Come see me!
Last month we had another Family & Visitors day. It went really well. It seemed like a lot more people were able to visit the kids this time around. I enjoyed this day a lot and spent quite a bit of time outside hanging with the kids and meeting some of their families. To start of the day, I ran a Jumbo Jenga game with Emily. The kids who participated were really into it. I believe we played about 4 or 5 rounds. It was really fun. This time I wasn’t on face painting duty! Our Art Therapist, Anike, and a few others were all over that! They did really good jobs! Hannah, the volunteer coordinator, was on Trampoline duty. That’s a task in itself because all kids LOVE to jump on the trampoline. So much that sometimes you can’t get them off of it. There were other volunteers who were in charge of potato sack races and other activities. From about 10am until 3pm I was outside with the kids. I was really tired after that; the sun really had exhausted me. So I came back and chilled at home until going back out to have dinner with my girls.
Facepainting!
Jumbo Jenga, Trampoline, &…I’m not sure what the other game was, but it really involved TEAMWORK
Other activities
Sponsors, friends, and grandparents…
Siblings! They look sooo much like twins!
Hallow-bacoa
So I’ve wanted to go up to visit Jarabacoa for a while now. I finally had the opportunity to do so with the rest of my housemates on October 31st. We left San Pedro around 11:30am and made it to Jarabacoa around 4pm. So yeah, it took us almost all day and it’s not even that far. On a good day it should take us about 2.5 hours. The thing is that it took us like an hour or so to make through Santo Domingo, traffic really set us back. But we made it nevertheless. Since we’re a big group we decided to have a Halloween party at the hostel we rented out for the weekend. Why not? So we headed into town, bought some food, drinks and whatever else we needed for our party. Spotify, a faithful friend of ours, was the Deejay for the night. Our DIY costumes consisted of a Greek goddess, a cheetah, a “trust-fund” baby, a couple of butterflies, a minion, and a baseball coach, amongst others. We had a good time and decided to take the party to the streets of Jarabacoa. Still in our costumes, we showed up to one of the local bars and…no one else had on costumes. HaHa But it was all good. We danced and had a good time.
Happy Halloween
The next day a local guide, named David, took us to see these waterfalls. He wouldn’t tell us the name of the falls, said that it was a secret. We were somewhere near the town of Constanza, though. Once we made it to the park we hiked for about 10 minutes before arriving at the waterfalls. It was cold so I didn’t get in the water. 3 of the volunteers continued through the water and followed David to the other side of the natural pool to climb up the water fall. Once up, they’d all do a 30 foot jump back into the water. Crazyyy! But we all had a good time. We were up there for a couple hours and then headed back to the hostel. We rested for what remained of the afternoon, and later some of us headed back out to enjoy our last night in Jarabacoa.
Just a view…
Hiking…
…& Dodging cows
The falls.
Wanted to steal this puppy from the hostel and take him back with me. Don’t we look good together? I even gave him a name, “Morenito” 🙂
¿Pero…como se dice, “headache”?
Towards the end of October I was asked to translate in a free clinic ran by 2 Finnish doctors who were visiting the DR. I figured that (after translating hundreds of letters in the Sponsorship office) doing a live translation would be a breeze…but even if it was difficult, it would still get me out of the office for the day. WOOT WOOT! On the first day, with a Spanish-English dictionary in my hand, I met up with the 2 doctors, Elina and Noora. There were also 2 nurses from Chicago who came to assist. From San Pedro we drove to Luz Maria, a barrio located on the east side of Santo Domingo. We arrived at the local clinic around 8:30am. We unpacked the car and carried many antibiotics, creams, vitamins, other prescriptions and doctors’ tools inside. I was surprised that there were already 30 patients waiting to be seen by the doctors.
A look inside
That day I worked alongside Dr. Elina. We were able to see 25 patients and combine that with the 26 patients Dr. Noora was able to see = 51 in one day! Most patients complained of pain, a few had fungal infections. I remember that there was a 16 year old girl, really sweet, who really needed glasses but her mother couldn’t afford to pay for a $5USD consultation at the ophthalmologist. Also memorable was this family of 6: a mother, a set of triplets, a baby, and an older son who was about 13 years old. Dr. Elina noticed a heart problem in the oldest son, one that (without surgery) wouldn’t allow him to live past his 30s. The mother had known about it but couldn’t afford to visit a cardiologist. The doctors had one last stop to make in Santa Fe (a barrio in San Pedro), after spending a long day in Luz Maria. In Santa Fe lived a woman and her daughter who had some disease that made her lower leg and foot swell. There was an open sore on the monther’s ankle that was about 7 inches in diameter. I had never seen something like this in real life. Santa Fe is a very poor neighborhood and that woman would never be able to afford getting that taken care of. She felt really embarrassed by her condition, that she had let it go on for who knows how long. The doctors couldn’t do much for the woman that afternoon, besides cleaning her wound and giving her new bandages; believing that the only thing that would help her is that she gets admitted to a hospital quickly and/or get surgery to remove that part of her leg. Thankfully, these three cases, amongst a few others, are being follow-upped on.
In Luz Maria! Bottom picture is that of me, the doctors/nurses, and that family of 6
(THE NEXT PIC IS KINDA GRAPHIC!)
(THE NEXT PIC IS KINDA GRAPHIC!)
(THE NEXT PIC IS KINDA GRAPHIC!)
In Santa Fe: The picture on the lower right is that of the mother, the other two pics are that of the daughter (her’s isn’t as bad as her mother’s)
Before I was even able to explain to each patient that I was only there to translate, they were already whipping out body parts and showing me all kinds of scars, sores, and bruises, thinking that I was a doctor. In that one day of translating for Elina, I had seen many things that I cannot “un-see”. HaHa But besides all of that, I saw some of the cutest children and thankfully most of them only had them had the sniffles.
