Our visit tp a Dominican hospital

Preface - This happened a week ago, but we figured better late than never!! 

Imagine cascading down 27 waterfalls or jumping 30 feet off a rock into a pool of freezing cold water. Now imagine slipping and dislocating your shoulder in an effort to not crash and fall onto many rocks below. Bianca decided her weekend should consist of a little adventure so went Cascading down 27 Waterfalls with Iguana Mama. With her clumpsy self, she slipped in line waiting to do the “jump” right after the highest jump. In an effort to save her life, she grabbed a slab of rock and dislocated her shoulder. She thought her arm as just sprained from holding all her weight out it and that she just needed a minute to breathe. From the look on all the others’faces she knew something was wrong. With still 5-6 more jumps to go before the end of “nature’s best water park” (which it truly was), she allowed the “bombero” or fireman on the excursion to attempt to “pop” the shoulder back into place. After three painful attempts, they decided to descend as quickly as possible to meet the Dutch physical therapist waiting at the bottom, who was the husband of a woman on the excursion. After sliding and being lowered as gently as possible (and when we say lowered we mean having one guide hold her by her life jacket and hand her to another guide below as she cried), the physical therapist had her lay on a large rock as he tried three times to get the shoulder back into place. Third time was a charm! He massaged to arm as Bianca cried and screamed it pain. All she was thinking about was the 25 minute hike through mini rapids, rocky paths, and hills to the excursion’s entrance. While most individuals were excited for a hearty Dominican lunch, Bianca was ready to go to a hospital.  The physical therapist told her to get an x-ray to ensure she  didn’t have a fracture and instructed her not to take any pain medication just in case she need to be put under anestisia.

 

Because she is a great person and an excellent Dominican Spanish speaker Dani came with Bianca. They first arrived at a pretty sketchy “first aid” station 10 minutes away. The girls felt like there should be a chainsaw somewhere waiting to be used for the next amputation… needless to say it wasn’t very sanitary. Then... on to a bigger hospital in Puerto Plata. By the time she reached the hospital her shoulder bone had moved out of place again due to the not so smooth ride on Dominican streets. Did we mention this was the only time Bianca has entered a hospital in a swimsuit and lifejacket? In extreme pain and on the verge of begging for an amputation to take away the pressure, Bianca didn’t have to wait in the waiting area. Dani filled out basic paperwork while the nurses tried to twice to start an IV but kept “missing”… but fortunately … third time was a charm again. Dani left for Hummingbird to get Bianca’s insurance information and passport, while Bianca was taken to the x-ray room and then transported to the surgical floor in the sketchiest elevator ever! The only thing Bianca muttered while in pain was “I don’t speak Spanish but me duele mi hombro y por favor necesito dormir ahora con anestia.” And for those of you non-spanish speakers… that is the neither grammatically correct and barely makes sense.

 

The next things she knew Bianca woke up in a hospital bed unaware of where she was with a sling on her arm. She looked around for a “call button” (YAH RIGHT?) and then just started to yell “Hola” wait a minute and then yell again. Just when she had given up… in rolled in another patient who hurt herself at Ocean World. A nurse realized Bianca as awake and gave her medication but explained it to be in Spanish… YIKES!  After signing a few legal documents concerning insurance coverage and being told she was in a sling due to hurt ELBOW… which was false… she was wheeled out only to see Sarabeth, Sarah, and Gillian! Here new friends with pitiful faces and then big welcoming smiles. As the attendant wheeled her out to the emergency entrance to be picked up by Catherine (the DREAM director), Sarah asked Bianca what they did to her. She simply responded with, “I have no idea.” Catherine got it all figured out. After meeting Lindsey and Catherine, the girls rode back to Hummingbird and with no feeling in her shoulder, Bianca decided to join the girls for dinner at Onos! BEST burger EVER… maybe it was because it was Bianca’s first and only meal of the day.  Then time for bed!

