and Zika, and Sarah - Rehydration and diarrhea
Pharmacy: Chloe, Sarah, Kaylie, Laura (who also did med instruction), and Ashley
BP/Temperature/pulse: Michael and Ashley
Today we saw 64 patients. A bulk of the diagnosing consisted of "pain everywhere," yeast infections, cold/flu symptoms, and allergies. I found diagnosing to be a bit challenging because of patients had complains of generalized symptoms that they have had "all their life." We suspect that many of the patients are suffering from life long stress and inadequate medical care and nutrition that adds to their feelings of pain. We also suspect that patients are complaining of symptoms that they might not have at this moment, but it's their chance to collect medications for the future, which is completely understandable when you don't know when you'll next have access to basic medications like tylenol, ibuprofen, multivitamin, tums, omeprazole, miconazole, etc.
One of the more interesting patients included a child with a large umbilical hernia (who had no complications). It was eye opening to see so many young pregnant women and mothers again today. However during the HIV and condom presentation the participants seemed to already have knowledge about how to put on condoms and didn't need as much instruction as yesterday.
Unfortunately, today there was a lot of pouring rain! So much so that we had to cut our clinic day short and leave after lunch. We had to leave early because we knew it was going to rain more and the bus could easily get stuck in the muddy paths through the sugar cane fields. At one point the bus driver had to stop and reverse for a while because we came upon a flooded path. All the men on our bus were joking and encouraging the driver to power through but he kept his cool and took us a different route so we could get out safety. Also on the bus ride home some of the local gentleman introduced us to some popular music that they listen to in the DR. A bunch of us were dancing in our seats and having great time. In total we stayed at la Lechuga bateye until 1:30pm and got back around 2:20 pm.
When we got back a lot of us went to finally exchange our american dollars for dominican pesos and Elana and Kathy went for another long run with Issac. Now we are refilling our medical supplies for another clinic day tomorrow! Tonight we are going to a pizza place for dinner and then might even have a bebida after, who knows!
That's all for today! Enjoy a few pictures and we'll update tomorrow! Adios!
Driving to our 2nd bateye
Sugar Cane Cutters (Braceros) Cutting Cane
Cut down fields
Setting up clinic in the church
Ready for Day 2!
Ready to present on pregnancy & health!
Teaching about HIV & prevention with condom demonstration
Ashley taking blood pressures
Elana & Sara seeing a patient with Ariel translating
Little visitors waiting to be seen & checking out what we are up to!
Kathy & Chloe assisting the Dominican family planner with patients
Lunch: Beans & Rice, Bread & EMPANADAS!
Sarah, Kayleigh, Courtney & Kathy
Hilda (a translator) & Andrea (our group leader)!
Laura & Chloe working the pharmacy
Adios, Lechuga!
Day 1
Oops. We slept through our alarm! 630AM wake up didn't happen - but a 710AM one did!
Lesson #1 and first rookie mistake made by us during the trip - never trust 1 alarm! Not all of our phones adjusted to DR Island Time - so the one phone that had the alarm did not go off! We all sleepily climbed out of bed & pulled on our scrubs to head down to breakfast as quickly as possible. Breakfast was sausages, fresh fruit, french toast & bread with juice & coffee. We all scrambled together not too long after breakfast, hopped on our bus loaded with supplies and headed off!
The road out of La Romana is busy, but as you keep driving on the highway it becomes more rural. Our group leader told us all the drives were 'long' except on Friday. 20 minutes after being on the highway, we were already pulling off. "We're already here?!" many of us thought - but no!
We spent 30+ minutes driving on bumpy, narrow, dirt roads with sharp turns & no street signs surrounded by sugar cane fields that were taller than the school bus. A couple of times the sugar cane cleared and we saw small communities - clothes lines hanging, small children running around barefoot, chickens roaming, & older people sitting in plastic chairs near houses built of sheet metal and cement. Every time we saw this I thought we were stopping - but no! We kept on going past those bateyes for the one we had arranged to meet.
