December to Remember

Booya!

Remember in January when i wrote a blog post about an area affected by cholera, and how we wanted to build latrines to help prevent future outbreaks? Well, i guess it is better late than never. It took almost an entire 12 months to petition, receive funds, organize logistics, buy materials, take them out to the sites on trucks, donkeys and brute strength (not mine, obviously), and begin building. Here is the finished product:

Glorious!

Granted, we still need to install the actual "toilet", which will be poured into a mold and hand delivered to each house thus christening the final product. Now you don't have to hear me talk about poop (as much) anymore! yay!

Seriously, I am really happy that we were able to make first-time latrine owners out of these families in rural nowhere. Many thanks to Notre Dame University for making it happen. 

Here is a funny photo of how our builder decided to put the roof on one of the latrines:

Just balance on a nearby post while the assistant provides upward force via that stick over there. I just want to note that our assistant is wearing a Steelers shirt and Clemson Tiger pants (you know who i;m talking to).

So that is that.

Last week we executed what had been planned for the past few months...our first community health fair!

What a success it was! We planned on receiving 500 people, and we received closer to 600! Many children came from villages at least 5km outside of town on foot to be part of the event. The picture above illustrates everyone that made the event possible. We recruited kids from the local high-school that had participated in one of our AIDS presentations and had shown an interest in getting involved. Peace Corps volunteers Ryan and Allison helped tremendously and our local hires Dr. Ricardo and Tania both contributed by manning their own stations and greeting guests. We cannot forget the masterminds behind the whole shebang; Maghan, Hannah (not pictured) and Jamie. I knew having interns would pay off :)

The idea of the fair was to inform kids and adults of simple ways to prevent major illnesses. We had various booths that dealt with themes like proper hand-washing techniques, dental hygiene, the importance of physical activity, sexual health, well balanced meals and the dangers of sugar consumption. Another reason we wanted to do a large scale health fair was to get our name out there. Organizations like World Vision are established and have over a decade working in the area. Peace Corps is another organization that is well known. Believe it or not it is incredibly difficult to brand FIMRC. First of all, its almost impossible for Dominicans to pronounce FIMRC. But its not like we can say Cuerpo de Paz ( Peace Corps) or Vision Mundial (World Vision), no, we have to say Fundacion Internacional de Alivio Medico para la Ninez. Try saying that ten times fast. How did we solve that? We had one booth set up solely for the purpose of having kids try to pronounce FIMRC. If they got it right we gave them a prize. Bottom line. We gotta change our name :) 

So, the kids walk in and receive a card that requires six stamps. They have to pass by all six health booths in order to fill up their card and receive their prize bag, which was an assortment of toothbrushes, tooth paste, hand soap, floss, crayons, etc. We had a raffle with items donated from local businesses, and all proceeds went into our local regular programming. People helping people. Here are a few of the featured booths:

Nutrition booth manned by Mary Luz

 Wheel of STD's. Spin the wheel and whatever you land on you are infected with. Then you get a talkin to by one of our volunteers. We handed out condoms as well.

 A fair would not be a fair without awesome games. So, among many other interactive activities, we contracted a local German carpenter to fabricate these:

Corn-hole baby!!! FIMRC style

It was an amazing activity that the community not only participated in, but helped sponsor! Kids are still talking about it and keep asking when the next one is going to be. 

December has been a crazy month and we are not even halfway done. We receive a 3rd year medical student-volunteer on Sunday, and two more after Christmas. I get a few days in between to celebrate the holidays, roasted pig style :)

Well that's all for now. Here is one final picture of the health fair....5-minutes after the doors opened:

Woo!