today was a day of san pedro....kind of sad i'm starting to get to know people now....

i went this morning early to the bank/grocery and as the guagua was passing hector's work i saw that he was inside "working". i stopped by and we chatted for a while about life. he's not always a serious kid, so it was good to have some serious conversation.

later i printed pictures for people and sat outside the colmado to chat with some of the guys there. we talked for a bit and i ended up getting my pictures around my neighborhood that i wanted (they were just posted under the second picture page under san pedro). i then talked to a couple of the guys for a long time about life here...life in the states, etc.

made mexican lasagna tonight for dinner which was a hit with hector. i like when people like my food.

oh, and i'm really touched. the guy that runs the colmado and a couple of other guys there told me they want to have a going away party for me before i leave in the colmado. how cool is that?

didn't do much today except talk to people and chill.....it was nice....kind of sad i'm leaving.

i know....nothing for a week and in then in one day three posts....

pictures from my visit with wencesla (the cancer patient) have been posted under the second DR photo album listed as "wencesla"

pictures have just been uploaded....

this week has been a bit more low key. it's really hard to believe or know what to do with the fact that this is my last week here.

i spent a couple days this week helping out at a camp for kids with hiv/aids. it was weird. they seemed like normal kids, except for some had weird rashes. other than that they appeared normal. i kept randomly thinking, man, these kids have aids and it was kind of a weird thought. i was sitting with one girl at one point and she started crying....i had no idea why. it turned out that her chest was hurting her. my initial thought was that she was sad or missed home.....i'm not used to kids just randomly crying because they're in pain. i said bye to the kids this morning and even though i just spent maybe 10 hours with them it was sad. they asked when will we see you again....a common question around here...to which i replied, i don't know.

everyone asks when i'm coming back. random people i don't really know ask. i've started to make some more friends around the neighborhood which is kind of sad considering i'm leaving. i've started talking more with the people who run the colmado on my corner and some of the guys that hang out there. yesterday i made cookies and took some to the people that run the colmado, a new friend of mine and another random guy that talks to me sometimes. i'm really going to miss the colmado....one for its convenience and another for the people.

this past week i also visited wencesla...the cancer patient. it was really sad. i knew that her outcome didn't look good, but i was unsure of what she knew. visiting with her and knowing that she probably wouldn't survive was sad. also, i actually got to hang out with her kids a little which was cool but sad at the same time. a story she told which really hit me....i don't know why was that she wrote a letter to the first lady of the dominican republic asking for help and she never got a reply...her response to this was "i guess there are a lot of people that need help." i don't know why that comment got to me but it did. sitting in her tin roof and shabbily constructed board house....wondering what would happen to her kids was sad. she gave me a thing to hang on my wall that she had made me that i think i'll keep forever.

it's a weird time. i've gained a lot more independance. going to the store is no longer a new and exciting thing. i've even made it out to la romana several times on my own. i've started saying those goodbyes i've dreaded saying since i got here.

i've been meaning to post for a while, but things have been a little crazy. we spent last week (eight nights) in samana. i was completing a community health survey and milagros was seeing new patients. the trip there took longer than normal (9-10 hours). while there i stayed with a family the whole week. hector and i interviewed about 30-40 families about daily living and their knowledge about hiv/aids. i also spoke with a couple of health promotors, a teacher, and a guy that works with an italian ngo that's been working in that area for a while. i learned that when there's no rain, there's no water except for a natural well a little ways out. milagros called the well the work of God because the people would be in trouble if it wasn't there. i also learned a lot of people drink untreated rain water. the other interesting thing is the most common way to get rid of trash is to burn it. i started running in the country. also, th cool thing was this time of year, it's all the mangos you can eat. everywhere you go people offer you mangos and tell you to eat as many as you want. i helped feed pigs. i hung out. we spent a lot of time talking with my 14 year old friend trying to reinforce to her that she is too young to be married and that she should wait. i made friends with a female pastor there. she, milagros, and the woman of the family that i was staying with and i spent time walking and doing this latin dance exercise video. went to the beach a couple of times. saw another neighborhood further up that is without electricity. went to this smaller island thing. all in all a lot of stuff. we brought home one of the girls from there with us. she's 11 and getting to experience all kinds of firsts: shower, mcdonalds, shopping trips, movie theater, etc. it's really cool to be a part of, and she feels kind of like the little sister i never had. we got back tuesday midafternoon. wednesday after my spanish class we went into santo domingo to see neftali's father who was in the hospital. when we got there we found that he had died fifteen minutes before we got there. it was weird because we found out before the sisters knew and we had to sit with them for a little bit knowing that he had died but that they didn't know it yet. neftali has 12 brothers and sisters. later that night we went to the funeral home for the start of the funeral. around here funerals are 24 hour things. when we arrived around 8:30 there was a large group of people waiting. the body and the family arrived around 9 or 9:30 and it was really sad. i've never seen anything like it. the sisters were yelling and crying "ay ay no mi papi" a large crowd of people followed the casket into a small room. so for a while there was a small room full of people yelling and crying. i left shortly after this, but there were people until 12 or 1 last night. appearently if this would ahve been done at the house people would have stayed all night not sleeping. we went back this morning around 11 and there were again a group of people sitting around. we stayed for an hour or two and i gave condolences to neftali's mother and sister and viewed the body. at one point the room began singing a hymn...then i heard neftali's sister and a few others screaming and crying again. i came back here and am planning on going back around 3. milagros is staying all day. the burial is at four. at this point the whole group drives/walks with the body to the cemetary. i am unsure if we will do this part. all in all a very sad experience.

i spend tomorrow and saturday hanging out in la romana. it's been a busy two weeks. i've got two more weeks here and i'll be home.

the end of last week i had another group of people from cincinnati come out to visit. we spent the weekend at this all-inclusive resort in punta cana/bavaro. we got a sweet deal from the verizon guy (neftali). it ended up being us, hector, milagros, and neftali and his family. an interesting and different side of the dominican republic which i had not yet seen. i've decided i'll most likely never stay in a place like this again in my life. i also ended up going back into la romana at the end of the last week, and i got the approval to shadow at the clinic there. the doctor ended up setting our patient up with a large regimen of medicines which should help his aids and opportunistic infections. the good thing was the meds were free meaning one less patient that we have to find money for.

this week is a big prep week for me. i'm spending this upcoming monday-monday in samana. i, along with hector, will be completing a community health survey of two communities in samana. one community, rincon is where i normally stay. the other community is further up into the mountains. i'm quickly learning more and more about the community as i prepare for this survey. the clinic in the community of rincon serves rincon and two other communities. that will be the focal point of my work. i will be conducting in depth surveys with health promotors, educators, and an NGO. i will also be conducting daily living and hiv/aids surveys with people in the community. i will be going door to door with hector to collect this information. in order to conduct this survey i've pulled together different versions of the engineers without borders (check out the link on the right) community health survey adding my own hiv/aids questions. while i'm doing this work, milagros will spend time seeing new patients which we are hoping to add. also, if we have time, we'd like to do another education program in a community further up in the mountain. also, we've been looking at this week at different water treatment options seeing as clean water is a big issue up there. following my week in samana i will have two weeks left here....most likely that time will be spent organizing the data i've collected, and maybereturning to samana one more time. one of the other cool things about this work is that hector is getting to be a part of it and is getting paid a little bit and getting english classes taken care of. it's exciting to see him buying stuff he needs with money he's made himself and also to see him excited about learning a skill (english) that can prepare him for good jobs, etc.