Reflections- Jess Jordan

HOLA!

After reading Neil and Prema's posts, I think it would be really cool to keep the blog going for a bit even though the trip is over! Today, so many people asked me how the DR was. The only word I could use to describe the trip was "amazing" or "fantastic." Whenever I tried to go into details, I felt that I couldn't find the words to make other people understand how life changing the trip was. Finally, I would end up saying something like "You really have to go there yourself" or "I don't even know how to explain it!" I think this trip was so life changing for me because I learned so much about the Dominican culture, and I also learned a lot about myself. Over the week, I found that I surprised myself by stepping out of my comfort zone and trying new things; whether it was trying different foods, or using the outhouse bathrooms in the bateys. I noticed that everyone else on the trip did this as well, and I think this is what made us able to bond so easily. We were all stepping out of our comfort zones, and we were all there to catch each other and support each other if we needed help! We are so lucky that Moses Brown provides us with opportunities such as the DR trip where we can expand our horizons and try new things, because these are the experiences that truly help us to grow as people.

When we landed in Boston, Senora Baez said, "I leave bits and pieces of my heart in the Dominican every time I travel there." I can relate to this statement, I feel as though I left a piece of me at every batey we went to, and at the orphanage we visited. I look forward to returning to the DR soon to collect these pieces and to experience last week all over again.

Thank you all for the amazing week! Adios amigos.

-Jess Jordan

Reflecting

Today in English class we had to write a journal entry on a topic of our choosing and all I could think as a topic was the DR Service Trip and the priceless memories I made last week. It is amazing how much I have learned during this trip. From the medical terminology (like BID, Q6, etc), to what medications treat what, to how to say "orange juice" in spanish, to learning how others around the world live, I feel like I learned the most I could have in one week. What I have learned in the DR in a week is completely different from what I learn at school in a week. What I learn in school I will probably forget within a year (don't tell my parents this), but what I have learned in La Republica Dominican will stay with me forever.

I feels so weird to be home. I wish I was back in La Romana having fun in the sun, helping out in the Bateys and talking to the group and our amazing translators. I will take any opportunity to get back to the DR if I could, I miss it so much.

-Prema RG
(i wasnt sure how to get on my own account sorry)

The Day After

Although I didn't get the opportunity to write on the blog during the trip, I was able to seriously reflect on our journey yesterday while on the bus ride to Santo Domingo and the airplane to Boston. Of course, it was sad to be going back home, but I realized that the experiences that I had on this trip will always be with me wherever I may venture to in my life. My experiences last year with Dr. Bliss, Bladimier, Jen, Amy, and our entire team made me understand a true human bond that rests beyond money and status. The stories of the batey workers and the heart-breaking problems that they encounter, such as little access to health care, helped me to see helping people as an art form as opposed to "work." This year, my experiences with the patients and the children of the batey's has truly inspired me to study medicine and continue community and international service work for the rest of my life.
In particular, the conversation I had with Jen and Ms. Baez on Friday night about the significance of service in our changing world made me realize that a cure for global poverty may never turn up, but we can always help. Ms. Baez said it best when she read, "vine ayudar." (I came to help)... As a team this year, "vinimos ayudar" (we all came to help.)
Each member's motivation to help those in need on this trip helped to motivate me as well. Our trip would not have been as successful as it was if we had lost even one member of this group. We were truly a family for this week, and I hope that we can stay a family even though we will be starting school tomorrow.
Moises, Christy, Jake, Jesse, Molly, and the translators are all extraordinary individuals who shared their tireless determination to help those in need with our group this year. I look forward to hopefully coming back in the summer to work with members of the Good Samaritan Hospital.

I will always cherish the best week of my youth.