 

During this time SaraBeth was sleeping/reading/walking on the beach.  As she returned with Lindsey to Hummingbird, Sabrina and Ambrin informed her that Bianca was in the hospital in Puerta Plata.  Um, this put SaraBeth into panic mode.  Lindsey, Sara, SB, and Gillian began a mission to rescue Bianca.  This is one of the few places you can travel where public transportation by bus = sharing a van with 23 people when it was clearly constructed for 11.  After this pleasant 40 minute ride, we finally made it to the Sala de Cirguias (surgery rooms) at the Centro Medico of Puerto Plata. 

 

For those of you who think that this little mishap would put a damper on the last week of our trip… you are sadly mistaken. Sunday included a delicious lunch at Friends followed by a day at the beach. If you have to rest your shoulder… it might as well be on a beach chair and watching crashing waves! J Oh and did we mention we stopped at Iguana Mama to by a souvenir shirt from the excursion. You would think it would be “por gratis” but unfortunately Bianca had to cough up 500 RD pesos to pay for the shirt and prove she was hardcore…

Week Dos

So you may wondering if we are alive… YES we are! The fact of the matter is camp kicks our butt every day, yet somehow we can’t stop talking about the kids or volunteering to stay and help, like for tutoring and such!

 

Lets start out with our first DR church service. We have missed Sunday worship so much and decided to go to church with Papito on Saturday night around 5:30pm.

 

Issue 1: Service was completely in Spanish (except for when the random “in name of Jesus” insertions occurred during the prayer)

 

Issue 2:  If you have not been to a Pentecostal service before… we highly recommend you attend an English service first to fully comprehend what is going on around you. (It is a very dynamic service which could involve a light show and/or dramatic renditions) We truly had no idea what was going on, except when we were suppose to stand up… because they said “Ponte en sus pies.” CHECK… levantense por favor!

 

Issue 3: Always eat before a Pentecostal Service. We had dinner around 10pm at Jose O’Shays after sitting on top of each other in a Guagua like taxi for 80 RD. This occurred after we got lost in Papitos village in the pitch black darkness and all we could hear were voices yelling at us. AND Poor Gillian hurt her knee…. AGAIN!

 

Best part of Church: We were not only the “visitors who stood out like a sore thumb” but the 30 children that attended decided they wanted to sit our laps,  kiss us, play with our hair, or ask us to come home with them.

 

Note to self: If you ever need a confidence boost… come to the DR!

 

Week 2 of Camp: Mondays are so exciting due to KARAOKE Monday at Voy Voy! TO pre-game and in an attempt to drown out Akon’s “Beautiful,” we made an annoying music playlist and blared it! Then on to Karoeke night after a quick stop at the Street Sandwich stand for hot dogs? Sarabeth, Gillian, and Hannah busted out a little “Lady Marmalade” after a little “Tearin’ Up My Heart” by some ISV kids and  Fe Fe’s attempt at __________. (so memorable… we can’t remember it!)

 

Tuesday and Wednesday nights we literally were asleep in bed before 10pm! WOW! Those kids must wear us out!

 

Sarabeth had her first “AHA!” moment this week when she tutored Yobani! They read “en el Mercado” and she came home to make him a fruit salad out of construction paper and then searched for a fruit song. She is now becoming an expert at early childhood literacy... Yobani later told her his favorite fruit is an apple… followed closely by an EGG… and then a carrot!  

 

While SB is busy with lesson plans and in order to no be a “gordita”… Bianca goes running nightly on the beach either before or after dinner. Wednesday night Gillian decided to join and BOY was it an adventure! We tried to run until Gillian’s brace almost literally fell off because it was too big. (or maybe we are just  that hardcore and were sweating so much that it was slipping… RIGHT?) We then went to Bozo… the local liquor store that has AC …for Melon flavored Gatorade. “Once you go Melon you don’t go back” said Gillian. After informing some local 16 year olds that we are not on vacation here and that we would not be attending the “Disco” that evening, we walked down the long dark road to Hummingbird. More like ran and almost killed ourselves as we slipped in the mud trying to hold on to each other for dear live. One… Two… Look…. One … Two…. Look! That’s how you should always walk when you are scared and think you are being followed.

