The End

Preface: I know my spelling and grammar are horrendous Isn't it annoying :)

Funny how the last two blogs I wrote have begun with a picture of a cockroach in my cup...

These are the things i will miss about this place. In America, there is almost no chance i will wake up to what can only be considered a "mutant" cockroach. The size of your fist, they are.

I am busy recovering from the whirlwind that was "volunteer march madness" while preparing to leave this country after 4 splendid years. We will get to that latter half at the end, for now ill fill you in on what has been going on this past month.

First up we had the combined group of Roger Williams University and The University of North Carolina (in the belly of the beast, Allen). They were an alright ;) group of 12 that handled the crazy task of putting together a chicas maravillas conference. I do not think it could have gone any better than it actually did. I still get chills thinking about it. Over 100 girls that have participated in our chicas maravillas program participated in the conference and I was blown away at the boldness, creativity and beauty that was represented.  To see some girls that were timid and unsure of themselves get up in front of 100 of their peers and sing their heart out brought tears to my eyes. What a transformation many of these girls made. Of course, Tania led the entire event and continues to be one of the most incredible individuals i have ever met.

The idea of the conference was to split girls into groups and have them create a skit or drama based on an assigned topic such as peer pressure, domestic violence, etc. The skits were entertaining and quite surprising when some of the RWU girls got involved in the mix.....

Major props to those ladies for donning a mustache and impersonating Dominican machismo. The entire event was so incredible that at the end we all had so much energy that we just got up and danced!

A little side "activity" happened that was outside of the typical FIMRC volunteer experience.....Two volunteers got married! They decided to have a spiritual ceremony here in town, and yours truly was asked to give away the bride. Never thought i would give a woman away before being married myself.....seems backwards somehow...... ;)

There is your proof, Meggicita. We hired the municipal police to cordon off the area, rented a friends' '02 Toyota Camry and the groom played a song to his bride on the guitar. What a memorable experience for them. Luckily there happened to be an ordained minister on the trip.

Whew! and that was just the first week!

The second week saw the return of of some old friends from last year and some welcome fresh faces. CLEMSON!!!!

I love having these guys down here. It was really nice to see some familiar faces as well. Clemson was tasked with executing a small health fair in remote El Carrizal. Boy, was that a success. 

We arrived to all of these kids waiting for us to set up and open the doors. It is a thing of beauty. 

P.s. that little toddler at the bottom of the photo is about to be very startled, ha! I couldn't stop laughing. 

We were able to support 4 main information booths, dental hygiene, sex-ed, hand washing and nutrition. The entrance table, gift corner and activity room made the event a smash hit with over 130 kids in overall attendance. 

The kids loved it and Clemson was the perfect group to organize an event like this. They also went into Haiti and did a dental charla to over 100 rural Haitian children.

The group got the kids on their feet dancing and singing. It was great!

Last but not least we had Jamies alma mater, Drexel University, come in and take part in the madness. 

As you can see they were almost all girls. Luckily, they were super cool and didn't make me feel too awkward ;) We put this group to work as they must have taught over 200 children over the course of the week in both the DR and Haiti.

Their project was to present flu prevention and treatment to a school for orphaned children in Haiti. I am constantly amazed at the creativity and individuality each group brings. They made songs, did dances, little chants and made posters to try to communicate to kids that spoke a completely different language than themselves. I was in awe of this group. 

They also presented in the DR.

What an amazing three weeks. I love having the opportunity to meet new people and expose them to a different side of the word for a short bit. I don't know how i found myself in this position. As a kid growing up in Mount Dora, Florida i never thought i would have this opportunity. I am very grateful and blessed beyond words.

Next Friday i board a plan off this island for good...........

I was updating my resume and trying to find a way to distill this experience into 3 concise bullet points. I feel like it will be the same when i am speaking with all of you who have been following this blog the past 2 years. We will meet, you will ask me how everything went, i will repeat those 3 bullet points and we will move on. What else can i do? It will be hard to tell each person that this experience and my combined 4 years on this island has humbled me beyond comparison, that i'm light years away from the man i used to be in early 2010. It will be difficult to describe the things i have seen, the words i have heard spoken and the unspoken moments that took my breath away. It will be impossible to describe the nature of the relationships God has blessed me with, and the love and care complete strangers have offered me as if i were their long lost son. What do you say about a group of people that have so profoundly impacted your life? How do you describe red to someone who cant see? 

It has been an incredible 18 months living and working in this town and the people i met initially, soon became my neighbors and in no time had become my family. Each person has a place in my heart and i will carry them with me for the rest of my life.

This is the end of my blog :)

Cockroach butts, Giardia and Witchcraft.

As I took my first pull of fresh Dominican coffee I felt something brush against my upper lip. I thought nothing of it. Maybe it was a little clump of dirt, or a grain of rice. These are pretty common things to find at the bottom of your coffee here. As the object brushed my lip for the second time I decided to take a look. I baptized my fork in the rich dark goodness and lifted out the bottom half of a cockroach......

.....I did not finish the coffee.....

Well, since the last time i updated this blog (2013) I have had a wisdom tooth removed and gone through the painful motions of Giardia (look it up).....simultaneously. I had been on a pretty good role, but when it rains it pours, I guess.

The past two months we have been hosting a 4th year medical student who is doing a short international rotation in the Hospital here in town. He spends the mornings in the Hospital shadowing physicians and consulting patients and in the afternoons he collaborates with our regular programming; chicas maravillas, diabetes clubs, school first aid kits, etc. We have also executed 3 mobile clinics in areas with little or no access to a health post.

First aid training w/kit in Los Cerezos

Consulting a whole mess of kids at a mobile clinic in Valle Nuevo 

Teaching our new Mariano Cestero Diabetes Club the importance of a balanced diet 

Consulting patients at our mobile clinic in Cruz de Cabrera

Female anatomy lesson to our Chicas Maravillas group in Restauracion

First aid training w/kit in Trinitaria

Doing some chair aerobics with Restauracion Diabetes Club. (They are pretty old so you have to work with what you got).

Explaining to over 100 kids in El Carrizal the importance of personal hygiene and how proper hand washing can help prevent many diseases.

Proper hand-washing demonstration.

We are leaving today for La Jagua for another mobile clinic. We have been keeping busy and its only two more weeks until the first group of March volunteers arrives! We expect around 50 volunteers next month. Some of the cool project we plan to do with them include: Chicas Maravillas conference, diabetes walk-a-thon, health fairs, dental hygiene campaigns AND what I am most excited about is our introduction into Haiti.
I mean it has always been there, but we are just starting to really develop it and have met a few of the right people (finally) to help us. We are going to start with some basic health education in this school.

Built by World Vision (of course)

Hopefully, this will get our foot in the door and begin to understand the goings on in Tiroli. We also had the odd fortune of meeting a witch doctor named Marino. After following 3 Haitian men crammed onto one motorcycle for what seemed like 2 miles outside of town we arrived at the "brujos" house. We were shown into his room of witchcraft and wizardry. 

You place your hand on the skull to drive out evil spirits. Marino referred to it in Spanish/Kreyol as the "enfermedad zombie" or "zombie sickness". Its like a movie or something.

He makes all of his medicine himself. 

Pretty wild stuff. Their is actually a license to practice this form of Voo Doo. Marino has been gracious enough to agree to meet with our volunteer groups in March and answer any questions we might have about this style of "alternative medicine". There might be one or two questions.

A lot of exciting stuff is happening here! On the flip side my contract ends in April and I will be transitioning back to the United States. I am trying not to think about it so I don't get too sad just yet. It will be a tough goodbye.....

Well, Hasta Luego!