Today we did some more home visits to collect information for sponsors and potential sponsors. We went around to about 10 different homes and talked with the families. One of the amazing things about this culture is that they are relationship- orientated, and they run on “Dominican time”. If people are having a conversation and one of those people has to be somewhere, they will finish their conversation instead of worrying about where they have to be. This is why it takes so long to do home visits during the day. It is extremely important that we visit with the family, even if we are just sitting there smiling, unable to break the language barrier. However, I love and respect this culture very much.
There are a lot of problems down here, things that we as North Americans would consider miniscule conflicts that are easy to fix. For example a staph infection that can result in large cists that can simply be cured with a hot compress and a topical antibiotic cream. Although this may seem like an easy problem to fix in Canada by going straight to the doctor it is a problem when poor families must pay a lot of money for hospital visits, transportation to the hospital, and prescriptions. Therefore these staph infections linger and are easily spread by just touching the cist. One family that we visited on Day 1 we had to educate on washing hands, since their baby had a cyst the size of a large egg on the side of her head. Liz gave her a topical antibiotic cream and a lesson on washing hands and when we went back today the cist was almost gone.
Today was another hot, but amazing day in the field. I am learning a lot from Liz, and gaining a lot of confidence on how to deal with issues, and how to go about dealing with the people on a more personal level. I will admit however that I am struggling just a little bit. I am used to very hands on and hard labour, to build a school, or a church. However I know that what I am doing here right now is very important and I am very excited about the vision of DOVE missions. We need to change the mind frame of our youth if we want anything to change in this country. The young generation are the fate of the Dominican Republic.
2 comments:
Hey,
I am so glad to hear that you are having such a great time. It also makes me so very happy to hear how much you are connecting with the families in the Dominican and are able to educate them in, at least, some ways to stay healthy and stop the spread of illnesses. The DOVE missions sound like they will help the youth of the Dominican a great deal, and I love hearing about the progresses, and visits you've been making. Thanks for making these posts and I hope you are able to keep up with them. Keep working hard and enjoying yourself! It will all pay off and help to make the families lives in the DR just a little bit better!
Melissa,
I love reading your blogs- it's truly amazing how we take so many things for granted up here. I am so amazed by what you are doing in the Dominican. You are making a huge difference in people's lives and I really admire you for that.
Keep up the awesome work, I'll be following you along your journey!
P.S. Remember turkey in spanish is turquia!!
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