Week 8

Kayaking

Waking up on the beach

This week we started our Medical Geography class. Our professor, Stacy, couldn’t be here this week so we had a surprise week off, besides the readings/assignments she’s been sending online. She is actually the wife of Dr. John Boyer, one of my favorite professors at Tech, and after meeting her last night, I think she is equally amazing. We are learning about how overall health, incidence and prevalence of disease varies geographically, especially which diseases impact developed versus undeveloped countries. We are focusing on the differences between the US, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. In the DR and Haiti, diseases such as Cholera, Hookworm/Whipworm, Typhoid, HIV/AIDS, Diarrhea, Leptosporosis, and Elephantiasis (just to name a few) are easily treated diseases that unfortunately have much wider reaching consequences than in first world countries due to the limited access to medical care, poorer sanitation systems, and lack of health education. We leave tomorrow for a week in Puerto Plata, the sex tourism capitol of the country, to work at Project Esperanza. Project Esperanza provides schooling, homes, medical care, and social support for Haitian batey workers and children, many of whom are orphans. We will be tutoring, conducting health census interviews, touring rural clinics and blood banks, and providing HIV/AIDS and nutrition classes.

I helped teach Family Planning this week with Nate. I am now a familiar face, and felt so happy when some of the kids exclaimed “Catarina!” and “Rubia!” when I came in the classrooms. It meant a lot that they remembered my name. I also have a few special friends- Maria, Diana, and Ava are my secret favorites and I received several secret admirer notes and flowers from some of the boys. My favorite one was signed from "El Tigre". Too funny.

Yesterday, Katie (the marine biologist) recruited Shan and I for a two tank coral restoration dive. Meaning we used up two tanks and were underwater for almost four hours. The current was extremely strong, making installing the new cage, transferring and cable tying mature coral onto it, laying down transects, and measuring coral for our two surveys challenging and tiring. Laughing underwater usually results in inhaling seawater but I couldn’t help it, we looked hilarious getting pulled all over the place. Plus there’s something about hammering, sawing, and writing underwater that’s really funny to me. I’ve never been so exhausted when we finished- I had that weird rocking feeling you get after you’ve been on a boat too long, only I felt like I was pushing through current wherever I went.

And when I’m not in class, scuba diving, bee keeping, or teaching, I am at the beach. It’s gotten to where I sleep more on my towel than in my own bed- I slept there for a whole night by accident once this week! I will spend entire days there doing readings for class, kayaking, paddle boarding, or just hanging out- packing a lunch so I don’t have to leave even for 30 minutes. I can’t get enough! Or I’m stalking March Madness online, which I can’t get enough of either, despite the painfully slow internet connection when trying to watch games/highlights. I always choose upsets for my bracket and this year it paid off big time. So far I’m 15 for 16!? The guys hate me, I’m too pleased with myself.