Finally, after passing about 4-5 different communities, we had reached our bateye which we would hold our medical clinic. It was very small & similar to the ones we had passed - simple structures made out of cement with wood &/or
metal roofing with open doors. Our clinic was held in the church of the bateye - a structure that was maybe 400 sq. ft filled with stacked, plastic chairs and a raised stage with a podium.
Lesson #1 and first rookie mistake made by us during the trip - never trust 1 alarm! Not all of our phones adjusted to DR Island Time - so the one phone that had the alarm did not go off! We all sleepily climbed out of bed & pulled on our scrubs to head down to breakfast as quickly as possible. Breakfast was sausages, fresh fruit, french toast & bread with juice & coffee. We all scrambled together not too long after breakfast, hopped on our bus loaded with supplies and headed off!
The road out of La Romana is busy, but as you keep driving on the highway it becomes more rural. Our group leader told us all the drives were 'long' except on Friday. 20 minutes after being on the highway, we were already pulling off. "We're already here?!" many of us thought - but no!
We spent 30+ minutes driving on bumpy, narrow, dirt roads with sharp turns & no street signs surrounded by sugar cane fields that were taller than the school bus. A couple of times the sugar cane cleared and we saw small communities - clothes lines hanging, small children running around barefoot, chickens roaming, & older people sitting in plastic chairs near houses built of sheet metal and cement. Every time we saw this I thought we were stopping - but no! We kept on going past those bateyes for the one we had arranged to meet.
Finally, after passing about 4-5 different communities, we had reached our bateye which we would hold our medical clinic. It was very small & similar to the ones we had passed - simple structures made out of cement with wood &/or
metal roofing with open doors. Our clinic was held in the church of the bateye - a structure that was maybe 400 sq. ft filled with stacked, plastic chairs and a raised stage with a podium.
Entrance to the batey iglesia (church) where our clinic was held.
Unloading supplies
Perritos resting in the shade
Our bus!
One of the larger roads surrounded by sugar cane that we drive in on.
setting up our clinic!
Our clinic was set up in the following order: patients wanting to be seen lined up outside the church. They were given a blue card with their name on it. As you enter, your weight & blood pressure are taken. Next, you wait and then a provider sees you. Keep in mind - we're in a 400 sq foot room, so there were very few no considerations like in a typical clinic we would see the USA or even in La Romana hospital - we had a dentist pulling teeth next to providers seeing patients. After the provider sees the patient, they write comments & health information on card with prescription/medication instructions. The patient then handed it to the people working the pharmacy, who prepared & helped explain how, when & how much of the medicine is taken with help of interpreters. Then, the patient was on their way! Patients were to be seen in two waves - before lunch & after lunch. Simple enough, right?
Additionally, we had people working outside the church area providing presentations on health topics that we prepared, providing worm/fungal treatments & playing with children.
We saw 77 patients in total between 1 NP (Sara) 2 doctors (1 pediatric from the DR, 1 adult primary volunteering from Georgia) 1 dentist who is local from the D.R & 1 family planner who is also local. All of us worked between taking blood pressures, running the pharmacy, seeing patients with Sara & giving presentations outside.
Speaking of, the presentations were a HUGE hit in this community, especially about HIV & proper condom use - giving out condoms was so successful we had to ration them out after our first presentation. In one group we had to have a young boy translate the presentations from Spanish to Haitian Creole. We were so impressed by the young boy's professionalism when translating information about HIV & condom use! He giggled about as much as many of the adults & interpreters when information was explained to them!
One of the most difficult parts of the day was running the pharmacy. While all of the providers spoke English, everyone had a different style of writing their prescription instructions down. Sometimes a prescription would get written for a medication we didn't have, so we'd have to use the next best thing. Some medications we were only able to give to a couple of people before we ran out completely. Some medications we had to pour out into other bottles in order to ration enough so that all people getting seen can get the medication they need.
