The 3 R's of the DR: Rest, Relaxation, and Rotation
Hello friends!
I want to talk about a once in a lifetime experience that I was fortunate to be a part of. First, let me tell you about the awesomeness that is the Dominican Republic rotation! I can’t tell enough current P1 and P2 students to sign up for this rotation! I can tell you about the resorts, the food, the beaches and the experience but it won’t mean anything until you actually come here and experience for yourself. Not only are you able to interact with international patients in a public health clinic, but you learn so much from the people there. You become part of their lives, you put smiles on the faces of people that haven’t smiled in days, and probably the best part of the rotation: you help many children and families receive treatment for possible life-threatening conditions that they otherwise couldn’t afford.
I can’t tell you how many children we see on a daily basis at the clinic. They don’t know that they are living in a third-world country. They don’t know that they are living in poverty. They don’t know that they may not know when and where their next meal is coming from. They KNOW that candy tastes good and that naps are the best! Being able to speak Spanish is a great luxury, but it definitely isn’t a necessity. However, it has helped me connect with different patients and get to know a little more about their lives. Families ride buses that are up to 2 hours away in order to come to the clinic. 2 HOURS! That’s just a small testament to how important this clinic is to the people of the Dominican Republic, specifically those in the Punta Cana region.
Anwar and I were lucky enough to be here on rotation during the time that the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine was having a medical outreach mission trip. They allowed us to partake in all of their activities and treated us like family. It was truly a great and humbling experience to be able to go to 5 different communities in the area and help the under-served as best we could. There was one specific memory that will stand out to me forever. Because of the lack of translators a couple of the days, I was able to translate and examine a few of the patients with the medical school students. There was this mother who came in with 5 total children. Initially, she had said that all of the kids were hers but as we began to examine some of the children, we realized that she didn’t know much about one of the kids. He was a very happy little boy, about 9 or 10 years old, and spoke Spanish and creole, with some broken English. As we examined his body, we noticed that he had scars on his back, some old and some new. We asked the “mother” where they were from and she remained silent for a few minutes, refusing to answer. As we continued the examination, we noticed she began to cry. When I asked her what was wrong, she said that this boy was actually not one of her children, but actually her neighbor’s child who would constantly be beaten for no apparent reason. She would say that his mother “tiene una enferma en su cabeza”, which roughly translates to she has sickness in her head. It was awful to hear and truly disheartening. This kid, the nicest of the five we examined, had been beaten regularly for what looked like a very long time. We treated him with whatever we could, as we didn’t have many wound-healing resources, bandaged him up and tried to keep him in good spirits, which wasn’t difficult because he was always smiling.
Many things occurred during this trip that put my life into perspective, but working at the clinic, going on the mission trip, and, in particularly, hearing the story of this boy really made me think of how privileged we are and how we take so much for granted. We go into thess communities, “suffer” through hot days and no A/C for a few hours and complain about it, but what happens in the end? We return to our furnished rooms that are ice cold and drink our purified water and talk/message with our smartphones. Then we get on a plane and get back the rest of what some people consider we “sacrificed” to help the citizens here. What do the people of the Dominican Republic do? They also return to their homes, but not with even a fourth of what we have. They return to homes that have no running water, and if the water does work, it’s cloudy and unfit to drink because of all the bacteria it contains. They return to a half straw, half clay home that has a roof that leaks. They return to a home that sometimes has electricity, sometimes doesn’t. This is the reality that they have, and this is why I always tell people this is a once in a lifetime experience. Yes, you are going to see beaches and architecture and have the time of your life, but you are also going to see things that really make you appreciate what you have and count your blessings.
To end on a lighter note…PUT THIS ROTATION AS YOUR NUMBER 1 ELECTIVE! DO IT! I promise you that you won’t regret it and you can thank me later! I’ve learned so much here and I’ve put a lot of local information in the notebook that we keep in the pharmacy at the clinic(it has Vin Diesel on the front, can’t miss it) so please use that info to make your time here as great as mine was.
** DISCLAIMER: The pictures included that show patients are approved for use by the Virginia College of Osteopathic Medicine and can be subsequently found on their website.
