Goats & Sweets

We had the opportunity to experience life on the ranch a few weekends back. Along with Icidro and Minin, the two men who work Diego & Rita's land, we fed a herd of sheep their de-worming (anti-worming?) medicine. Here's Icidro, a cute little guy who wears his jeans cinched up tight and knee high galoshes, daily.

Chocolate, a male goat, who was sold (and turned into dinner) after fertilizing the females this year. He was kind of scary, anyway.

Micah and Minin wrastle the goat's mouth open.

Here's a better picture of Icidro. He also wears his machete every day.

We earned some sweet treats after all the hard work on the ranch, so Minin made us his special delicacy, leche de coco.

Shredded (dry) coconut, milk, sugar, and cinnamon...boiled into a sticky, gooey perfection. Here we are stirring and observing.

This is Minin--he's super proud of his sweet. Because, it's really really good.
A close up--all ready to eat!
But before we got dessert, Rita helped us make arepas for dinner. Arepas are a white corn-flour dough filled with yummy things (ours had spinach, or sausage).
Working on the ranch made us hungry, so we devoured this dinner and didn't get any pictures of the done-deals. Whoops!

Hike to La Loma

This past weekend, the boys club had some visitors. One of Diego's friends from Nebraska brought his two grandkids to visit, Collin and Caleb. The boys club had planned a hike up one of the local mountains, and invited the two Nebraskans along. But before the hike, the boys played in a baseball tournament (what would a weekend be without baseball!). They played two teams from the local towns, and narrowly lost both games. Here is Arenoso (the town where the boys club is) playing against Pedro García.

Waiting in anticipation for their chance to play, some boys from Tinajita.

As you can see, we weren't the only species enjoying baseball on a sunny Saturday morning!

After the games were over, we gathered for a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (yum!) and got ready to hike. We were excited!

We hiked right by Franchi's (below, in the middle) house, which was about a half of a mile from the road up a steep incline and across a pasture. No wonder he has so much energy, walking that every day!

Our first stop was at a rancho. It's basically a tin roof and a cement floor built in the countryside for people passing through or seasonal workers.

The boys found a dominos table and couldn't resist...

They also found a roosting hen...

...who was very busy!

We horsed around for a while, climbing trees and playing games, then it was up, up and away!

We reached the top of La Loma (The Hill), and it gave us a beautiful 360 degree view of the surrounding countryside. The town of Arenoso was back to the east, while we could see the mountains sloping down to the ocean in the north. To the south and west it was more mountains.

I've been trying to teach the boys some orienteering, and here is a confused Luís Diego spinning in circles with his compass.

On our way back down we sampled all the local fruits we could find. We had guayaba (guava), chinola (passion fruit), and naranja (orange). Here's Franchi chomping into a guayaba.

At a different rancho on the way down, we found an altar set up for the local saint. The boys loved taking pictures of it, and made sure they got a few pictures with Rebekah and I!

We made it back, unscathed, after a beautiful hike into the mountains. It was a great way to let the boys loose to work off some of that energy! I have a feeling we'll be back up there again soon.

Community Works

Last week the Girls' Club sponsored a charla (community meeting or chat). The doctor and nurse from the clinic gave talks, and the girls made a surprise for the neediest women in the community--a "shop" where they each were fitted for and received a new bra. It was a lot of fun and we celebrated our success with a little party--which was also fun!

*Unfortunately we were missing a few for the party! The younger girls had school...ah, shucks!

Parillada

My favorite "restaurant" in our neighborhood is the local parillada, or barbecue. These guys show up at the park on Avenue Texas at about dusk with their grill and coolers full of food. They light their mobile grill and start serving up delicious grilled kasava bread and spicy wings. Here is a view of the action.

Some competing street food venders have tried to move in (Monumental Empanadas), but they can't hold a candle to the kabob!

We sit at plastic chairs and tables and enjoy our dinner under the stars. Before our food arrives we can usually get in a game of dominos or cribbage. Notice the huge pile of delicious pinchos (kabobs) as the chef poses for a picture.

Safety First

We had our first sighting of a seatbelt in use in the DR!...
...and we were so thankful that this Presidente (local beer) box made its way safely down the mountain. Whew--you can see Micah's fingers clutching the seat in front of him. It's a necessity on these roads.

Today was a great day at the clininc in the mountains. We had two students from UMass medical school come with us to check things out. Rebe had her preschool and all went well; Micah worked in the clinic. This afternoon the Girls Club threw a little fiesta to celebrate the good work they've done for the community--and Jess, please tell Joanie that her cherry chocolate cake received rave reviews from the Dominican crowd. She's now an international phenomemon! We'll be back in some photos soon!

Internal Medicine Congresso

Last weekend, Rebekah and I were able to go to the national Internal Medicine Conference in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. Three doctors from Brown (Joseph Diaz, Mark Fagan, and Douglass Shemin) gave talks. Drs. Joe Diaz and Mark Fagan direct the Brown-Dominican Republic exchange program, and it was good to spend some time with them here in the DR. It was held at the Grand Oasis Hotel, an all-inclusive resort on the north coast.

Here are the doctors from Brown after giving their conferences. Their conferences were translated in real-time by a medical student. They said this made it hard for them to interact with the audience, because they were listening to the translation on headphones!

I also got to see some interesting talks given by other international doctors. This included a talk by a Cuban doctor talking about protocols they use for medical assistance. It is a very rigid, idealistic system; it's hard to know if this type of a system could ever work. As you can imagine, this talk was given from a perspective that we aren't exposed to much in U.S. medical schools!

Things weren't all business; we spent plenty of time in the enormous pool.

The beach wasn't too bad either...

Rebekah and I also went snorkeling, kayaking, and sailing. I tried wind-surfing with Edward, and here is a video look at our attempt.

It was nice to be pampered at the all-inclusive resort and experience what is a huge part of Dominican economy. We are very glad, however, that we're able to experience all else that the Dominican Republic has to offer. You honestly don't get to see much of Dominican life if you stay inside of the hotel gates!