EPIC buena suerte en Salcedo

After returning from a week of semi-roughing it, a glorious shower, and clean clothes...I'm ready to go back to Salcedo. Let me just start that even though this blog post will be ridiculously long, there is so much more that I want to say. For our community health class, each pair of students was randomly assigned to a rural clinic. All my partner - Kate - and I knew was that ours was new. So, I packed my hiking pants, swiss army knife, and a bunch of sports bras into my duffle bag, ready for a week of living in the campo. Little did I know that our clinic is actually the most urban, recently opened, and comfortable clinic in the area. Unlike some of the other clinics, it normally had water and electricity (we only had 1.5 days without them) It's right across from the only supermarket in town - Los Compadres - which we frequented often for groceries and Kate's morning coffee.

La Clínica de Centro Zona

Even though the clinic itself was quite spiffy, the rest of the town was pretty run down and living conditions varied. In the center and in the countryside surrounding the town, houses were often simple 1-room buildings made up wood or cement with a metal roof. Most had water and electricity, with curtains dividing up the sleeping and eating areas.

Across the street from the clinic 

We lived on the second floor of the clinic, where there was a small kitchen, bedroom, and a bathroom for the doctors who live there. In the D.R., students who graduate from medical school (6 years of university) have a mandatory 1 year rotation in a rural clinic. They are called pasantes and but the actual doctors themselves refer to it as slavery. hah. It's an ideal system, since these rural areas need basic healthcare that these fresh young doctors can deliver. Though the lack of supervision doesn't always work out. Nonetheless, Kate and I again lucked out with a tall, handsome, smart super doctor named Gregory. Did I mention we shared a bedroom? Kate and I slept in one large bed while Dr. McSueño slept in another twin bed on the other side of the room. I was surprised by this arrangement because Dominicans are known to be conservative about males and females even hanging out in the same room, but Kate and I were fine with it. The first night, we're getting ready to go to sleep and Gregory says in Spanish "Perdon, but I sleep without a shirt on" swoon. Basically, Kate and I crushed on Gregory like a 13-year-old girl crushes on Justin Bieber. Don't even get me started when we saw him take care of little kids. Or when he measured my blood pressure as a demonstration. However, he was very camera shy so we had to sneak in pictures of him.

Dr. Gregory making us dinner. SO. FINE. 

The first weekend, one of the nurses invited us out to her house in the campo. We hopped on some motos and rode out into the countryside to play some billiards at a shop/bar/snack stand her brother owned. 

I think Kate and my pool skills thoroughly entertained the onlookers.
Now they probably think Americans suck at pool. Oops. Gregory was perfect - as always. 

After getting eaten a live by mosquitos, we returned to the town and got ready to go out. This was our second day living with Gregory and at this point, he seemed like a very quiet, sensitive guy with very particular methods of living. He cleaned his dishes a certain way, cooked and ate with specific requirements (every meal must have protein!), and taught us how to do all of this. So we weren't quite sure what to expect when he said we were going out for drinks. Turns out, HE IS SUCH A GOOFBALL. We all took a shot of vodka before heading out to the club, where he bought us more drinks. We ended up meeting another pair of students staying nearby and started dancing. We were literally the only ones dancing. Unlike most Dominican men, Gregory isn't really into the whole bachata, salsa, merengue thing (maybe because he's from Santo Domingo?? city boy?) but is more into techno. He dances with his shoulders shrugged, and waves his arms back and forth. Kind of like Lee....It's really funny :) Anyways, the next morning, we wake up to find Gregory making us banana pancakes in his pajama bottoms. sigh 

But back to the real reason we were in the clinic. We learned how to treat minor injuries in the emergency room, watched nurses give shots, and helped out or chatted with the nurses when there wasn't much to do. The most exciting thing for me was treating a women who had a second degree burn on her forehead from boiling water. I put on my gloves, and following the nurse's instructions, cleaned the wound with saline solution and soap, peeled off the burnt skin from her forehead (which was kind of difficult since it was stuck to her hair too), and applied an antibiotic cream. It was awesome! It sounds simple but there's a lot of strategy that goes into avoiding infection and treating the wound. I became good friends with all the nurses, who were all incredibly warm-hearted, feisty, and inviting. 

