Mobile Health Unfortunately, I put this project on hold in July to be able to do the other projects. I revised the surveys to fix some of the wording, but was not collecting data or investigating the logistics of implementing an SMS-based mHealth program. I returned to my project last week (7/30), beginning with talking …
Though we had originally planned to go visit Project Heart for the weekend, Jillian wanted to do something more fun for her and Derek’s last weekend in the Dominican Republic. She and I both looked into where we could go for a day trip adventure, but mostly came up empty-handed. I really wanted to go …
For the past few weeks, my project has been on hold. Jillian, Derek and I took on the task of cleaning out and reorganizing the storeroom, which is very large and was filled with boxes of Stuff. There was a method to the madness, but there were many boxes of donated personal hygiene items, supplies, …
Monday I spent most of the day observing the nursing area with Jillian. During a time when there were no patients, I had a really uncomfortable talk with one of the nurses, Altagracia, about religion and creationism/evolution. She went through disbelief (Her Spanish isn’t perfect, maybe she didn’t understand the question) then shock (How could …
Company! J & D, graduate-level pharmacy students from a college in Virginia, arrived Wednesday afternoon. They’ll be volunteering here for a month, and two of their classmates will arrive when they leave. It’s great to have company in the house, and I’ve enjoyed being able to show them around the clinic and town and explaining …
An ongoing list of Dominicanisms I encounter this summer. Lots are Anglicisms, some are of Arawak/Taino origin. Not included (but equally interesting) are the boatloads of calques–expressions like “llamar para atras” or “estar hasta el cuello”–that show the strong influence of English in Dominican Spanish. una banca – a place to buy lotto tickets/place bets …
Hello again, world! I’ve been neglecting my blogging duties this week. Things have finally picked up on the work end. One morning, I went door-to-door with a couple of the high school volunteers (who were assigned to the clinic for community service hours), and got to see a bit more of the town. In the …
On Saturday, I took advantage of the chance to sleep in and didn’t even bother setting an alarm. When I finally got up, showered and dressed, I put my clothes in the washer and went to make some food. After dicing the tomato and pepper, I saw a spider. My shoes were all in my …
Thursday was mostly uneventful. I didn’t feel well utilized at all, though there were a fair number of patients. In the afternoon, I joined K & B with the pediatrician. I couldn’t help much, but it was good to see how the visits go. A key difference between here and clinics in the US is …
I’m starting to really regret not following through on my initial plan to wear my rain boots on the plane. It would’ve been a less comfortable flight, but after five straight rainy afternoons I miss them dearly. And all of you, of course. But the boots would be especially helpful. Today was was almost painfully …
