Great Goings On

The last ten days have brought many exciting things! Last weekend was the national celebration of the 11oth year of Anglican presence in the DR. I attended Sunday's huge service in the capital - it was a wonderful gathering, with students from all the Episcopal schools, and priests/bishops from the DR, Haiti, Florida, and the Virgin Islands to help celebrate. I'm sorry to say I didn't have my camera, but I might be able to get my hands on some pictures in the near future.

Clinic work continues to be engaging and challenging. We returned to Batey Esperanza last week to deliver test results. Gracias a Dios, we only had two positives out of the 49 tests - a surprisingly low number. While our two counselors sat inside to give results, I was in charge of maintaining order outside. In other words, the afternoon was a crash course in Batey Spanish mixed with some Creole. Late afternoons are a time for socializing, and I made an intriguing spectacle for everyone in the Batey, not just people waiting for results. At the end of the day I had drawn stick-figures with toddlers in the dirt, been told I had "cat-eyes" several times, and garnered two declarations of love. All in a day's work....

This week, the community health team has been working on making teaching aids for breast exams for our Health Promoters. Old bras, backed with fabric and stuffed with cotton and a single rock "tumor," are great - and affordable - dummies for teaching self-breast exams. Promoters can teach without causing discomfort or embarrassment, and the experience is realistic enough to be a great help! Our sewing machine isn't working, so we spent most of one morning sewing the dummies together by hand. But we're not complaining; it was a chance to just hang out and chat!

Today, the team headed out to Villa Faro to continue training our newest Health Promoters there. With the help of the neighborhood school's faculty, we organized a practice session for assessing infant respiratory rate. Nearly twenty volunteer mothers and babies showed up to give our promoters a chance to practice taking respiratory rates on very young children, since that group is often the hardest to assess. Promoters had a chance to work with several babies - some crying, some with colds, some asleep - and compare their findings. As usual, we passed out crackers and juice. We also had a bottle of children's Tylenol and a bottle of Broncochem (similar to Dimetap) to give each mother as a 'thank you' for her participation. The school was noisy and chaotic with promoters, mothers, babies, and other children, but the event was a huge success. Here are some of my favorite shots of the afternoon:

One way to assess breathing is by touching the baby

Another is to put your ear to the baby's chest

Anita teaches

So that's a quick catch-up on work activities. I'm headed into the capital this weekend to visit friends, see the part of the city Christopher Columbus built, and perhaps go to a ballet performance! It's already Christmas here in the DR, as evidenced by the Christmas lights/decorations appearing everywhere, the carols playing in the buses, and (perhaps) the red and green fireworks visible through my window right now. Pretty funny. I guess that's what happens when there's no Halloween or Thanksgiving.... Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! xo