The most challenging of them all was AMOXICILLIN - all our supply was in powder form that we had to reconstitute with water we brought. The dosing was off sometimes with what was provided in the bottle so we were doing multiple calculations in order to provide the correct amount to patients! After we burned through the amoxicillin - we decided that we really should be only using it in small amounts for children and not adults like we had been doing. Lesson learned!
Additionally, we had people working outside the church area providing presentations on health topics that we prepared, providing worm/fungal treatments & playing with children.
We saw 77 patients in total between 1 NP (Sara) 2 doctors (1 pediatric from the DR, 1 adult primary volunteering from Georgia) 1 dentist who is local from the D.R & 1 family planner who is also local. All of us worked between taking blood pressures, running the pharmacy, seeing patients with Sara & giving presentations outside.
Speaking of, the presentations were a HUGE hit in this community, especially about HIV & proper condom use - giving out condoms was so successful we had to ration them out after our first presentation. In one group we had to have a young boy translate the presentations from Spanish to Haitian Creole. We were so impressed by the young boy's professionalism when translating information about HIV & condom use! He giggled about as much as many of the adults & interpreters when information was explained to them!
One of the most difficult parts of the day was running the pharmacy. While all of the providers spoke English, everyone had a different style of writing their prescription instructions down. Sometimes a prescription would get written for a medication we didn't have, so we'd have to use the next best thing. Some medications we were only able to give to a couple of people before we ran out completely. Some medications we had to pour out into other bottles in order to ration enough so that all people getting seen can get the medication they need.
The most challenging of them all was AMOXICILLIN - all our supply was in powder form that we had to reconstitute with water we brought. The dosing was off sometimes with what was provided in the bottle so we were doing multiple calculations in order to provide the correct amount to patients! After we burned through the amoxicillin - we decided that we really should be only using it in small amounts for children and not adults like we had been doing. Lesson learned!
Kayleigh working the pharmacy
Chloe taking a patient's blood pressure
Patients waiting to be seen by providers
Laura, Michael, Chloe, Sarah with new friends
Our pharmacy admirer watching Kayleigh, Courtney & Ashley pack medication bags!
Ariel & Laura speaking to a patient.
Elana & Kathy giving presentations
Luckily, at this bateye we were able to give every patient a 2 month supply of vitamins, including children. Big WIN for the day!
After packing us & saying goodbye - we headed back to our Mission in La Romana where we are staying. On the way back, we saw how the sugar cane in bateyes is transported - by train! Huge carts of sugar cane stalks were being taken out of the bateye as we drove over tracks.
We finally returned to our DR home sweaty, smelly & satisfied with what we accomplished all day. However, there was still more to be done! It was time to restock all our meds, prepare new med bags of anything we needed, & figure out what we needed to buy with some of our leftover money from fundraising. We did some major med preparation of multivitamins, Tylenol, & fluconazole - all medications that were very popular throughout the day!
After a quick dinner (pollo, arroz & vegetables - nothing crazy!) & amazing dessert (pastel de chocolate) we heard a presentation from our group leader, Andrea. Andrea herself was born & raised in the bateyes. She lived there until she was 15, & then her family moved to La Romana. She now works for the mission as a group leader who takes volunteers on various missions but mainly leads the medical ones. She also speaks 3 languages - Haitian Creole, Spanish & English! She spoke to us about the various projects the mission participates in including: education programs, scholarships, infrastructure projects & an annual women's health conference. It was amazing to hear how resourceful & helpful the Mission is in the La Romana area.
Before calling it a night, we needed to head to JUMBO - the Walmart of the DR, large, clean & air conditioned wonderfully. Only a short walk away, we were able to grab some items that we had run out of during the day...
Finally done with our day, it was time to cool off, get ready for bed & catch up on sleep!
Day 2 soon! Apparently, today was a smaller bateye so we should expect 120-150 patients tomorrow!