 

Highlight of the week thus far: SB got a standing ovation for demonstrating the electric slide in class.  

Watching a man in the street training a chicken to cock fight has inspired me to write.  I am impressed when I can do figure 8’s with a basketball…try it out with a chicken.  That takes some skill.  Sometimes I have to ask myself….where in the world am I??  Yesterday while walking home there was just a heard of horses chillin’ outside our hotel entrance. 

We truly have no idea where to begin.  First of all, we have never been this tired in our lives.  I come back from camp and just want to lay down, talk to no one, and want to hear no Spanish!  We were so tired after this first week that we both went to sleep at 9 last night.  It was the best way I could think of to start off the weekend which says a lot since I have a love of dancing and that is where the rest of the group went!  Although we are exhausted after week 1, we absolutely LOVE our kids.  Yafresi is one of my favorites along with Jairo.    

We had the “Desfile” (Parade) yesterday.  This is when all of the kids parade down the street with a chant.  We went all the way down the Callejon, down the main road, to the beach.  There the kids played tug of war.  They had so much fun!!  Kids talking smack in Spanish is just great!  If you want to pump kids up in espanol, you will need to know the phrase “Vamos a ganar!” (we are going to win). 

I’m not sure why I never buy Nutella in the US.  It is definitely a staple for us while we’re here.  It is also a great way to change things up.  Lunch = rice, beans, chicken  Dinner = rice, beans, chicken.  Sometimes they change things up with pasta or maybe a salad.  I missed dinner one night and ended up eating Captn Crunch and Nutella…which may be my new favorite meal. 

Every Sunday we can sign up to take a cooking/Spanish class.  This pas week we made Pollo Guisado and several salads.  I have never smashed so much garlic and cut so many tomatoes and cucumbers.  I think my kitchen skills improved more than my Spanish.  I’m determined to learn how to make a Mofongo.  Our teacher said she would give me a private lesson!  This week we are learning how to make Sancocho.  Additionally on Sundays we have surfing lessons.  Bianca is a freaking champ, but I can also officially say that I have stood up while surfing!  Our next lesson is tomorrow, and I am pretty dang excited. 

We have Spanish class every Tuesday.  They always have really fun ways of teaching us.  We learned opposites, commands (VERY important for class), and DR phrases while playing Bingo this week.  Next week we are going to play Jeopardy.  The local volunteers like playing too except they have a huge advantage.  We also made a pact with the volunteers from grassroots soccer that we will only speak Spanish. 

 Voy a regresar a mi cuarto porque hace mucho calor afuerra, pero vamos a escribir mas este noche despues iglesia. (I need to learn how to add accents using this computer, since half of that sentence is actually mispelled!)

  

 

 

What up homes?!

Why exactly do people in the Dominican Republic water the dirt road?  Apparently this is a popular pastime.  As you walk down the street, you can observe the street waterers who sit in lawn chairs and talk to each other.

