Progress

After meeting the Sec. of Public Health twice and a trip to Santo Domingo, so progress is being made.  

 

First, hospital project.  I've met with the Public Health Secretary for my province twice and at first she was very confusing and her ideas were very far fetched, but the second time she seemed much more open to starting with opening our hospital in the Los Cacaos center first before trying to bring NINE doctors (while we currently don't even have one) to the area.  It also sounds like she is very optimistic about being able to find two part time doctors (one for the week and one for the weekend) and at least two part time nurses.  My job is still to bring in the equipment and the trip to Santo Domingo proved fruitful as my boss gave me permission to use his a special mail-box to bring down the supplies=lots of $ savings for mom!  Hopefully the stuff will be here fairly shortly and I can start getting the hospital open for business.  At first they didn't want to use the equipment without a permanent doctor until I explained we should at least let this doctor do the best job he can for the time he's here.  

 

Ecotourism project:  Me not being here for 4 days because I was working in Santo Domingo gave my ecotourism counterparts time to get some thinking and work done.  I got about half of what I wanted, but that's half more than I expected and I should get the rest in a couple days.  Then it's on to the bigger project, in Spanish, and much more in depth, the 2nd pass of the grant writing project.  Even if we don't get the grant, we'll at least be on this organization's radar and can apply again next year and use this year to get up to speed.  I also found out our tour is being advertised online!  http://www.tequiaexperiences.com/  Go to full-day tours and pick the coffee experience, that's a picture of a street in my town!  We are only the part of the coffee picking, processing, and tasting, the meal is at a restaurant on the way to town that I can't afford to eat at...and it's also a German restaurant...talk about your Dominican Experience.

 

House:  It's official, I've found one!  It's tiny compared to what other volunteers can afford for the same price, but I'll take what I can get considering the housing in my area.  It's three "rooms", a living room, bedroom, and a room I will turn into a kitchen.  It doesn't have water inside, so I have to carry it in from the outside, but it's not that bad.  I have to share my outside toilet and shower area with my neighbors, but that won't be that bad either.  I am paying to get lights installed and the locks changed and then I will move in, hopefully next week sometime!  When they are finished cleaning it and I'm moving in, I will take and post pictures.