Doctores y Accidentes

This post is kind of dedicated to our sons Clay and Ben who work in hospitals, to our son Matt who has spent a bit of time in hospitals with his chemotherapy these last few months, and to my dear daughter-in-law Emily and grandson Peter who have spent a number of weeks in them (and to all the rest of you folks out there who have visited a hospital recently).  A couple of weeks ago, we went with a Senior Missionary couple who are over Humanitarian service to a little town in the west part of the Dominican Republic.  Here the Church has donated a number of x-ray supplies etc. to help a little hospital.  We went there on the Thursday before Easter and were surprised to find that there were no patients inside because of the coming holiday!  Including expectant mothers or babies in the nursery.  

Here’s the outside of the hospital.

Here’s the waiting room for the emergency department

(and yes, it is outside)

 Here's the empty emergency examination room when we arrived.

 Here’s some of the equipment that the Church has donated.

 Here’s the pharmacy – lots of supplies as you can see J.

Here’s the doctor taking the blood pressure from a man who complained of feeling faint who came in while we were there.  Apparently, it wasn’t elevated because the doctor sent him home right after.

One of the things that the hospital realized after receiving the xray equipment is that it is all located on the ground floor, and the patient rooms are on floors two and three.  Now that wouldn't ordinarily be a problem, but there is no elevator!  So patients will have to be taken down the stairs on gurneys - now that should be fun.  I really did feel badly that they don't have the supplies and things that we just take for granted here.  The doctor said that ordinarily the hospital is full except when there is a holiday.  

And now, fast forward to this week.  Rob was showering and noticed that one of the glass doors on the shower had come off its track.  As he gently lifted it up into the track, the glass totally broke all over everywhere.  I came running in when I heard the noise and was shocked to see him standing there surrounded by glass (it was the safety kind, but it was everywhere, including all over the room which isn’t clear in these pictures).  In addition, he had cuts on his hand, knee, and foot which were dripping blood everywhere!  It was really a mess to clean things up enough on the floor, so that I could hand him flip-flops to get out and into the bedroom where I put Band-Aids on the cuts that were worse.  Fortunately, he was safe, but we still don’t know what will happen with the repair of the shower.  And luckily, we didn’t have to take him to a Dominican Emergency room J.

This photo was after I cleaned up all the glass all over the bathroom, 

so that Rob could even get out of the shower

Just a few cuts are showing in this photo.  He has band-aids on his knee and 

should have had them all over his hand that was closest to the door!

La Comida (What we eat)

As I think about things to post, I thought that I’d share a little bit about the food that we eat. We can get lots of American food here, such as Rob’s favorites – Hellman’s mayonnaise, Heinz ketchup, and Vlasic pickles – plus other things such as Betty Crocker cake mixes, Tide, etc. But we have been trying to eat a little more of the Dominican food. The fruits and vegetables are quite interesting. Yes, we get Gala apples and strawberries from the US, but there are some unique foods here. We, of course, have mangoes, papaya, pineapple, and giant avocados, but I didn’t put them all here in detail because I thought you would know about them.

Milk

Milk comes in cartons and just sits in the cupboard until you chill it to drink. It doesn’t taste like Kroger milk, but it’s pretty good. In comes in 2% and 3% boxes (Hey, what’s not to like at 3% milk, right?)

Eggs

I have not seen eggs refrigerated since we have been here! They are just out in the stores. We, of course, always cook them, and we wash them before cracking, so we haven’t had a problem. But it still is a little scary, and I try not to think about it. Here’s a man walking down the street with his eggs to deliver to some store…

Vegetables

Carrots – enormous but really sweet no matter how big they get; these are about 2” in diameter, but most of them are about 3”.

Tayota or Chayota– a totally unknown veggie in the US; after you peel it, it reminds me of a pear, but you slice it and cook it until soft. It then has the consistency of a cook pear, but we can’t describe the taste. Sort of like a cooked zucchini…good even if it is a little bland.

Pumpkin Squash – sold year around in large slices at the store. I use it in a great Caribbean stew recipe that I found.

Batata – Dominican sweet potato; looks just like a giant potato, but it is really hard. You peel it, cut it into pieces and then boil. It is sweet, not as sweet as our sweet potatoes, but looks like a potato inside. I found a recipe for Batata pudding which was pretty tasty, but really sweet even with half the sugar. 

Green Beans – very tasty and thin; they cost about 50 cents a pound here. A can of green beans is around $1.50.

Mango - they sell these on the street corners for about 50 cents each.  Nummy to add frozen ones to a smoothie.

Papaya - oops!  I didn't take a picture of one of these open. They have all these little black seeds that you have to remove.  They are ripe when the valleys between the ridges are yellow (I had to learn that!).  They are wonderful as well.

Fruits

Guanabana – interesting fruit that’s round and has a little spikey-ness (is that a word?) When you cut it in half, there is a core that has large black beans. You remove it and then scoop out the rest. It’s pretty bland, so I add it to our morning mango smoothies.                                                                                                                                                            

Avocados

I don’t seem to have a picture, but they are huge – around the size of a small cantaloupe and really tasty!

Los carros son locos!

For my blog entry for this week, I thought I would try to take some pictures of some of the cars and taxis here, so that you can understand why they don’t seem to care if they weave in and out of cars or get in accidents. "Los carros son locos" means that the cars are crazy. I've made up a little song that I sing while we drive to work in the morning that goes to the tune of "Cielito Lindo" ( and begins "Ay, yi, yi, yi. Los carros son locos...") It goes on to talk about the stupid taxi drivers and motorcyclists. It helps me not get upset when everyone is driving to crazy And, of course, because that was my plan, I didn’t see as many as I have in the past. I hope that you can tell from these examples below.

Note, the multi-colors, missing rear lights, etc.

We see a lot of cars that have multi-colors from either mixed parts, or something?

The bus' right fender has been hit, but then notice the big dents up higher - I wonder how those happened?

It's very typical to see taxis missing parts.

A nice car that someone read-ended (and that they probably won't repair.

Now you would think that because of all the accidents that no one would drive a nice car in the city. But the other day, we were stopped at a light, and Rob remarked that there was a new Maserati sedan (probably retailing for $125,000) right next to us. We also pass a Porsche/Ferrari dealership on the way to work every day. So I guess that it's not an issue for some folks...