After packing us & saying goodbye - we headed back to our Mission in La Romana where we are staying. On the way back, we saw how the sugar cane in bateyes is transported - by train! Huge carts of sugar cane stalks were being taken out of the bateye as we drove over tracks.
We finally returned to our DR home sweaty, smelly & satisfied with what we accomplished all day. However, there was still more to be done! It was time to restock all our meds, prepare new med bags of anything we needed, & figure out what we needed to buy with some of our leftover money from fundraising. We did some major med preparation of multivitamins, Tylenol, & fluconazole - all medications that were very popular throughout the day!
After a quick dinner (pollo, arroz & vegetables - nothing crazy!) & amazing dessert (pastel de chocolate) we heard a presentation from our group leader, Andrea. Andrea herself was born & raised in the bateyes. She lived there until she was 15, & then her family moved to La Romana. She now works for the mission as a group leader who takes volunteers on various missions but mainly leads the medical ones. She also speaks 3 languages - Haitian Creole, Spanish & English! She spoke to us about the various projects the mission participates in including: education programs, scholarships, infrastructure projects & an annual women's health conference. It was amazing to hear how resourceful & helpful the Mission is in the La Romana area.
Before calling it a night, we needed to head to JUMBO - the Walmart of the DR, large, clean & air conditioned wonderfully. Only a short walk away, we were able to grab some items that we had run out of during the day...
Finally done with our day, it was time to cool off, get ready for bed & catch up on sleep!
Day 2 soon! Apparently, today was a smaller bateye so we should expect 120-150 patients tomorrow!
Laura, Ashley, Sara & Kayleigh resting in between the craziness!
New for most of us: the toilet situation!
Clothes Drying in the Batey
Kathy & Ishmael exploring the bateye
Bateye Train
Train carrying sugar cane out of bateye
Arrival to La Romana!
WE ARE FINALLY IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC. 7 words I thought we wouldn't say last Friday!
We arrived yesterday (Tuesday) around 4PM Dominican Time (3PM EST). It was quite the travel trip - we met at Boston at 430am & left at 620am on a fully packed flight to Ft. Lauderdale. On our way to Ft. Lauderdale, a medical emergency happened that we thought was going to land the plane & delay us even more. Luckily, that wasn't the case & the plane was able to fly on without putting the person in need at more risk if we didn't land sooner. After a short layover, in Ft. Lauderdale, we finally arrived to Punta Cana!
Stepping off the plane was refreshing - warm, sticky air hit us immediately (passengers unload on the tarmac). An extremely welcome change to the below freezing weather & foot of snow that was in Boston when we left. We entered customs with the long line of tourists from all over the world! I couldn't get over how many people had flown to the Dominican for vacation - people from Düsseldorf, Madrid, Quebec, Toronto & several other places I can't even spell! After paying our $10 fee (yes, it costs $10 to enter the D.R.) we got through the rest of customs, grabbed our bag and headed to our ride!
We were picked up in a big, painted yellow school bus - I learned we also use this to drive to the bateyes. Happily greeting us was Ariel, a Dominican native, interpreter & one of our group leaders throughout the week. Off to La Romana we went!
If I were to describe the D.R. in three words, it would be: hot, wet, & green. All the land surrounding the highway to La Romana was extremely green! If I had to pick a few more words, I'd also include sugar cane & motorcycles. Dozens of motorcycles with 2,3 & 4 people sans helmets whizzed by us on the freeway as we passed field after field of sugar canes.
We arrived to downtown La Romana where we are staying - the Mission of Mantadera. It's a beautiful compound like housing area in the middle of downtown. We were escorted in to the common area & dining room & greeted happily by everyone. Soon enough it was time for dinner!
We arrived yesterday (Tuesday) around 4PM Dominican Time (3PM EST). It was quite the travel trip - we met at Boston at 430am & left at 620am on a fully packed flight to Ft. Lauderdale. On our way to Ft. Lauderdale, a medical emergency happened that we thought was going to land the plane & delay us even more. Luckily, that wasn't the case & the plane was able to fly on without putting the person in need at more risk if we didn't land sooner. After a short layover, in Ft. Lauderdale, we finally arrived to Punta Cana!