Yesterday we went hiking.  Yes, I know what you are thinking… “Bianca and SaraBeth went on a nature hike and walked a trail. Cute.”  No…you are wrong.  The trail lasted about 5 minutes of the 2 hour hike.  The first sign that you know your hike is not normal is when the guide shimmies up a mango tree to get you some fruit.  This was no small tree.  From the ground we were unsure of where the top was exactly.  Suddenly it was raining mangos.  Had someone been hit it would have been bad news bears.  They were falling hard as Papone (our guide) shook the tree.  We continued up the hill to find Katy mounting the burro.  This is a burro we randomly stumbled upon in someone’s front yard.  Others during this time turned blossoms from a tree into warpaint.  (You looked good Taylor….the rest of the day and maybe even a little this morning).  I’m sure you have all experienced this in your weekly hikes.  Our adventure course changed quickly.  We found ourselves wandering through the wilderness…no path…following 7 year old Dominican boys running barefoot.  They led us to their personal swimming hole…which happens to be located inside a cave (and you thought you had a sweet set up in your backyard).  As you continue straight up the mountain we reached another cave.  Locals kept telling us Muy Peligroso! (very dangerous), but if Katy was doing it in flip flops and little kids were going barefoot, we were going.  Actually, it took a brief pep talk in combination with the previous two things for SaraBeth to go.  Now imagine an exhilarating rock climbing experience at your local rock wall.  This was nothing like that.  Instead of a harness, the children were helping us up onto the rock in front of us.  Keep in mind that there were numerous places the drop offs were 30-50 feet.

We enjoyed our first ladies night on the beach last night and became experts in the regatone dancing.  Taylor had a life changing experience as she got a nose bleed for the first time ever, and Bianca bought her first pineapple from the pina lady.

What do you do in the DR when you are bored?  Well, that is just a great question.  We really aren’t ever bored, but we do enjoy people watching in the down time at lunch.  The sighting of the day was a father and son enjoying a donkey ride while holding a machete.  Things like this remind you quickly that you are not in the US.  Also at lunch, Gillian and I ended up in the store room of a local store trying to find Oreos.  Apparently we bought a bulk pack because the cashier had no idea how much to charge us!   

Okay – estamos muy cansadas!

Living the Dream Project

SB and B  

COW DOWN! (Beef. It's what's for dinner.)

This sign is what we made to remind ourselves...

Current Playlist: “Goodbye”

Current Kitchen: We bought frozen strawberries today! 

New Spanish Words: ampolla (blister), funcir el ceno (to furrow your brow), almohada (pillow), arena (sand)

There was one incident yesterday we somehow forgot to mention.  Yesterday we attempted to checkout some childhood favorites like Madeline, Curious George, and the random Where Are You Baby Bear from the Dream Center Library.  We were unsuccessful.  Deeply saddened by this experience we began the journey home.  After nearly being hit by a motoconcho, there was a gun shot and boom…Cow down!  Watching this unfold will completely make you side with the Chick-fil-A cows and eat more chicken.  I can fully tell you that there is nothing “up with us and burgerz” now.

Today we had a first.  We braved the shower without our flip flops.  It was quite liberating.  Spanish nights have been unsuccessful; however, we have done at least 2 lessons in Rosetta Stone each night.  Nicco joined SaraBeth in her nightly lesson.  He was impressed by her skills!

Camp was great.  We had 2 workshops (completely in Spanish).  Each of us got to work with our local Dominican volunteer.  I am working with Wilner.  He is so great.  He has only had 2 months of English.  Deciding on curriculum was a little difficult with the language barrier, but we understood each other much better by the time we left this afternoon.  He speaks Creole too.  I learned to say what is your name… “Coma ou wele?”  For those of you who don’t know, the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti.  There is a very strong racial discrimination here between Dominicans and Haitians.  We’ll go much more in depth on that on another day. We also decorated our Cuarto de Musica!! (Music Room) Maddy has some great construction skills!

While SB sat through “maestra” training, B learned some awesome “Break” games and how to read Spanish books to our campers! Hannah and I are so excited to meet our “detectives” tomorrow. We decorated our homeroom with the alphabet which we made from construction paper!  ps… and just in case you forgot… the Spanish alphabet has 30 letters.

If you were concerned that we are not getting our daily exercise… have no fear! We get up and run/walk the beach early in the morning. But guys don’t get the wrong idea.. it’s not like a Baywatch scene. Although, Fe Fe decided to have a brief conversation with SB about “play boy.” Utterly confused, SB chose to respond by saying she has season 5 of the “Girls Next Door” on her computer. Fe Fe’s eyes grew three times and Nico joined the conversation. We think the guys then inferred that Fe Fe was a “play boy.”

