Friday, November 18, 2011

Latest Activities

As a Peace Corps volunteer it is hard to remember that life in the United States continues without you. I always think of my friends as the same, living as they did over a year ago when I left the country. Unfortunately (or fortunately) that is just not the case. I was reminded of this fact when I found out that my friend Ottie is engaged! A friend who always claimed he would never be a husband, I am so happy that Ottie has found Sheryl. Between Ottie’s engagement and Annie who is 7 months pregnant, I guess that sometimes I am glad to be reminded of the constant change that life brings us.

Lately my days have been filled with conference planning, conferences, and a week-long medical mission. I’ll start with the medical mission because it deserves a lot of recognition. First of all, medical missions are very common in the Dominican Republic. Probably because of the country’s proximity to the US, foreign doctors often come to the country to provide free medical service. Peace Corps volunteers are invited to the missions to translate between doctors and patients, which is what I did last week. I went to Santiago and worked with an organization called ILAC, founded by Creighton University in Nebraska. There was a team of about five surgeons, anasethiologists, and tons of nurses who came to the ILAC center to provide free hernia surgeries, and I believe they finished nearly 150 operations from Monday through Friday. My job during the mission was to 1) Walk patients from the waiting room to operation room and comfort them as they got situated for surgery and 2) Help patients in the recovery room and explain to them the next steps after surgery. This experience was by far one of my favorites since arriving in country. I loved translating and being in a hospital (not really a hospital but it felt like one). Even though I still do not feel completely fluent in Spanish, I was really proud of being able to communicate with all the patients and making them feel more at ease. I also felt very inspired by the doctors and nurses who came to provide their expertise. In reality, it was not only time that these people gave. They hand-made blankets for each patient, donated clothes and toiletries, and provided each child with a stuffed animal. The doctors and nurses made sure we, the Peace Corps volunteers, knew how much they respected our work, but I feel like their work in the DR needs to be recognized too. I was inspired by how much the medical team gave to a country that they do not even know.

Another event that I recently completed was the analysis of the barrier analysis study on HIV testing among youth. We learned some interesting news, that those who have not had the HIV test have less confidence in condoms. They also have a lower understanding of the HIV test and AIDS treatment. After a day of analyzing the data, most volunteers felt like we need to start incorporating HIV testing as part of the Escojo Mi Vida curriculum.

Yesterday I brought 5 youth to an Escojo Mi Vida conference in a campo nearby Las Tablas. It was fun and I was excited to introduce the youth from Las Tablas to the youth from my first group in Bani. Katie, another volunteer, and I were surprised to hear that we had to give a talk on the discrimination of gender, but it ended up going really well. We had a fair amount of men in the audience and they were talking about how we need to change the maschiso culture; I was very impressed by their comments and it gave me hope that maschismo may not always exist!

I’ve got two more conferences to go for the month of November. Next weekend is the Chicas Brillantes conference where we will spend a night in beautiful San Jose de Ocoa. The day after this conference I will go to my One-Year In Service Training conference with my Peace Corps group. Can you believe I only have 11 months left in the DR?

Before we know it we will closing in on Christmas and the month of giving; I have a small request that I am asking now, otherwise by the time I receive your packages it will be too late! I want to hold a Christmas Party for my Escojo graduation and would like to provide each youth with a stocking. I would love to get around 10 cheap stockings, peppermint sticks, and Christmas candy to give to each of the Escojo graduates (and some neighbors, if possible). For anyone who is reading my blog and might be able to send such things, I would greatly appreciate the little contribution! You can find my address on this website.
Four more weeks until my mom comes to the DR! It’s officially a countdown.