Leaving for the Campo

(June 24, 2012)
After 4 busy days at the ILAC center, it was time to leave for the campo!  (In case you're wondering it's not pronounced camp-o, it sounds like kahmpoh).  I was fortunate to spend a short amount of time with Colin before we left...he arrived at ILAC the night before.  He spent almost two weeks in the DR working on psychology research (so you should ask him about his experience there).  Anyway, we said farewell to our friends and then packed up the bus and headed out.  My campo's name was El Rodeo, located close to Haiti.  Unlike most groups, our campo was not in the mountains.  It was affectionately referred to as "the hot campo."  In case you want a sense of location, here's a couple of maps:

This is where the DR is located...only short swim to Cuba!

(Excuse my paint skills) This is a map of the DR.  The green oval in the middle is Santiago, where the ILAC center is located.  My campo, El Rodeo (drawn in) is on the left.  As I'm sure you will notice, it is rather close to Haiti.  It is approximately a 45 minute drive to the border.  Just for reference, the capital of the DR is Santo Domingo, located on the southern border of the country.

My group had 12 students throughout the 4 weeks.  We also had 5 professionals who stayed with us from 1 week to 2 weeks: 3 physicians, 1 dentist, and 1 pharmacist.  Here's the group before departure!

Back Row: Bri, Assistant Coordinator
Chris, Dentist
Kevin, Pharmacist
John, Auydante
Patrick, Dental Student
Dr. Longo, Physician
Tim, Auydante
Front Row: Rachel, Coordinator
Ruth, Pharmacy Student
Lori, Nursing Student
Sam, Medical Student (4th year)
Alex, Medical Student (1st year)
Brittney, Dental Student
Not Pictured: Ashley, Pharmacy Student

Loading up the bus!

After a little less than 2 1/2 hours of bumpy driving, we finally made it to Rodeo.  At first glance, you can see there is poverty in the campo, but it is not as blatant as it was in Cien Fuegos.  The poorer families have houses made out of wood with concrete floors and tin roofs.  They have latrines and outdoor showers.  There are also nicer homes which are made of concrete, often have tiled floors, and have bathrooms inside.  Rodeo is one of the larger campos (160 families) and it is rather spread out.  There are essentially two halves to the campo separated by a main road.  We visited the other side of the campo a few times, but mostly stuck to the side where we lived and had clinic.

Upon arriving we went to our cooperadora's home.  Each campo affiliated with ILAC has a cooperador(a) assigned to the community.  The cooperador's job is to be a leader for the people in the campo and supply them with resources for healthy living.  They have some very basic health education (such as taking blood pressure, giving shots, etc.) and try to promote wellness in the community. They also do much, much more, but I never got the run-down of all of their responsibilities.  Our community actually had 2 cooperadoras because of its large size.  The cooperadora we worked most closely with was Nereida.  We ate all of our meals at her house and spent many of our afternoons hanging out and playing cards.

Nereida, in her kitchen

We then went to meet all of our families and get settled in.  Most of the girls and some of the boys were paired up with someone else in the group.  My room mate was Ruth, one of the pharmacy students.  Meeting the family was a bit overwhelming, as neither Ruth nor I spoke very much Spanish.  It was a small, simple home made of wood with 2 bedrooms, a small living room, a kitchen under a pavilion outside, and most exciting, a bathroom!  We were very fortunate to have a bathroom in our home because most people in Rodeo still use latrines.  Our bathroom had running water as well (a huge plus) so we were able to use a sink, flush the toilet and take a shower.  (Not quite like a shower in the US, there was no shower head so it was just like a faucet from the ceiling.  It was still great though, most of my group took bucket showers). Ruth and I each had our own bed too.

Living room

Kitchen (there is a stove on the other side of the blue door)

My bed

Parent's bedroom

Bathroom

The road leading to our house

Our family was small: we only had parents living with us.  Our padre's name is Epifano; he is 83 and a very sweet old man.  Our madre is Sylvia; she is somewhere in her 60s.  They have 5 children together, 3 of which live in Santo Domingo, 1 in Santiago, and 1 in Rodeo.  The daughter that lives in the campo is Lucia and she has several children of her own.  We met some of her younger children, but I had a hard time keeping all of their name's straight.

My madre, Sylvia

One of the several grandchildren

It's a little blurry, but here's a picture of my family.  On the right is Ruth and in the middle are our parents.  On the left is the random neighbor/possible grandchild that was always around but I could never remember his name.

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