Parading all the way.

Saturday, September 3, 2013

Today was the day we were waiting for, one of the main purposes we were staying in this nice hotel in Santo Domingo. We were attending the breast-feeding walk that was organized by the National Commission of Lactating Mothers. The event was scheduled at 4 pm so we had some time to spare. We took our sweet time waking up in the morning to get ready. I was fortunate to have taken a shower first. However, poor Evy was in the bathroom when the electricity went out. It only lasted for a few seconds but unfortunately when she tried to turn the water on, there was no water. Therefore, she decided to take a shower after breakfast. Breakfast was another story to tell. They had everything one could ever imagine, from various cheeses to different lunch meats, fresh fruit juices and fresh fruit. It was difficult making decisions on what to eat. After a long hearty breakfast, we decided to venture back to the room to get ready for our day out. But of course we had to experience one more bout of electricity going out when we were in the elevator on the way down. Thankfully, it again lasted a few seconds and the elevator took us down. 

We called for a cab to take us to “plaza España.” The cab driver we found spoke almost perfect English with a NY accent. We asked him where he was from and he said he was from the DR but he had visited NYC every year because he has extended family there. He was very entertaining and gave us a good tour of the city on the way there. We arrived at the “plaza España” and visited the “Museo Alcázar de Colón”, which was built under Diego Columbus, son of Christopher Columbus. There were a good number of tourists there and we each received a set of headphones and an English audio guide that guided us through each room in the house. After a walk back into history visiting various artifacts and paintings from Diego Colombus’ time, we decided to get something to drink because it was extremely hot, which is typical during midday hours in the DR. We stopped at a little restaurant and ordered fresh passion fruit and mango juice, which was extremely refreshing at that time. 

It was then around 3 pm and decided to go to the meeting spot (Puerta del conde) where the walk was going to take place. On the way up the street we shopped a little (pretty expectant, 3 girls and lots of stores, it was irresistible). We arrived a little before 4 pm and there were a few people there. But of course we should have known better, as Jillian explained, everyone was on Dominican time. Around 4:30 pm, we saw two ‘gua guas’ full of people from the clinic in Herrera. They gave us the big Project Hope sign to hold as we were walking down. The parade finally began, mind you, this was the first time I was part of a parade, but Evy and I were really enjoying our time. The marching band was in front of us and we were behind them holding the sign. Towards the end, we were getting tired and some people from the clinic held the sign for us. We ended up again near the Museo Alcázar de Colón, and there was a big stage set up for the organizers to give a few words. We saw our preceptor Teresa and met her beautiful children and she also gave a few words about the importance of breast-feeding. After speeches, there was a dance performance and we sat in the grass and witnessed some traditional dancing. Just before we headed out, Teresa was giving away donuts and soda. As fattening as that sounds (pharmacy student personality), it was something we needed after a day of walking in the DR sun. Teresa drove us back to the hotel and we just relaxed before deciding to go out again. 

For dinner, we decided to go to the local grocery store and have ourselves a feast in the hotel. So we picked up various fruits (guava and mango), cheese, olives, and crackers and brought it back. The whole night we sat around just chitchatting the night away and enjoying our little dinner.

Sunday, September 4, 2013

On Sunday morning we enjoyed the same breakfast that we did the day before. Fortunately, we did not have to deal with the electricity going out while taking a shower. Our plan for the day was to visit the infamous botanical gardens. Jillian and Derek also had the pleasure to visit the gardens, but they did not have much time to spend there. When we arrived by taxi, we went to the booth to buy tickets. There are two types of tickets: one for locals and one for foreigners. Apparently, they charge foreigners 5x the price for tickets. Thankfully, Evy spoke Spanish and was able to get the regular priced tickets. She only spoke a few words in Spanish hence why they thought she was a local, had she talked more they would have probably figured out she was not local. We walked to the snack bar area where there were trains that would take us around the gardens. There was a tour guide as well who spoke in both English and Spanish so we could know what everything was around the gardens. When we took the tour, it looked like an Amazon jungle with all the different type of trees and forested areas. There were at least 5 different types of palm trees. As we were touring, the train stopped at the Japanese garden and we were able to take pictures there. It was a beautiful sight! After about ten minutes, we had to go back to the train to finish up the tour. When we finished we were famished, it was extremely hot so we decided to get fruit popsicles to cool us down. Now these fruit popsicles were made of REAL fruit, which is pretty expensive in the US but it only cost us $0.05, which is amazing. Afterwards, we also met a very nice security guard who took us to the medicinal herbs garden and he knew almost every herb there which was amazing. We thought he would be a good tour guide! 

After visiting the beautiful botanical gardens, we went back to the hotel to meet another volunteer, Cindy. She is a microbiology major, applying to medical school. We met her at the hotel and decided to order Dominos for dinner. Surprisingly, it was similar to the Dominos in the US, which I didn’t mind at all because I was missing good old regular pizza. After chatting for a bit and getting to know Cindy, we decided to call it a night as we had to head to Monte Plata early the next morning.

Monday, September 5, 2013

We were up early Monday morning not knowing what time Orlando was going to come pick us up, but he was there by 8 am. We met with Teresa and had a little meeting about our future plans for the week and the whole trip. She came to meet the new volunteer as well and talk about her project as well. We took the two hour car ride to Monte Plata and got there just in time for lunch. After a delicious lunch made by Aude, we went into the clinic and worked in the community health portion, where the pharmacy sends the patients after they get their prescriptions filled to get more counseling on the medications. Evy and I would discuss the important aspects of a certain medications that we thought were important for a patient to know, and she would translate it to the patient. Meanwhile, Liz and Cindy were surveying patients for Liz’s project. After work, we decided to head into town to get some ice cream. We ended up picking up a 2 pint bowl of tres leche and it was delicious!

Tuesday September 6, 2013

Today was a pretty busy day for us. We started out by exploring different pharmacies in town. We first visited a community pharmacy where they stored almost every medication that we see in the US. The brand names were different but generics were mostly similar. We even saw different combination medications such as amlodipine/candesartan. The one thing we didn’t see was insulin and the technician informed us that insulin is only sold in certain places. The medications were stored in a cool room with air conditioning, which was surprising, as most other pharmacies did not seem like they had AC. 

After visiting that pharmacy, we went to the subcenter in town. Its called a subcenter because it’s secondary care and was not built as a hospital it was built for a former dictator. After the fall of the dictator, they wanted to demolish the building but a nurse said that they could build a subcenter there to serve the local population. We visited the pharmacy there and they only had injectable medications, oral medications had to be ordered from the outpatient pharmacy. They also had insulin! We moved to the upper floor and visited a TB clinic and talked about how patients are diagnosed with TB in the DR because most people are vaccinated for the TB so the typical PPD test would not be viable here. They talked about how they use chest X-rays, sputum samples, and just plain symptoms to diagnose TB. We went on to further visit the area where women give birth and we saw a woman lying down who had just given birth (mind you she didn’t even seem like she had a baby). We also saw the subcenter’s out patient pharmacy where they get their oral medications if needed. 

For the afternoon, we went back to the clinic and spent time with the pharmacy technician at the pharmacy, Yahira. We wanted to understand how medications are given out and how she takes care of inventory in the system.