Best,
Neil Desai

ADIOS AMIGOS - Sarah and Rachel

Currently Rachel and I (Sarah) are sitting in a little French cafe called Trigo de Oro for our last breakfast on this amazing trip.  All of us are gathered around two small tables awaiting the arrival of our chocolate croissants and cinimon buns which have been our favorites this trip.  As we sit together passing around cameras and remembering all the great times we've had so far I think about what we are going to do next.  The eleven of us just spent a week doing everything we could to help the people in the bateys, but I know we also were helping ourselves.  By the end of this week we have grown so close and we have learned so much together.  I've heard various people throughout this week talk about how happy they feel here, how the DR is helping them to relax and have fun, and other things like that.  I completely agree with them; I think that being here, in a place where everyone is so friendly and caring, leads us to look at our own lives in a little bit of a different way.  The problems we face are nothing at all compared to what these people go through, and yet we complain all the time while the people in the bateys didn't complain much at all about anything.  It was really eye opening for me and I'm so glad I got to help. 
      Last night, while a band sang and danced, the group and I (rachel) tripped over ourselves learning some Dominican dances from the translators, Dominique, and Ms. Baez. After laughing at our great talent for dancing, we all jumped into the pool together, one last time before we would leave. It was a night of "last times" for a few of us and though we were heart broken because we knew we couldn't go on this amazing trip again next year, while we sat around the dinner table and reflected upon our favorite moments, we realized it didn't have to be the end. Some pledged to come back this summer to help out at the hospital, while others promised to follow in Molly's foot steps and continue to help throughout their lives. As Kristy said, this experience doesn't end here. We will take everything we learned from eachother, Molly, Jake, Jesse, Kyle, Danny, Ms. Leahy, Ms.Baez, Kristy as well as Bladamir and the other translators and bring it home with us. The passion that they have inspired in us, whether it was for medicine, service, or just being the best you can be, will continue to profoundly affect our lives after we leave this wonderful place and hopefully we will be able to pass on this passion to others too. This has been the most amazing experience I have ever had, and I am so happy that I was able to help lead the group with Neil this year. The group and I appreciate this great opportunity that we have been given by Molly and I know that we will all use what we have learned for the better and continue to help in some way like Molly has.
Thank you everyone!
Rachel

Vinimos a Ayudar

Throughout the week we have been visited several bateys and gone through an exorbitant amount of patients all of whom were sick and had problems. However none of them came close to being as severe as one man we helped today. One man in his 70's came to us and sat down with relatively few problems checked off on his patient card. It soon became apparent that his problems were much worse when we saw that his fingers had been amputated due to a fire and were all shortened. From here it only became worse when he told us that he was a diabetic and that we noticed he had an injury on his leg. Molly immediately showed her brother, Jake, an orthopedic surgeon. Our translator, Bladimir could not stand the smell and had to leave. Luckily we were outside, due to a swarm of wasps in the school, so the odor dispersed rather quickly. Jake, Molly and Jesse, then began to treat the wound. Jesse and Molly removed maggots from under his skin while Jake poured antiseptics and peroxide over his leg.
****WARNING:  The picture of the leg was posted yesterday but we will move it to the comment section since it is VERY difficult to look at.  Please go to comment section if you would like to see photo-you've been warned.

This experience compares greatly with what Ms. Baez read and related to last night. She read an excerpt from "Women Writing Resistance" and in the book there was a quote that said "Vine a Ayudar..."I came to help". All of the doctors and students put feelings and anxiousness aside and accepted that we came to help and this man needed our help. This was a microcosm of our purpose; it was to come to the D.R. and help the people living here, regardless of the conditions.

We are here to help.

- Mack and Nick

March 23, 2011- HELLO FROM ABBY AND KAYLA!!

Hello everybody! Hola! Todo esta bien aqui!!

We've had some amazing, super fun days so far, but today has been one of the best. We woke up early at 6:15, ate another delicious breakfast (we love the yogurt), packed the bus, and headed out to another batey. When we arrived, we were greeted by many smiles, waves, and happy faces! I (Kayla) worked in the pharmacy today, which was crazy! There were so many perscriptions to fill and we had limited space to work in. Even though it was hectic, we worked through it. Yesterday, I worked taking blood pressure and the day before that I was a scribe for Molly, which was so interesting!
And I (Abby)got to scribe for Luis, a Dominican doctor. I have to admit, I wasn't too excited to scribe because I didn't think I had any interest in the medical field, but was so surprised at how interesting the consults were! On a side note, for only being here for a couple of days, I have grown so much as a Spanish speaker! I'm finally able to say more than "Entiendo nada!" to the kids, and it's just an amazing feeling.

(Its Kayla again) I am loving my time here! Everyone is so amazing and I am just so happy. We are having a great time helping everyone at the bateys as well as bonding as a group after our work at the bateys. Today we went to the beach after working at a batey in the morning. It was absolutely beautiful and we had an amazing time playing soccer, volleyball, swimming, and riding on the banana boat!!! I can't even begin to describe how amazing this experience has been for me. I have never felt so much joy, seeing how happy we are making these people, and knowing that we are making an impact on their lives. I also love speaking to the kids and adults and working on my Spanish! Looking forward to another great day tomorrow! Miss you all! xo
-Kayla

(Abby here) The beach was super!! My favorite part was the banana boat, it was lots of fun, everyone was screaming and trying to tip over the boat, just a great time. The sunset was beautiful, a firey red with a tint of hot pink surrounding by beautiful clouds (I hope you enjoyed my description). We took great pictures today, including one of all of us jumping in the air in front of the sunset. We're very creative! I'm having the experience of a lifetime, and knowing and witnessing how impacting our service is to these people is heartwarming. I can't stress enough how inspired I am from everything I've experience thus far. Looking forward to helping out more, meeting new people, and, of course, working on my Spanish!
Miss you all!! See you soon!
-Abby

