Lessons Learned

Day 7, My first day off!

Yesterday was Saturday, which means the clinics were open.  We served 133 patients.  I was assigned to work in the pharmacy.  Wow!!  What a difference from the states.  Pills are counted and put into small plastic baggies, then you take a little white label, and write the name of the med, and the directions on how to take it and stick it to the front of the bag.  Liquid medications for children are dispensed in empty plastic water bottles.  I was SHOCKED!  But it was very humbling to see all these people being treated for free because of all the work I had was able to do the week prior.  Chuck & Candy have an amazing organization set up here!

Being it was Saturday night, AND pay day, the zip line boys were all going out for the night.  They asked us to come along.  Because Manuel and I were both fairly busy all afternoon, Kori made arrangements with the guys for transportation and where we'd go.  Unfortunately, he didn't realize that the Dominican culture isn't as trust worthy as it may be in Canada or the States.  He paid $35 to "rent" a car for 24 hours, which was supposed to be brought back to our place at 9pm.  Manuel and I quickly explained to him that its not a good idea to pay ahead, and we shouldn't count on the car showing up.  Around 9:15 when the car didn't show, we decided we'd better make other arrangements.  This was when we realized we didn't even have a phone that we could call for a cab or to make other plans! Needless to say, Manuel and I were not extremely pleased with Kori.  But it is what it is, so we were preparing to hunker down for the night.  Then Manuel suggested we ask Pele, one of the farm hands that lives below us, if we could borrow his phone and then we'd ask him to come along with us for dinner and we'd pay.  Pele of course thought this was a great trade, and we called for a cab. He was to arrive in 20 min.

No joke, 2 minutes later the car shows up the Kori had planned for.  After much debate, we decided to call the cab and let him know we had found a ride.  We all piled into a minivan and made the trip down the hill.  When we got to Cabarete, we went to a restaurant on the beach.  It is actually a place I had eaten with my family in December.  Great place, owned by a Canadian, called Kahuna's.  We got a table, ordered some drinks and had a good time goofing around.  We got our bill and Manuel, Kori & I started to get out our money to pay for our drinks, food and for Pele.  The guy that Kori had made arrangements with and the driver had both had drinks, and at this point decided to tell us that they didn't have any money.  They were expecting us to pay.  WHOA!! Wait a second!  Manuel and I were already feeling like we got taken advantage of and now this?!  It ended up that we covered the extra on the bill and we decided to go home.

On the walk back to the car, Manuel again tried to explain to Kori why he and I were upset.  The car ride home was fairly quiet. When we got back to the house, Pele thanked us for everything, and went to his apartment, we all headed to bed.

Sunday, today, is my day off so I was able to sleep in this morning!  Was great.  I got up and straightened up my room.  Made my bed up, swept my bed room, and straightened up my clothes.  Living out of a suit case, its tough to keep things organized!   So it was nice to have the time to fold clothes back up and straighten up some.  I'm finding it hard to keep myself busy on my day off.  Gonna do some reading and sun bathing this afternoon I hope.  It is definitely humbling to realize how spoiled we are in the states with TV, air conditioning, game systems, cars & transportation, etc.