The next four days of our trip were spent in Santo Domingo,
the capital of the DR. We drove through many small towns, down many small
(broken-down) roads, and past many fields of green, then all of a sudden we
were in a city! Within a few minutes of being inside the city limits, we were
instantly surrounded by tall buildings, apartments, billboards, street venders,
people, cars, and traffic! Santo Domingo is a large,
metropolitan city much like what we would picture in the U.S. We quickly
learned that all of the traffic laws that we obey in the states are simply
“suggestions” here. Drivers cut other cars off, turn left or right from the
middle lane, drive in two lanes, park in the middle of the road, reverse on
highways, go through red lights, back out into moving traffic, honk for fun,
come within inches of the pedestrians on the side of the road, pack 15+ people
in a 8 person van, and often stop just inches away from the car in front of
them. Funny thing is, by the end of the stay we were pretty much used to it! That
is how everyone drives down here and they are all very good at it! We never
once saw an accident, though we saw many close calls! The main different
between Santo Domingo and a city in the U.S. is the number of motorcyclists.
The majority of people ride small, rickety motorcycles. Motorcyclists weave in
and out of traffic, go through traffic lights whenever they please, drive on
the other side of the road and often don’t wear helmets. Needless to say,
driving (or being a passenger) was an exciting experience!
On Thursday (7/4), our first stop was the site for the new
clinic. Project HOPE is building a new medical clinic in Haina. Haina is
another subdivision of Santo Domingo and will have a fairly large patient
population. A very wealthy landowner donated the land. The land was donated
over three years ago, but there was a property battle with several small
business owners who has squatted on the land. They claimed they were told that
they could use the land by the city and it took a lot of time and money to
convince them to move. The plot of land is currently a field of weeds and
plants. Project HOPE had originally planned on breaking ground on August 6th,
but the date has since been changed to mid September.
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| The land for the Haina clinic. |
After our visit to Haina, we went to the Herrera clinic.
This was the first clinic established by Project HOPE in the DR. The clinic is
almost the exact same layout as the Monte Plata clinic. We were given a tour of
the clinic and met the majority of the staff members. I think there are a few
more people working at this clinic because it sees a larger patient population.
This clinic is busy almost all days of the week. Monte Plata has its slow and busy
days throughout the week.
After our tour, we sat in on a staff meeting, a very cramped
staff meeting. Teresa organized an impromptu meeting for Derek, Liz and me. We
fit about 15 people in a very small office. In this clinic, the staff members are divided into four groups. Each group is responsible for discussing
and improving a different aspect of the clinic. Unfortunately, I am not sure
exactly what each group’s specific assignment was, but they were along the
lines of promoting health education, staff development and several other
topics. Each week, these four groups meet
individually and then collectively to discuss any changes or observations that
they have seen.
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| Herrera clinic |
After a long day of traveling and seeing the clinics, we
retired to our hostel in the Zona Colonial. Zona Colonial is a very old part of
Santo Domingo. This is where Christopher Columbus first landed when he was in
search of the Americas. Our hostel was very nice. We had our own bathroom and breakfast
was cooked for us each morning. It even had air conditioning! After settling
in, Derek, Liz, Dana and I went to Hard Rock Café for a little American cuisine.
After all, it was the 4th of July.
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| Hostal Dominico Mundial |
The next day (7/5), we all went to a conference hosted by
the Ministry of Public health. This was a meeting for all of Zone 7. Santo
Domingo is divided into zones for the purpose of health care. This meeting was
about the importance of clean water. Project HOPE has a good relationship with
the Ministry of Public Health and we wanted to be there to show support for
their event. Both Project HOPE and the Ministry of Public Health help each
other get medications and vaccines for each other. The conference was scheduled
to start at about 8am. We arrived a little
before 9am, and it still had not started. This is where we learned about
“Dominican time”. Dominican time is simple: if something starts at 8am, and you
get there by 10am, you are still on time.
We were all waiting for the Minister of Public Health to arrive to give
a speech. While waiting, we were all introduced to many directors, doctors,
nurses, and other health care organizations from the Santo Domingo area.
Everyone wore t-shirts to show support for their organization or cause. By
10am, the Minister still hadn’t shown up. He was late in Teresa’s eyes, so we
left. She said we made a point of being there on time so it was his loss especially
since we waited for over an hour. We found out that the Minister never ended up
showing. Apparently he had another conference that day and went there first,
but never made it to the one for Zone 7.
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| Ministry of Public Health conference (MSP: Ministerio de Salud Publica) |
We went back to the clinic to follow the doctors for a few
hours. I was able to follow an OB-GYN. He was very nice and spoke English well.
I was able to see several pap smears, pregnancy evaluations, and general
consults. The doctor showed me how he did a pap smear and told me that I could
do the next one! I tried to explain to him that I just do medications, but he
still insisted I give it a try. I nicely asked him to do the next one so I
could see how he does it one more time, and told him I would do the next
patient. Luckily, no other patients came in for a pap smear before I had to go!
But it would have been an interesting experience had a patient come in! Derek
spent some time with a pediatrician and saw several small children. I don’t
think he was asked to examine any of the children!
Later that afternoon, Teresa invited two good friends of hers
to meet with us. Their names are Ruben and Anell. They started an organization
called Project Hearts. This organization is dedicated to improving different
aspects of rural, needy communities. Their projects have included: building
bathrooms for schools, installing water filters, repairing homes, providing
food to needy families, and much more. Ruben started this non-profit
organization in 2011. He is a Dominican native who immigrated to the States
when he was a teenager. He went to school in the states and eventually went on
to study in the seminary. He wanted to be a monk
or a priest. Later in life, he returned to the
Dominican and decided that he was needed here and could provide great service
to many people who need it. Anell is a civil engineer.
He got his degree and was not able to find good work so he was hired by Project
HOPE to help them with office work. After working for Project HOPE for a year,
he was introduced to Ruben and quickly found the perfect career for him. He has
been working with Ruben ever since. These two men were extraordinary
inspirations to Derek and I. They brought us both to tears while listening to
their stories and reflecting on our own lives. They are amazing people. The
most important thing I took away from them was importance of helping people
help themselves. You can give someone money or food to help them at the
present, but giving them that stuff does not help them in the long run, they
will keep coming back for more. But if you help this person get a better
education or have him or her work towards a goal, you are helping this person
help him or herself by bettering him or her as a person.
That evening, Teresa took us all out to dinner to a
restaurant called El Conuco. This restaurant not only had good food, but it
also had live music and dancing! Our entire table had a wonderful night of
dancing and eating! Each one of us got up and did a little meringue, salsa and
bachata! It was a fantastic end to a long, hard week!
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| El Conuco! We danced the night away! |
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| Top left: Statue of Christopher Columbus. Top Right: Catedral Santa Maria la Menor, the oldest cathedral in the Americas. The next three are pictures from within the Museo Las Casas Reales. The last picture is maduros (fried sweet plantains). We loved them so much that we learned how to make them! |
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| More pictures from Santo Domingo. A craft stand, the cathedral at night, live music at the Casa de teatro, Liz and I at dinner, a very large statue that did not have a posted name, and a view of the channel/ocean. |
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| Some fun at the Botanical Garden |
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