Batey 35

Today, we went to Batey 35. This Batey was a poorer Batey given that there was no wifi or satellite dishes. Fortunately, due to this, they were much more grateful for what they received and the kids were surprisingly polite given their circumstances. During the deworming, the children were not only coming one at a time, but sometimes we actually had to tell someone to come to the table because they were waiting about 10 feet away. Only when one of the oldest classes came out did it start to get a little hectic. They started to swarm the table and argue who was earlier in the line. Also, they were the ones acting the youngest because they were trying many different methods to steal extra pencils and pens. Even as I am writing this, it makes me sad to say that they were trying anything to steal pens and pencils! We take these luxuries so much for granted and just expect them wherever we go. If we need to remember something quick by writing something down, we simply just look around or dig in our couch for a pencil or pen. If we lose a pen or pencil, no big deal. But here, these could be an important possession that they savor for as long as they can last. The children at the Bateys are probably the most moving people for me because they always want to be with you, they are always smiling, and they spend the most time to try to understand you and get their point across to you. It is so hard to say no to these kids simply because of how rewarding it is and how happy it makes you, as a person, bringing a smile on their face by giving them a toy car, a wiffle ball, or a jump rope. Also, they are so ecstatic seeing their own faces on the camera screen when we take pictures of them. These kids' smiles are the biggest I have seen, truly from ear to ear, and I am simply just so amazed of how happy these kids can be in their situation that it inspires me to just live life a happier person and spread the smile.

Chris Poggi

Photos From Tuesday

Dominican Republic March 22, 2011 From Jess

Hola!

Today was a fun filled day! After a delicious breakfast at Trigo de Oro, we started at a batey around 10 am, where we all did various tasks. I handed out deworming medications to the children in the batey and rewarded them with pencils for taking the dosages. Their smiles were heartwarming! After I finished handing out medications and pencils with Chris, we collected all the children and played soccer, baseball, and jump rope in the large field in the batey. The children loved playing soccer with us and their favorite part was “high-fiving” us when they scored a goal. In addition, they loved taking pictures with our cameras and throwing balls back and forth. We left the batey around 4 pm and traveled to the Good Samaritan Hospital for a tour. The hospital was filled with donated items and various groups had painted the walls with beautiful paintings and Haitian proverbs. After the hospital, we visited an orphanage nearby. The orphanage was incredible! As soon as we walked in, girls grabbed our hands and excitedly showed us their basketball court and picnic tables. The children were so happy we were there! One girl, Hannah, wrote me a letter and wrote her email address so that I could contact her once I returned to the states. Most of the other Moses Brown Students had a similar experience! We all loved the orphanage. Unfortunately, we had to leave the orphanage and then we all went out to dinner where we had the best hamburgers, cubanos and orange juice ever. Some people were brave enough to try the prune juice, but that wasn’t really my taste.  After dinner we enjoyed Dominican ice cream- Helados Bon-  and reflected on our favorite parts of the day.

My Spanish is improving so much, as well! This is an amazing experience.

-Jess Jordan

Photos from Monday

Hi all,
Here are some photos of our first day in the Batey, complete with Birthday Celebrations! The photos are in reverse order, so start at the bottom of the post.

Everyone is doing an amazing job. Yamil and I have been very impressed. I'll post photos from today later.