Teresa, me, Jaqui, and Dionis making gauze packets

The rest of the week in the clinic was pretty slow, but we gave a short info session on STI's to patients sitting in the waiting room, practiced measuring blood pressure to patients waiting to see doctors, and went on some house-calls to visit patients who couldn't make it to the clinic. Actually, there was an old lady with a a really cool (read:gross) diabetic foot and I got to help hand the doctor gauze and pour solution on it. The people here are incredibly generous and cariñosa (caring, affectionate). After we helped bandage this lady's foot, her family offered us soda and crackers. Kate and I were complete foreign strangers, intruding into her visit with a doctor - which is usually a pretty private thing - but she treated us like special guests. There was so much affection: from Fausto - the security guard who offered me his watch after I said it looked cool - to Teresa - who gave Kate and I earrings after I said hers looked pretty - to Paloma, the lab technician who bought us little wall decorations as a parting gift. Now I understand why so many people from Latin America say that Americans are cold. Now I just want to kiss everyone on the cheek! 

One of the best nights in Salcedo was completely unplanned, spontaneous surprise. Gregory, Kate and I were sitting in our kitchen after work when in comes in Courtney and Kristin - 2 other students from our program. We hadn't really talked to many people in our group since we all lives in separate clinics and neither Kate nor I felt like spending taxi fares, but this was a welcome visit. Their doctors came with them and we all hung out for a while before deciding to go out for mufungo. Mufungo is a kind of food popular in the Carribbean that's a mash of mature plantains, chicken, chicharrones (fried pig skin), garlic, salt and pepper, covered with a cheese sauce. It is a heart attack waiting to happen and SO DELICIOUS. We picked up our food and headed out to another clinic, El Rancho, to meet up with some more student-friends and doctor-friends. The rest of the night was a Dominican version of an unedited Grey's Anatomy on crack. We sat around the kitchen of the clinic, drinking rum and coke, sipping on Presidente (the Dominican equivalent of Budweiser), listening to music and listening to inappropriate Dominican jokes and patient stories. We danced to bachata, Rihanna, and whatever else came onto the radio, and finally ended the night when Dr. Gregory (Mr. Responsible) told us we still had to get up early the next day for work. 

Hipster Doctor: aka the player. He tried to dance on (yes, on) ever girl in the room.  

Ok, this post is getting a little long so I think it's time to end. Basically, I had an awesome time and I can't believe my luck. In all seriousness, I'm really glad that we got Gregory as our doctor because he took the effort and time to teach us little things we can apply to our every day life (or in emergencies). I admired his work ethic, attention to detail, compassion, slight OCD about cleanliness, and the way he always analyzed every medical situation to find the best solution possible. Even with the constant sweating in long pants (GAH, I HATE PANTS!) in 90 whatever degree weather, the pathetic stream of water for our shower, waking up to Teke blasting from gigantic speakers on wheels at 7am,  I had the time of my life. Our team of nurses, cleaning ladies, security guards, and lab technicians was always happy to see us and I couldn't have asked for better luck. Alright, maybe just one thing: I really hope I don't get malaria because I was stupid and didn't take the recommended malaria pills before coming to this country. (Somehow when I read the program guidebook, "recommended" was interpreted as "unnecessary").

 Jaqi, Paloma, Josephina (the spicy one), Dionis, and Fausto (who always talked to us in English with New York accent). Missing them already, especially now that I'm wearing clean clothes. 

I CAN'T BELIEVE I FORGOT ONE OF THE BEST MOMENTS! Kate and I dragged Gregory to the local track to run some laps, and we ended up playing soccer with some Dominican kids. Their coach saw us jogging, approached us, and asked/told us to play with his rag-tag team of 10-15 year old boys and girls. The boys looked like they were 6 years old, but they were pretty good. I even got a little aggressive and had to make sure I didn't completely squash them. By the end of the day, I was covered in even more sweat and dirt, on the verge of fainting from a heat stroke, and limping with stiff quads but so content.