During my 4th year in dental school I am required to participate in a dental externship. The length of externship depends on location, most stateside externships are 3 weeks, while oversea exterships are only a week. So due to the length of international externships and the opportunity to travel abroad, these foreign sites become very desirable amongst the dental students. So early this year I applied and interviewed for the DR site. We were excited to find out in early February that I was selected for this unique opportunity. So on July 2nd, I embarked to the DR, my first time out of the country. So naturally, I took pictures of a lot of random things...
and...
We landed in Santo Domingo then drove to El Cercado.
This is a view from where I was sitting in the back of the bus...
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On the way to El Cercado we stopped at this little roadside restaurant...
The food was delicious but we had to be careful not to eat anything that might have been washed with the water. When we arrived in Santo Domingo there were signs everywhere about the Cholera outbreak.
When we arrived in El Cercado it was late so we unpacked and crawled in bed. The next morning we awoke to this...
and this...
and this...
Had to include a picture of me, (it's for my mommy).
On the 3rd we unpacked all the dental supplies and organized the clinic in El Cercado.
Then Diana, a close friend from dental school and my metro buddy, Frank and his wife, Cheryl, and I drove up the mountain to our little town, Hondo Valle. Here are some of the views on the way up the mountain...
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As you can see, the roads aren't in the best condition.
Once we arrived in Hondo Valle, we unpacked our supplies in our little clinic,
then went to our little apartment. Here is a view from our little balcony...
We started working on Monday without electricity. So, we didn't have power to run our drills, to have air conditioning (I think the only AC is found in automobiles and the major cities). Our assistants in Hondo Valle were chosen from the community as exemplary youth. They were great! The would set up our stations, hold a flashlight so we could see what we were doing, and give post op instructions to the patients when we finished with the procedures.
Here are two of our assistants...
On Tuesday, after finishing with our morning patients we drove to the Haitian border. Here are some of the views...
This cute girl was standing outside of her home (it's in the background). On our return trip she was outside with two of her siblings, she was the only one clothed.
These ladies were doing the laundry but on our return trip they were bathing in the river.
I took this picture b/c this was a common roadside house.
A view of a Haitian market...people would bring their farmed goods in exchange for money. Then turn around and purchase rice, noodles, oil, and other items to carry back up the mountain. I was amazed at home much they could carry on their heads. I wish I took a picture, one lady had a 50lb bag of rice on her head, another bag under one arm, and a switch in the other to direct her donkey up the mountain. If only she had a minivan!
Then we all walked up to a monument of a Haitian man who was killed for crossing the DR border. He was buried half in Haiti and half in the DR...
Here is a group shot of everyone that went on our little excursion...
Here is a photo of our other group of assistants, the P.M. crew.
This is a picture of all the students from the dental school that came on the trip.
We had an incredible experience! The country was beautiful, the food was fantastic, and the people will forever hold a special place in our hearts. I look forward to going back to Hondo Valle in the future and hope I can take my family next time. It was great to return home and to share this experience with them. I hope you enjoy it too.