Jen

First Days at the Bateys

Today we woke up nice and early (6:15) to get a breakfast at 7 at the hotel. We ate, organized and loaded all the bags onto the bus, and were headed off to the batey at around 8:15. Once there, we set up in one of the bateys' churches and got to work. Mac and Abby were in charge of giving the de-worming medicine out to the children, Sarah, Prema and Kayla were scribing for the doctors, Neil, Nick and myself (Dominique), were working in the pharmacy, Chris was in charge of glasses and Rachel and Jess were in charge of taking blood pressure. This being the second time I've been on this trip, I've got to say this day ran a lot more smoothly than last year's first day. The pharmacy was organized and we all worked well together and helped each other out to fill prescriptions. Things were pretty busy the first half before lunch in the pharmacy, Nick, Neil and I were running around with Jesse and Danny ( two volunteers that came with Molly's group) filling as many prescriptions as fast as we could. As the day went on we learned all the different meanings of the doctors' scripts (like QD means daily, TID means three times a day, etc.). Eventually we made a cheat sheet for how to label medicines with the instructions in Spanish for the patients to read them and know how to properly take their medicine. After our lunch break, the pharmacy slowed down a bit and I was able to play with the kids along with Abby and Mac outside, which was really fun. We played catch outside behind another church near the church we were set up in. The kids insisted on taking a lot of photos with us, and they were all more than happy to pose for our cameras. Many photos and hugs later, I headed back to the pharmacy where things had picked up a bit. We ended the day at around 3, and after packing things up onto the bus, took a walk around the batey. Little did I know though, that while we were out walking, Moises, the Hospital director, was organizing the batey in the church and decorating it with birthday decorations to celebrate Jake (Molly's brother), Christy (doctor volunteering with us) and my own birthday. They had cake, clowns and balloons, and sang happy birthday to us when we walked through the door back from our walk. Christy, Jake and I had a dance off, following the lead of the clowns who were funny and entertaining. After a lot of singing and cake, we packed up for good and left the batey to come back to our hotel. Some of us showered, while me and a couple other people took a dip in the pool to cool off. After the pool, we got dressed, had dinner at the hotel, which was really delicious beef, pork and rice, with a sort of avocado salad and bread. Directly after dinner we allot back on the bus and went to Jumbo, where we a lot of us bought balls to give out to the bateys, and other things; I bought a shirt for my younger brother and other little things. Now we just got back from jumbo, and while some people are in their rooms relaxing from the long day, others are playing cards and enjoying the cool night time weather. We are all really excited to go help more people tomorrow in the batey, visit the orphanage and go out to breakfast at Trigo de Oro, a delicious french styled cafe in town. I want to end the post with something we do during dinner each night; rose, bud and thorn. Rose is something good that happened today, thorn is something bad and bud is something that you are looking forward to. I had two roses today; first is how much I enjoyed spending my birthday in La Romana, and second is how much of the Dominican history I learned from talking with the Bladimir, one of our translators, and Yamil. My thorn was how hard it was to deny people things that we couldn't give them without causing problems; for example, giving sunglasses out caused a lot of trouble and we had to stop giving them out, unfortunately inhibiting people who really did need them from getting them. My bud is going out to breakfast tomorrow and just helping more people out in the different bateys this whole week.

In The DR Photos!

Hi All,
It's bee a bit busy, but here are some photos. Wer're here!

Airport Photos

¡Ya llegamos!----We've arrived!

¡Hola! This is Ms. Baez writing.  It is close to 10 here in La Romana and we are all almost ready for bed to rest up for an early start to our first day tomorrow.  Things went smoothly today and we are very happy to be here.  Tomorrow we hope to share more with you all but please know that your support is very much appreciated.  So.....sorry for the short note but vamos a dormir ahora (we are going to sleep now)  

:-)

¡Gracias y hasta pronto!

Adventures in Bowling

Picture it. East Providence Lanes early afternoon on a Sunday. Among small children with their parents, and semi-professional bowlers, a group of students (with two adult chaperones), in some brightely colored bowling shoes, occupied two lanes. Challenges are made, names inputed into a sophisticated computer system, and balls chosen. This, my friends, was the DR bowling trip.

We quickly divided into two teams: The team which wanted bumpers (Let's call them Team 1: Jess, Rachel, Sarah, Kayla), and the team that did not (Let's call them Team 2: Ms Baez, Jen, Chirs, Kayla) , with Kayla playing for both. Somehow no bumpers were raised, and both teams had to watch out for the gutter. Chris talked up his bowling skills, and so a challenge broke out between Chris, Kayla and Jen. Who would be the victor? Only time could tell.

We started bowling, and quite quickly, had to have a service person over. Somehow Jess had managed to get her ball stuck in the gutter. The game was paused as the ball was retrieved, and more bowling ensued.

I must admit, we had some unique bowling strategies. There was the "chuck it down the alley" method, the "in between your legs" method, the "try to spin it" method, the "backwards" method, the "I don't know how I do it but I get a strike every time" Kayla method, and the "I don't know if I'm a righty or a lefty so I'll do both" Sarah method. There was a two year old next to us that had quite the success with the "sit on the floor and push the ball with two year old might" method (she had multiple strikes in a row) that we also tried with no success. You can't say we weren't creative.

As for the challenge between Chris, Kayla and Jen? Well, Kayla creamed us all with an array of stikes. So it was a nail biting finish to second place. It all came down to the last frame. Jen managed to get a strike, pulling her to the lead with 102. Christ stepped up. Nervous and Ibelieve sweating with anxiety. First ball: no strike. Second ball: A SPARE!?!? It was a photo finish, but Chris came in second with 105 to Jen's 103. Oh and Ms Baez had a strike in there somewhere too.