Stepping off the plane was refreshing - warm, sticky air hit us immediately (passengers unload on the tarmac). An extremely welcome change to the below freezing weather & foot of snow that was in Boston when we left. We entered customs with the long line of tourists from all over the world! I couldn't get over how many people had flown to the Dominican for vacation - people from Düsseldorf, Madrid, Quebec, Toronto & several other places I can't even spell! After paying our $10 fee (yes, it costs $10 to enter the D.R.) we got through the rest of customs, grabbed our bag and headed to our ride!
We were picked up in a big, painted yellow school bus - I learned we also use this to drive to the bateyes. Happily greeting us was Ariel, a Dominican native, interpreter & one of our group leaders throughout the week. Off to La Romana we went!
If I were to describe the D.R. in three words, it would be: hot, wet, & green. All the land surrounding the highway to La Romana was extremely green! If I had to pick a few more words, I'd also include sugar cane & motorcycles. Dozens of motorcycles with 2,3 & 4 people sans helmets whizzed by us on the freeway as we passed field after field of sugar canes.
We arrived to downtown La Romana where we are staying - the Mission of Mantadera. It's a beautiful compound like housing area in the middle of downtown. We were escorted in to the common area & dining room & greeted happily by everyone. Soon enough it was time for dinner!
Flying down!
Punta Cana International Airport was beautifully built!
Our school bus we travel around on! Plus Sarah, Courtney, Laura, & one of our group leaders, Ariel!
Dinner was served family style & included pollo frito (Fried Chicken), vegetables, platanos fritos (pan fried plantains, a big favorite among all of us!), pasta with tomato sauce & of course, pan (bread)! We all stuffed ourselves & then proceeded to our big must complete for the night: sorting ALL the medicines we bought from donations & fundraising into individual bags & combining with medications the mission already had so we could give out to the bateyes the next 4 days at clinics we hold.
Sorting & getting prepared included: opening medications, sorting into groups (adults vs. children's meds, GI vs. Cold/Flu vs. vitamins, etc.), pill counting & label making w/ instructions for consumption. We turned the dining room into a full on pharmacy essentially & we converted temporarily to pharmacists instead of nurses. The photos show our haul & what an operation it was!
By 1030PM, we were all pooped & called it a night. We all climbed up to our dormitory - exhausted & got ready for bed and our 630AM wake up call!
Sorting & getting prepared included: opening medications, sorting into groups (adults vs. children's meds, GI vs. Cold/Flu vs. vitamins, etc.), pill counting & label making w/ instructions for consumption. We turned the dining room into a full on pharmacy essentially & we converted temporarily to pharmacists instead of nurses. The photos show our haul & what an operation it was!
By 1030PM, we were all pooped & called it a night. We all climbed up to our dormitory - exhausted & got ready for bed and our 630AM wake up call!
Rehydration Salt Station
(Some) of our medications
Med Counting!
Arrival Dinner! From L to R: Chloe, Margie (our leader from USA) Courtney & Elana
Bombogenesis
Many of you may or may not have heard, but we are *not* in La Romana yet!
Long Story Short / TL:DR version: our Friday night flight out to Santo Domingo, DR (SDQ) from Boston was cancelled around 1230am on Saturday morning due to lack of crew available which was directly related to all the cancellations & freezing weather the past couple of days due to the Bombogenesis Blizzard that occurred in the New England area on Thursday! We are rescheduled to leave Tuesday Early AM 01/09/18 and return on Monday Early AM 01/16/18 now.
What exactly happened?
We all went into Friday with no word on any changes to our Friday night flight. All of us were running last minute errands around the Boston area - collecting supplies, packing, & getting everything in order to meet at Sara's condo by 630PM so we could pack all the medical supplies to be checked. The amount of snow made everything 10x more challenging - the roads were plowed, but maybe only at 50% of what they should be, plus it wash icy & cold as can be out (less than 15 Fahrenheit)!
