Dominican Republic (days 1-3)

When we first arrived on Monday, June 12 around 7 pm we got a short orientation and then went to our room to await the rest of the group that was coming from James Madison University. Eveyone else in my room woke up when the two other girls that joined our room came in. But i was sound asleep!

the next day consisted of sitting in plastic chairs listening to Nate and Kevin talk about what we'd be doing, what to expect each day, and the dominican culture. The major differences in culture are the ways they express themselves. If they dont understand something, they scrunch their nose at you; if you walk into or out of a room you greet each person by touching cheeks and kissing the air; and they dont point with their fingers, they use their lips to point. The most surprising part was when they said that dominican men see american women as easy and to expect them to whistle, make comments, and look at us in that manner. That definitely happened too, and sometimes it was a little scary.

Around 2 o'clock that day, we had orientation with our ministry sites. We went to the clinic to meet Alba and she told us what to expect each day, taught us how to take blood pressure, and then we talked and prayed the rest of the time.

That night two of the dominican women from the education site taught everyone how to merengue. My partner could use some practice:)

The third day was our first day actually in the ministry site doing missions work. I was really excited and and little scared about my responsibilities. Alba chose me to help her with the patients first (she thought i knew a lot of spanish..ha!) I actually understood a lot more than i thought i would. It was a little overwhelming at first, but after only 2 hours i could figure out what disease the patient had just by the combination of medicines that Alba gave them. It was really fun feeling like a doctor. All the patients saw us as doctors so they would talk to us instead of Alba because there, if they get an american doctor, they think they will get better treatment. So it felt cool when adults would come up to me as i was playing with the kids and start talking to me about their symptoms and where they had pain and ask me what to do and all this stuff...then i felt really stupid when all i could say was "Uhhh, no sé. Necesitas esperar por la doctora." (Uhhh i dont know. You need to wait for the doctor). After my first day, i couldnt wait to go back!

days 4&5 next!