The patient with the most patience. How cute is she?
A few days later I was reunited with Elina and Noora. Emily and I helped them translate at a clinic in Santa Fe and also here at NPH. They were doing basic check-ups of the children from the surrounding bateys that attend the NPH school. They also had 2 charlas, one with all the caregivers about HIV and another with our teenage girls about sex. Both translated by Pilar, our physical therapist from Colombia, and went really well.
The Team getting things done at NPH
Elina and Noora were very friendly, and just so down to earth that I forgot they were doctors. I learned a lot from them and was glad that I could be of assistance to them while they helped others. I am very grateful for that experience. And I know who to call if I ever end up in Finland.
Noches de Actividad
So…getting my girls (ages 12-15) to do anything with me after 6pm on a weeknight has proven to be difficult. But, I get it, they’re at THAT age. And since they’re now in school from 8am-4pm (it used to be 8-1pm), I don’t spend as much time with them. Unless it’s a movie, it’s impossible to get them ALL to do something with me at the same time. They don’t seem to be motivated, especially when En Otra Piel and Siempre Tuya: Acapulco are on the television. So, I’ve began “Activity Nights”. A few nights per week I have 4-5 of them volunteer to participate in whatever activity I planned that night. They won’t know what the activity is until we actually do it. Some are fun (like jewelry making) and some are not as fun (like 500 piece puzzles). They get a point for every activity they do with me, and once they hit 4 points they can do a cooking/baking activity (these girls love to eat/cook). I actually started off these activity nights with a baking activity. So these first 3 girls got a freebie. We made a no-bake Oreo Cheesecake. It was really good.
Oreo Cheesecake!
I’ve done puzzles, made bracelets, and had photo-shoots with my girls. It’s going really good so far, and I’m going to keep it going; just to see how it is after a few months. Right now, I’m planning a few more activity nights where we make house decorations for Christmas. I’ll also be teaching them some cool Origami folds and other random things. If you have any ideas on things that I can do with my girls, like: DIY projects, cooking (preferably no-bake), exercise, etc, please send me a message or make a comment on this post.
Padrino Meet-Up
A couple of weeks ago my department hosted it first social for local sponsors of our NPH kids. The event was held in a room at Cava Alta, a wine lounge in Santo Domingo. We had about 60 sponsors and supporters attend. It was good to have them all meet each other and get to know more about our sponsorship program. They were able to see a video that documented the beginnings of the DR home and also a few “before & after” photos of children. Three of our university students also attended the meet-up. They shared a few words about what the sponsorship program means to them and what it was like growing up at the home. It was a nice event and I’m definitely looking forward to the next one.
A few photo stands of local (Dominican or living in the DR) sponsors;; Kieran and 3 of our university students;; My supervisor, Daniela, and I
Cava Alta;; Bathroom selfie with Emily;; a few words from the Directive Board
Santiago: Part Tres
The day after the sponsors’ meet-up, I headed up to visit the city of Santiago a third time. Anike, came with me. There we went to see “Crisis de un comediante”, a show of my friend, Israel. It was pretty good. The next day we did some walking around Santiago and also saw a documentary called, “Blanco”. It followed the lives of a few albino Dominicans living in the town of Constanza. I really liked it, it had humor and you felt like you really got to know each one of the individuals. The next day we headed back down to Santo Domingo to hang out with a few friends and go out. It was a fun weekend.
Quick Santiago trip
¡Ay, mi madre!
For the second time this year my Ma has come to visit me here in DR. It was a very short trip but she was able to spend a lot more time here at NPH with me and my Santa Ana girls. She was also here for our annual Quinceañera/Dieciocho party. This year there were 6 girls that turned 15. 5 of them were girls from my house, so I really felt like a proud big sister. They were just beautiful. I’m glad my Ma was able to see them and experience one of the bigger NPH events.
Las Quinces y Los Dieciochos
Me with some of my faves!
“Bailandooo”
While she was here she was also able to spend a lot of time with one of the girls she sponsors here. Before she had come I was thinking of something we could do with the girls. Once per week they have spaghetti for dinner and I never eat it, but I always tell them about how good my Ma’s spaghetti is. I figured it would be nice for them to actually try it while she was here. So I chose 3 girls to help her cut the red and green peppers, season/fry the ground beef, and boil the pasta. They were perfect sous-chefs and the entire house loved the spaghetti! No one had any food left on their plate. It was fun spending that night cooking and joking with them. They were really happy to be spending time with and getting to know my Ma.
As my girls would say, “Eh-spagettee”.
“Thanks for the memories…”
Most of the volunteers I work with are American. We’re here in DR, so this month we’ve missed out on a Thanksgiving with our families back home. This is my second one in a row. So like last year we decided again to have our own Thanksgiving dinner, this time hosted at our house. It was cool to have the other volunteers/coworkers from other countries share this day with us and to show them what it’s like to celebrate Thanksgiving. They were able to see how much cooking preparation goes into it and learn more about the history of the day itself. This year the dinner was pot-luck style, everyone made/brought something to contribute. I made banana pudding. It wasn’t how my GranMa or Ma would make it, but…it was decent. I mean, no one got sick from eating it, HaHa. We had a lot of food, drinks, and desserts. Oh, and of course, a turkey. Spending a second Thanksgiving here wasn’t too bad, but I’m definitely craving some the Soul food from back home.
I took only a few pictures before being distracted by the food. But the top 2 photos are preps of my banana pudding and Anike’s German dish that I can’t pronounce.
Didn’t spend any money on “Black Friday”, instead we spent time relaxing at the beach. 😛
-DeeJay ❤
Dee Jay In The DR 