At 630PM we arrived with all our belongings - all of us had 1 large checked bag for medical supplies plus our personal belongings in other bags. After spending about 45 minutes of dividing supplies between bags to ensure everything was under 50lbs, we started to head over!
I couldn't get over how packed the airport was considering it was almost 9PM. People were EVERYWHERE - the cancellations and delays over the past 36 hrs had clearly built up! Our flight at check-in time had been delayed from 11PM to 12:15am by the time we printed our tickets- less pressure to get through security quickly but we knew it was going to be a long night now. We got all our bags off & proceeded to the very long security line - we finally got through (after flagging my bag due to cashews and Ashley's bag due to lifesavers 😂) & proceeded to grab a late dinner before everything closed up.
In the middle of dinner we found out that the flight had been delayed AGAIN - until 2:20AM. Apparently the crew that was going to do our flight got poached for another flight, hence the further delay to try and get another crew in. At this point, it wasn't looking good for getting out that night but we proceeded to the gate to hunker down and see if our flight would get out. However, about 30 minutes later - around 1230am - they announced over the intercom that our flight had been cancelled and the terminal was closing for the night so we all had to leave to talk to gate agents outside of security. What. A. Nightmare.
We got in the very, very, very, VERY long line to see what we could do & when we could get out. The line was not moving quickly - we weren't the only flight cancelled and the amount of employees was limited. We actually were lucky, since we were booked through a travel agent with the help of school, it was concluded quickly that we would all go home and await word about when and if we would get out on the trip. Thankfully those who came from further away had family members or places to stay locally until we got word about the plan. We all made our way back into the cold (not dressed at all for single digit weather) and headed home, most of us not seeing our own beds until after 3AM.
Next morning, we received word that the earliest we could get out with our group is Tuesday early and we would return Monday early, nearly the same amount of time we had originally planned! So....here is to hoping Round 2 is more successful than our first try!
Long Story Short / TL:DR version: our Friday night flight out to Santo Domingo, DR (SDQ) from Boston was cancelled around 1230am on Saturday morning due to lack of crew available which was directly related to all the cancellations & freezing weather the past couple of days due to the Bombogenesis Blizzard that occurred in the New England area on Thursday! We are rescheduled to leave Tuesday Early AM 01/09/18 and return on Monday Early AM 01/16/18 now.
What exactly happened?
We all went into Friday with no word on any changes to our Friday night flight. All of us were running last minute errands around the Boston area - collecting supplies, packing, & getting everything in order to meet at Sara's condo by 630PM so we could pack all the medical supplies to be checked. The amount of snow made everything 10x more challenging - the roads were plowed, but maybe only at 50% of what they should be, plus it wash icy & cold as can be out (less than 15 Fahrenheit)!
At 630PM we arrived with all our belongings - all of us had 1 large checked bag for medical supplies plus our personal belongings in other bags. After spending about 45 minutes of dividing supplies between bags to ensure everything was under 50lbs, we started to head over!
I couldn't get over how packed the airport was considering it was almost 9PM. People were EVERYWHERE - the cancellations and delays over the past 36 hrs had clearly built up! Our flight at check-in time had been delayed from 11PM to 12:15am by the time we printed our tickets- less pressure to get through security quickly but we knew it was going to be a long night now. We got all our bags off & proceeded to the very long security line - we finally got through (after flagging my bag due to cashews and Ashley's bag due to lifesavers 😂) & proceeded to grab a late dinner before everything closed up.
In the middle of dinner we found out that the flight had been delayed AGAIN - until 2:20AM. Apparently the crew that was going to do our flight got poached for another flight, hence the further delay to try and get another crew in. At this point, it wasn't looking good for getting out that night but we proceeded to the gate to hunker down and see if our flight would get out. However, about 30 minutes later - around 1230am - they announced over the intercom that our flight had been cancelled and the terminal was closing for the night so we all had to leave to talk to gate agents outside of security. What. A. Nightmare.
