una mezcla de todo

After 35 long, muggy hours of class last week, we all headed to Playa Sosua to take in some sun and relax. It looked basically like the last beach we went to (read: gorgeous!), except there were more tourists, shops, and aggressive store-owners. It was a 2-hour journey by public bus (Greyhound style), which dropped us off 5 minutes from the beach. The comfortable, air-conditioned ride cost a little over $4. I guess that's comparable to Megabus, but Megabus doesn't drop us off at a beautiful beach. The first thing I did when I got there was buy a piña colada - sin rum. (It was 10:30am after all)

Freshly fried fish with a squeeze of lime, cabbage salad, rice + beans, fried plantains and a Coke
This looks a lot like the other meal by the beach, but it was SO MUCH BETTER.
*HEAVEN*

While feasting on the best meal I've had so far in this country, I couldn't help but notice all the old, white men walking around with young Dominican women. A pair sat down next to us at the beach-side cafe and it was clear from their conversation that she was a prostitute. We talked about this in our language class the following Monday, and prostitution (specifically, child prostitution) is a huge problem here. Though it might not be the case with these wealthy foreigners, condoms aren't widely used here, which makes STI's a serious issue. Coincidentally, my community health project is about STI's, and my project partner and I will be going to a rural clinic in a neighboring state to give educational presentations to teenagers there. Aside from the heavy Catholic influence, the machismo culture also plays a role in the lack of contraceptive use. While it's socially acceptable for men to have multiple sexual partners, this is not the case for women. The idea of "safe sex" here is the concept that it's kept a secret, as to not damage the man's reputation. I'm still not sure how we're going to explain the dangers of AIDS and chlamydia to a group of teenagers/kids/whoever comes to watch our presentation in Spanish...especially in a way that's accessible to people with a limited education. But we'll figure it out!

Anyways, I felt odd enjoying myself in the clear ocean water while thinking about all these problems, but that's basically this trip in a nutshell. We go out, have fun, spend our money on touristy things on the weekend and then spend hours in class learning about how about 50% of the population lives in poverty. The economic disparity here is pretty dramatic. BMW's and Mercedes are pretty common in the area where I live, while people live in shacks a couple blocks away. We've visited several hospitals and judging from the run-down state of the public hospitals contrasted with the shiny floors of the private clinics,  it's pretty evident that health is a commodity - not a right. But I won't go all Medical Anthropology here...I spend enough time writing about this in our Medical Sociology class reflections every day. This being said, I'm pretty excited for our rural clinic rotation. Even though I won't be going into the mountains, we're going to one of the poorest areas in the country - Salcedo. It's known as a political hot bed, and it's where the famous Mirabal Sisters were born. These 4 women are famous in the Dominican Republic for fighting against the oppressive Trujillo regime during the 1930's-1960's.

One of the public hospitals - Cabral 

I'm going off on a tangent here, but I'm going to bed in a bit since I have to get up at 6:45 am, as usual. I've stopped using an alarm now, since my biological clock is pretty much set. I'll watch a couple more minutes of this telenovela with my host family, sleep like a rock, and then wake up to another delicious breakfast. Honey Bunches of Oats tomorrow! I save the grilled cheese and jam sandwich for every other day...