While showing Nicco pictures of our Thanksgiving feast and trying to explain that we eat turkey and not chicken,  she kept saying we had pelotas (Spanish for balls).  In this situation Pavo is the correct term.

This one is completely random...But after a stimulating Sham-WOW conversation, I got a marriage proposal from Gillian last night.  However, if anyone has the answer to this, please enlighten us.  It was a topic of debate in our nightly bonding convo.  In the advertisement the Sham wow is said to be super absorbent.  If you were to throw numerous sham wows in the washing machine, wouldn’t they absorb all the water?

Finally…Note to self…If you’re ever doing laundry in the DR, Suavitel, although it looks like detergent, is actually a fabric sofenter.  Your clothes will be soft, but not necessarily clean afterwards.  Jabon (soap) is the word to look for on the bottle.  

                        Xoxo – Dominican Girls    (Taylor….that ones for you)

 

Poco Pelo teaches First Aid

Current Playlist: “Toes” by Zac Brown Band

Current Kitchen contents: Same as yesterday with the addition of a pineapple... that cost less than a dollar!!

Newest Spanish Words: Audifonos (earphones)

How in the world can life not be good when you’re staying at a place this beautiful?  You can’t even count all the kites in the air!  We were a little worried we would be taken out by a windsurfer!  It’s crazy to go to a beach where so many people are doing water sports that there are barely any people just laying out in chairs. As you can tell the wind is spectacular…excellent for sports….horrible for attempting to take a nap on the beach.  You end up covered in sand and now SB’s bed contains a solid portion of the beach’s sand!

First order of business, Marco is definitely not the name of our new Dominican friend.  His name is Wilson.  This morning when we walked out for breakfast Wilson, Freddie, and Nicco were in the middle of a pull up/push up contest right outside our door.  They really enjoy any type of competition.  Nicco is the BEST!  He speaks with us all the time.  He speaks very little English, so we help each other.  He is 19 and will be going to university in the fall.  La Universidad esta en Santiago.  Se gusta los zapatos de Puma que SaraBeth lleva en campamiento.

We are SOOO excited to meet the kids.  They just love you for who you are, crazy wavy hair, no make-up, broken Spanish and all!  On the way back from the beach we met Daniel.  He is 14 and lives in Cabarete.  He will be attending the Dream Camp for the second year.  His favorite part of camp is MUSIC!!!  His favorite resturaunt is Mercedes (not to be confused with the car).  For all you Spanish speakers out there, in the Dominican they do not pronounce “s” in words.  Right now…imagine saying the word sexy without an “s” try it out even.  It’s a whole different experience.   

FYI…the power just went out and the only light we have is my computer since the sun just went down.  Power outages are pretty common.  They happen at least twice a day.  This is in addition to the two times a day the power is turned off for the hotel.  This happens daily 4-6am and 1-3pm.  After 3 days it doesn’t really phase you.  We bought some sweat towels at the supermercado(25 pesos/$0.75), so we are set!

Today was a little tedious.  B sat through a 3-hour session to learn about the Wilderness First Aid.  SB only had a 30-minute version.  We now know terms like MOI Spine/TBI and AVPU, how to stabilize a broken arm with a file folder and t-shirt, and how to assess any accident scene.  All this impressive knowledge may make you think we are experts; however, I would not trust us to save you if we did happen to meander out in the wilderness one day.

Other news from the day… We talked about security and safety today.  Of particular interest was the S.P. conversation.  This stands for Sanky Panky.  Apparently these are Dominican men who flirt with foreign women in the hopes of receiving meals, money, having money sent to them once the women leave, etc.  That is definitely good news for all you single guys out there… you can rest assured knowing that we will not be picking up any Dominican men while we’re here. 