We got in the very, very, very, VERY long line to see what we could do & when we could get out. The line was not moving quickly - we weren't the only flight cancelled and the amount of employees was limited. We actually were lucky, since we were booked through a travel agent with the help of school, it was concluded quickly that we would all go home and await word about when and if we would get out on the trip. Thankfully those who came from further away had family members or places to stay locally until we got word about the plan. We all made our way back into the cold (not dressed at all for single digit weather) and headed home, most of us not seeing our own beds until after 3AM.
Next morning, we received word that the earliest we could get out with our group is Tuesday early and we would return Monday early, nearly the same amount of time we had originally planned! So....here is to hoping Round 2 is more successful than our first try!
Source: The Washington Post
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Source: The Boston Globe
A Catch Up...
Hi, everyone! Welcome to our blog. We're so glad you've taken interest in this & are joining us on our little mini journey!
My name is Courtney & I am going to be in charge of most of the blogging throughout our trip in the DR! I hope to have guest writers throughout our trip as well so it's not just my perspective the entire time.
We are t-minus 24 hours from our departure time (hopefully...more on that in a bit!) & I am starting to get really excited about everything. Before we jump into other details, I wanted to catch everyone up on what we've been up to leading up to this point!
Spring 2017-Fall 2017
We all applied for this trip starting in early Spring 2017. Once we got accepted, we learned more about roles & responsibilities for attending the trip, the two biggest things including:
1. Buying medications to bring down to the DR
2. Writing scholarly projects on chosen topics of presentation that we will complete down in the DR.
All of us have been working really hard & have had some great support in fundraising from our family & friends. Nearly all the medications & supplies have been purchased and all our presentations are as ready as they will ever be. Our groups are presenting on the following topics while down in the Dominican Republic working with bateye communities:
1. Prenatal Care & Pregnancy Warning Signs
2. Sanitation with Water & Nutrition
3. HIV Education & Prevention
4. Hypertension
What is left now is simply packing up all our supplies and getting down there! Unfortunately for us in Boston, we got slammed with a huge blizzard today called Winter Storm Grayson. A lot of flights were cancelled today to & from Boston, so our departure is potentially up in the air with managing the snow & cancellations. However, it is looking good for us still because our flight is late at night on Friday.
Anyway! That is just a quick overview of what we've done up until this point. More soon!
My name is Courtney & I am going to be in charge of most of the blogging throughout our trip in the DR! I hope to have guest writers throughout our trip as well so it's not just my perspective the entire time.
We are t-minus 24 hours from our departure time (hopefully...more on that in a bit!) & I am starting to get really excited about everything. Before we jump into other details, I wanted to catch everyone up on what we've been up to leading up to this point!
Spring 2017-Fall 2017
We all applied for this trip starting in early Spring 2017. Once we got accepted, we learned more about roles & responsibilities for attending the trip, the two biggest things including:
1. Buying medications to bring down to the DR
2. Writing scholarly projects on chosen topics of presentation that we will complete down in the DR.
All of us have been working really hard & have had some great support in fundraising from our family & friends. Nearly all the medications & supplies have been purchased and all our presentations are as ready as they will ever be. Our groups are presenting on the following topics while down in the Dominican Republic working with bateye communities:
1. Prenatal Care & Pregnancy Warning Signs
2. Sanitation with Water & Nutrition
3. HIV Education & Prevention
4. Hypertension
What is left now is simply packing up all our supplies and getting down there! Unfortunately for us in Boston, we got slammed with a huge blizzard today called Winter Storm Grayson. A lot of flights were cancelled today to & from Boston, so our departure is potentially up in the air with managing the snow & cancellations. However, it is looking good for us still because our flight is late at night on Friday.
Anyway! That is just a quick overview of what we've done up until this point. More soon!