Pineapples and Fotos.

Have you ever given serious consideration as to how a pineapple comes into existence? Does it grow on a vine, tree, bush, underground, fall from the sky? I think if you were brutally honest with yourself you would admit that you just don't know.

Its a bush! You plant the top of a pineapple and it grows into a massive.....top of a pineapple.....and in the middle grows another....pineapple! I can't believe I have lived 25 years and just found out how pineapples grow a few months ago. Say pineapple a few more times.....doesn't make any sense.

Que lo que ha pasado, we had another Superman class and touched on the physical and mental benefits of exercise and how it can prevent various diseases. We also took a field trip to a local watering hole closer to Haiti. It was quite an awesome day. Sunday, Club Superman held a movie night at the library which brought in over 50 kids from town. We watched Tarzan, because all Disney movies are awesome. The boys are really getting into the Superman culture.

Garrett had our friend Dave come up and take some photos of our town with his fancy camera, so I forced him to take pictures of our Supermen! Enjoy these incredible photos:

Kachimbo (back) and Victor. True gentlemen.

Supermen!

Cholo trying to navigate the invisible magic labyrinth....don't ask 

Cholo doing the 'ol "can't fold a dollar bill 7 times" trick....nope still can't......

....but everyone was convinced that THEY were the chosen one.......

Going over our Super Rules for class

Finishing up class by coloring in Superman!

I am so stoked about how these photos turned out. Makes us look so much more fun than we are in reality :) Anyways, there are like 100 more photos but there has to be a limit.

In other news we went out to a few of the remote village schools and spoke to high school seniors about the importance of continuing their education no matter what obstacles lay ahead. For the kids here there are many, and a big one is becoming pregnant before you graduate high school. It can really throws a wrench in things. Doctor Ricardo addressed the issues while we played games and spoke about different career possibilities.

Whilst there, a member of the community approached us and requested we touch on a pretty serious topic of adolescent girls becoming pregnant and practicing abortions on themselves.....so there is that.....jumping on that bad boy next week.
Friday, we are going to a school in Valle Nuevo with Dr. Dolce and a small mobile clinic and to also speak about adequate nutrition and dental hygiene. Saturday, a diabetes specialist from Santiago is coming up to give a diabetes/hypertension seminar in Valle Nuevo through FIMRC. Our dance card is filling up. The greatest part is that people are just asking us (when i say us i usually mean Dr. Ricardo and me) to come and give these presentations, which means people are identifying needs in their community and seeking help. FIMRC what what!?

I will leave you guys with one last awesome photo of my boy Erinson. This is a candid shot but he truly looks like Superman!! About to kick someone's boo-tay. (which we do not condone in class :)

Fierce

Peace out!

Seriously....done now.

Superman!

I know some of you are wandering how chickens have sex. We all know it happens....because we have eggs......but does a rooster stand near a chicken and ....it happens? Don't pretend like you don't care. We are all a little curious. There are so many feathers.......anyway.....i saw it happen the other day.

Good story

Today was our first day of Club Superman!

....and it was awesome. Class was supposed to start at 10am, but promptly at 8am the kids were at my door asking how much time was left before class. Look, Dominicans have a habit of arriving late for everything so i am going to nurture this attitude of being two hours EARLY for everything and maybe it will all equal out in the end. Anyways, we started class at 9 something and it ended at 12. We spoke of how, like superheroes, we have a responsibility to our communities and families. We did various activities that reinforced the importance of working effectively as a team and how crucial communication is in achieving results. We talked about having pride for your country and what the Dominican flag stands for, then proceeded to create our own personal flags that represented us personally. Most ended up being the same as the Dominican flag......but a few were pretty creative. Many responses were along the lines of, "I used red because my shirt is red", or, "I used pink because i like girls", atta boy (Cholo).
We ended our day together by heading to the river after lunch. It was hard to believe that about half the kids in our group had never been to a watering hole that was a mere 20 minute walk from town. Needless to say we enjoyed ourselves. We are Supermen!

Other things on the docket involve continuing dental hygiene education in the schools we missed and a cool seminar on diabetes/hypertension with a specialist from Santiago, to be held in Valle Nuevo.

Oh yea.....and THE CENSUS IS OVER. Yes you heard right, trumpets sound, the crowd roars, THE CENSUS IS OVER. Luckily, FIMRC is collaborating with MPH programs at Drexel University, and all the data I have collected was recently handed over to a lovely young lady who will proceed to crunch the numbers and make a fancy report out of it! Teamwork! We also have two chikas developing an awesome interactive, hands-on nutrition curriculum with both a school wide and house-visit implementation program. Praise the Lord, right? This guy (thumbs pointed at me) is not the brightest muffin in the toolbox.

Also, Victor just brought me a potted onion plant. SWEET!

Adios

Meet Willi!

Yes, the rumors are true. Rosalia and I have parted ways. It was just too difficult getting to the more remote areas I needed to get to. She was more of a city bike. We were never meant to go as far as we did........so I decided to upgrade to a Honda XR 125L!

It just looks athletic in its stance. Muddy, rocky roads have become an anticipated adventure instead of a near death experience. I just have so much more command of the terrain and it just a more comfortable ride. Granted, I already blew out the front tire....too eager, maybe? Anyways, I'm officially addicted to motorcycles now and it will only get bigger and better! Watch out! Still working out names for this one....Reginald....Malik....any suggestions?

I have spent this whole week slowly, methodically, monotonously inputting census data into an excel spreadsheet. It is slowly, methodically and monotonously crushing my life force. I am still coming down from this massive volunteer high from the past 3 weeks. We hope to be able to take all the data after its SM&M inputted and create a report that interprets the numbers and helps identify the biggest health issues in the area. Exciting stuff.

In other news, I am putting the finishing touches on our Club Superman initiative. It is a club that focuses on instilling positive values in the young boys that run around the streets and campos. To provide them with some guidance on making healthy life choices and an after school alternative. To learn how to become Supermen! More than anything else, its about having fun. Look forward to more on that soon.

Today, we went and saw Willi again. Unfortunately, he has not improved at all even after taking vitamin supplements. He looks weaker than the last time we saw him. Picking him up feels like picking up a small skeleton. He has a big ol' extended belly, but his arms and legs are skinny little twigs. Tailoring his diet is difficult as he can only swallow, so we gave him a months supply of concentrated protein supplement to be mixed with powdered milk that we provided. We will evaluate him in 30 days and see if there has been any change. Ojala que si.

Poor little dude has to battle Autism and malnutrition. Not a fun combo in the developed world, much less a remote village in the 3rd world. He is 4 years old and weighs 18 pounds. He is kind of my little hero.

We also responded (makes us sound so official) to a situation where a group of Haitians have been living next to a section of river that directly feeds the entire municipalities' water source. The problem is their bathroom looks like this.

32 people share this bad boy. It IS an improvement over just an open pit if you want to look at the bright side, but the other problem is its right next to the river, so even if they do use this....which i doubt they actually do.....it is contaminating a major water source for thousands of people. Also, they mentioned that it was almost full.....which means the poop is about to hit the ceiling :) We are including this area in our latrine project, which was just picked up by Notre Dame University! They agreed to sponsor our initial latrine project, yay!

Working in these environments can sometimes by daunting or depressing but i try to remind myself to......

.....SMILE! Cuz this kid could not be happier, and his two front teeth were punched out by a goat.....kidding :) Keep this kid in mind next time you have a poopy day (pun intended).