Another fact is that you are not allowed to flush toilet paper down the toilet.  Believe me, this is a hard habit to break.  We have made several notes to remind ourselves about this!  But no worries we haven’t caused any plumbing problems…yet…

Living the Dream (Project)

            SB and B 

Note: We feel like we should have prefaced our blog with the fact that although it is a little sarcastic at times, it is because we usually are writing when we are 1. Hyper 2. Delirious 3. Laughing too hard to focus.  This is a completely humbling and life changing experience that (as of now) we would strongly recommend.

24 hours later...

Our Room!

Current Playlist: “Pretty Boy”  Danity Kane and "I Gotta Feeling" Black-Eyed Peas

Current Kitchen Contents: Nutella, Crackers, Gatorade

Newest Vocab: Tazones (bowls), llaves (keys), Pasto (pasture/grass)

 

Bienvenidos a las vidas de B y SB!!  As the title states, this is the story of our first 24 hours of our livin’ la vida loca in the Republica Dominicana (RD…DR…depending on your language preference).  I’m sure you are wondering what in the world we have been doing, and you guessed it, we are going to tell you.  

Our journey all began on a cloudy Miami day when SB and B met at E8 of Miami International.  It is a good thing I got there, because B had spent 3 hours of her layover sitting at gate E5 heading to Tegucigalpa, Honduras (ask us about the song when we get back).  The airport was great, boarding was normal, but it’s never a good thing when

1.     1. Your pilot comes on and says due to weather you will be waiting on the runway for at least 30 minutes and it will probably be a bumpy ride when we take off.

2.     2. When it is so bumpy that SaraBeth has a near panic attack and Bianca is suddenly upgraded to Business Class to calm her down. 

However, the good news is we made it as did our luggage!

We have a very eclectic group of volunteers.  For starters, the majority of the volunteers here are from BYU or the Northeast.  We are daily learning more and more about the Mormon faith.  We have Aneka who is from Germany and 2 years ago moved to Billings, MT.  Freddie aka Fe Fe (pronounced Feh Feh), Nicco, and Marco (unable to pronounce his actual name) who are all from the Dominican and speak un poco ingles … meaning they can say “yes,” “how are you?” and “Oh my gosh.”  Gillian was born in Scotland and moved to the US when she was 5.  The list goes on….

If you’re worried about our safety and wellbeing in the DR, you don’t need to be.  We have very strict rules.  No alcohol at The Hummingbird (our hotel), no motorcycle taxis, and we must stay in pairs.  We do talk to strangers though.  They highly encourage us to get to know the local people.  We also have a watch dog here at the Hummingbird.  Her name is Princessa.  She does a lot of sleeping, has fleas, and barks at any and everything that walks by the hotel.  She is no special breed, just a mutt who we are growing to love more and more even with her 4 am howling. 

 

Other Brilliant Ideas/Thoughts

1.    1. Spanish Nights – Bianca and I will only converse in Spanish.  Mas o menos.

2.    2.  Facebook video post  (pending internet situation) – be watching for them

3.    3. Spanish Movie nights – Such as Transformers 2 … yeah that’s right they have it here in the DR.  We could have bought the pirated version tonight as we ate our ice cream. 

4.     4. Spanish words of the day – We post new words we learn on the door.

5.     5. START A BLOG!!!  - SB randomly created this sight so now we have to post

6.     6. Find Supermercado de Janet before we leave

Living the Dream (Project) 

SB and B

P.S. – We skype, facebook message, iChat… all as we carry our computers across the pool area.  If you do happen to reach us, we will have some great conversations!  There is a strong possibility we will be investing in local business in the form of the internet café this weekend.  And Brian Hey!  Yes, the pool was refreshing!

Coming Soon… Local Dishes, Beach Ratings, Local Nightlife, Survival Guide, and we will actually throw in some life changing moments!  Caution …. Spanish will be implemented the longer we are here.