I didn’t sleep nearly enough last night, which might explain why today feels so disjointed. In the morning, after the morning prayer was conducted in the waiting area, I was given a tour of the clinic/introduced to everyone by Berkys, whom I had met briefly when we arrived yesterday evening. The clinic set-up is nearly identical to the one in Buenos Aires de Herrera, but a bit more spacious and well-lit, and without AC. Both clinics switch between grid and generator electricity, since the grid goes down unannounced frequently here and in Herrera, just as it does all over the country. (Your Spanish lesson of the day: “Se fue la luz” — ¡pero nunca en la clinica!)
Since the clinic was quiet and overstaffed given the lack of patients today, I accompanied the community health nurse, Miguel, on his door-to-door clinic promotion and H1N1 prevention chats. Aside from seeing one form of the clinic’s outreach, this gave me the opportunity to walk through a little bit of the town, which is just a 5 minute walk from the clinic. Monte Plata is actually a much bigger town than I had thought. Driving through it last night took just a couple minutes, but looking at a map and walking with Miguel today I realized that it’s actually quite sizable. There are at least three supermarkets, a few banks (including a government one specifically for agricultural loans), and seemingly-empty hotel.
Teresa arrived with a trunkful of groceries toward the end of the lunch hour. I was hoping this visit would clarify what specifically I’m supposed to be working on, but other than learning a little bit about where I’ll physically be–here for another couple weeks, then back to Santo Domingo for a couple weeks, then back here for awhile/TBD–and that she’ll be back with her kids to stay the weekend, I didn’t learn any specifics. Teresa rarely comes out to the Monte Plata clinic, so she spent the afternoon being director-ly (and being her usual excited, highly affectionate self). I spent the afternoon talking with Berkys, which was really fun. She studied for a couple years at a technical college in Wisconsin and her English is really good, so we switched between English and Spanish. I was feeling really apprehensive about being alone here once K & B leave on Friday morning, but after laughing so much with Berkys today and Teresa’s mother hen approach to her role as volunteer supervisor, I already feel better.
Dinnertime adventures
There was a box of lasagna noodles in the cabinet, so K and I decided to try to make lasagna. Without a recipe or ricotta. As it turned out, the oven didn’t work and the internet’s wealth of information was no help in fixing it, so after making the sauce and boiling the noodles, grating/tearing the cheeses we had in the fridge and layering the three, we put the large rectangular pyrex on the metal stovetop griddle and the smaller round one in the microwave. Both turned out excellent. We were very impressed by our Monte Plata Lasagna and look forward to the leftovers.
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