San Juan de la Maguana

   We drove early this morning through the island into San Juan.  We took mostly main roads and went through little towns where a lot of people were out and about.  Some school buildings had crowds of citizens  surrounding awaiting to vote in their presidential election.  The mountains were a nice view along the ride....

We arrived at the guest house which is connected directly to the Clinica Christiana.  We were told almost 80% of surgeries that take place in the Dominican Republic are done here.  (Chistiana Clinic of Integral Health)

We got our room assignments and ate a fantastic breakfast. All the food has been really good so far actually.   The guest house hosts do a nice job! The group started out with an orientation and review of house rules (ie: you can not flush any paper down the toilets and not to feed the dogs human scraps). There are two guest house dogs here that belong to the hosts and the directors from the US.  Other dogs in the city and villages are not pets to anyone, just roaming wild dogs.
   Our first duty was to start sorting back through all the luggage and organize medication from supplies and donations.  The engineer group did their supplies and made kits for their teacher workshops.  All the medical people sorted pills into 30 day supply bags with labels.  Every patient we see will get at least a 30 day supply of vitamins, adults and children, along with any other prescribed medication if needed.  We were able to bring with us thousands and thousands of tabs that needed sorting.  There were hundreds of bags made with toothpaste and toothbrushes to pass out as well.

 
Throughout the week we will set up clinics at different barrios (similar to a village or city) each day.  Some are the poorest within the country.  We have certain supplies and medication that we stock and bring with us  to each of the clinics.  The nurses organized a triage bag.  The pharmacy at Clinica Christiana looks like this...

   Once all the organizing was completed for the day we were able to walk into the city and through different villages.  It is hard to even put into words what you observe.  There is a lot of trash laying around and people drive wild on the roads and through the villages.  There are random cows tied to trees along as you walk.  We took small stickers along with us as we were walking to pass out to any kids we saw.  As some of us started walking towards a village a little girl screams "Americana"!  You get greeted like celebrities down here!  My Spanish skills are getting refreshed too! The smallest thing like a sticker lightens these kids eyes.  Many would follow along with our group as we kept walking.  Here are a few views from San Juan village life in the Dominican.

The kids loved getting their picture taken too!
There is a big day ahead tomorrow and sounds extremely busy! It is hot and humid here similar to how it sounds back in Ohio!  Stay cool and to all have a great week!

Elizabeth