I’m alive, and
I’m well. Well, sort of well. My wisdom teeth are fine, but the stitches are
starting to come out of my gums. (It’s pretty attractive.) It’s like I have two
mosquito bites in the inside of my mouth. I’m also coming down with a head
cold, probably due to a combination of the pollution and the stress of
traveling and not sleeping in my own bed and the chain smokers in the hotel
that we’re staying at. Breathing is becoming way more of a challenge than it
should be.
But those, when
all things are said and done, are minor complaints. As I’ve mentioned numerous
times before, I’m here with Health Horizons International (HHI). This is my
second trip to the DR, and I’m working in the same community that I worked in
last year called Pancho Mateo. Last January, our group from Tufts conducted a
comprehensive health survey and found that the major public health issues
identified by the community were related to sanitation and access to
uncontaminated water. It’s been amazing to go back to Pancho and see the same
buildings and the same people. What’s even better is being welcomed into the
community once again.
One familiar
face belongs to a community health worker for HHI, and our group really
connected with him last year. He’s our age (and he’s so totally my Facebook
friend). When we walked into Pancho for the first time on Sunday, he was so
excited to talk about the project that he and his buddies started working on in
November. They formed a working group to address those same
community-identified needs that we uncovered in January, most specifically in
regards with water. They have started drafting letters to the government and to
private contractors in order to install the proper plumbing and to fix water
pressure. The ultimate goal is to ensure that everyone in their community can
easily access and use clean, safe water.
