By Christine L. North
Our barrio clinic today was in a community named Cerro de Chiva (which translates “Goat Hill”), near Elias Piña, an impoverished city on the border of the Dominican Republic and Haiti.
The people in this community have very few resources and many of the people we saw today were severely malnourished and sick. A number of Haitian immigrants live in this community. The poverty is the most severe we have seen.
The community has no running water – ever. The inhabitants get water by walking down to the bottom of a hill and hauling it back up. Since they cannot be sure which side of the hill will have water, they may hike to the bottom of one side, find no running water, then go to the other side and see if water can be found there.
The community has no school. Children walk over two miles each way into Elias Piña to go to school – if they are old enough to walk that far and if they attend school.
People were lined up and waiting for us when we arrived! The community had put up a sign to welcome us. All they could find to write with was a yellow crayon so the sign was difficult to read but, translated, it said: Welcome dear visitors. Thank you for your support as a grain of sand among all of this sickness. From Barrio Brisa del Sur, we thank you for your presence at this medical clinic. Thank you.
A sign like this clearly comes from the heart. Someone had to find paper (not an easy task) and locate the crayon to put up the small banner. This community went out of its way to make us feel welcomed and appreciated. What a humbling experience.
Note the house on the left in the accompanying picture. Eighteen 18 people live in that house. The matriarch of the house has 11 children and is pregnant with a twelfth. Birth control is a complicated topic here for religious and social reasons, in addition to the obvious educational issues. We Americans shake our heads and simply think, "Why don't they do something about this?" And the answer is: "doing something" is not nearly so simple. Education or lack thereof – access to facilities or resources to obtain birth control – religious norms – and cultural norms all come into play here, creating a situation that makes effective family planning exceptionally difficult.
The people who came through this clinic were sicker than we had seen in the other clinics this week. Many Dominicans have high blood pressure and many people had bacterial or fungal infections. We treated everyone for parasites since most of these people had not had parasite treatment for over a year.
We had one mother bring in a baby who was six months old. The child weighed a pound less at six months than when it was born. How sad! The doctors told the mother that she needed to get the child to a clinic immediately so that the child does not die.
The day was hot and dusty but certainly rewarding. I spent much of the day talking with the kids about brushing their teeth and washing their hands, while handing out first aid kits, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and hand sanitizer. We talk about the importance of hand washing. It all seems kind of pointless when the nearest water has to be hauled in buckets from the bottom of the hill. Nonetheless, we keep trying to share healthy behaviors and keep trying to teach.
This was another great day out with the people in the DR. Tonight the students will begin to pack up their things to head back, we will reflect on the week we have had, and we will begin to look ahead to the next trip. And we will thank God for all the good that exists, even among the bad.
