Missieblog Dominicaanse Republiek 2017
Welkom op het missieblog van de Dominicaanse Republiek. Op deze pagina kan je de voortgang van het team bijhouden aan de hand van de updates die wij doorkrijgen van het team. Regelmatig zullen we wel weer wat nieuws te melden hebben, dus hou de pagina in de gaten!
Aan de basis van de missie naar Dominicaanse Republiek staat Julissa Cruz Gomez. Ze is werkzaam als arts in Nederland en afkomstig uit de Dominicaanse Republiek. De komende weken houdt ze haar eigen blog bij over de MCC missie naar haar geboorteland. Op deze missieblog plaatsen we een aantal verhalen van haar over deze exploratieve MCC missie naar Puerto Plata in de Dominicaanse Republiek.
Sunday, February 12, 2017
Counting down to the medical mission in the Dominican Republic
On this blog you can follow the daily medical mission activities and of course you will learn a little bit more about me!
Wednesday, March 1, 2017
Only 10 days for the mission!!!
Let me show you our wonderful team….
Ines, Miguette, Judith, Eske, Carmen, Dorine, Oscar, Saskia, Toine, Arantza en Julissa
We already begon at my hospital (Vlietland) to collect little toys to help comfort the kids and ease their fear and anxiety during the checks….
Thank you for helping to make kids smile!
But who are Dominicans actually?
Dominicans are really happy, spontaneous and positive people. They make from everything a feast.
We have a song that says that from our sorrows sun rays are born. They are like the grass: always green. It doesn’t matter if it is warm or cold, always green.
This painting from my brother in law reflects in so many ways who we are. Thanks bro, for letting me use your art in my blog!
Dominicans love to share. In a Dominican home there will always be something to eat for you. If they do not have anything, I don’t know how, but they will make it happen!
Dominicans love music. Before we start walking, we learn dancing first. Merengue and Bachata are our music and baseball as the favorite sport.
Dominicans talk fast and hard, maybe because of the music. Overall and everywhere the music is playing, so you have to talk HARD!
In the next post, I’ll write a little bit about me!
Thursday, March 2, 2017
Dominican Republic … Who are those folks!?
First a little bit about my beautiful island
The Dominican Republic is a sovereign state occupying the eastern two-thirds of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western one-third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti. The Dominican Republic is the second-largest Caribbean nation by area at 48,445 square kilometers (18,705 sq mi), and 3rd by population with approximately 10 million people.
Christopher Columbus landed on the Western part of Hispaniola. On December 6, 1492. The island became the first seat of the Spanish colonial rule in the New World.
The island has an average temperature of 26 °C (78.8 °F) and great climatic and biological diversity.
The country is also the site of the first cathedral, castle, monastery, and fortress built in all of the Americas, located in Santo Domingo’s Colonial Zone, a World Heritage Site.
Friday, March 10, 2017
Almost ready!!
Big thanks to all my colleagues from the Vlietland hospital! The luggage is full.
@Mirjan all the Teddy bears fitted! LOL
Monday, March 13, 2017
Me… a foreign doctor in the Netherlands
Lees Julissa’s levensverhaal op haar eigen blog.
Tuesday, March 21, 2017
Oh oh Spanish accent
The name of this post is quite funny, but thanks to my Spanish accent I can make this dream come true.
As you read in another post, it was not really easy to find my place as a doctor in Holland.
One day I thought “if I only could talk perfect Dutch, maybe it would be different for me”. As soon as I had that thought, I felt some kind of pain in the middle of my chest. Quickly I understood that my Spanish accent made me unique. I got peace and freedom.
Few days later at work in the LUMC I had one of the hospitalised patients who recognised my Spanish accent. He told me very enthousiast that he had been on a medical mission in Bolivia. I found this really fantastic and ofcourse I asked him boldly what about a mission in the Dominican Republic.
He was also very enthusiastic! Because of the doctor-patient relation of that moment it was not really ethical to do “business” right over there. I advised him to contact me after he got discharged. Few months later we got in contact and this is how this mission started… and all thanks to this beautiful and funny Spanish accent!!!
Thanks Oscar, all the MCC team, Bocas Sanas Latino America and CEPREDIMA for making this dream come true and to help the children in de Dominican Republic.
Monday, March 27, 2017
The mission in short
It was not really easy for me to write something about the medical checks everyday. So I decided to summarise the mission.
13-3-17 I went to Puerto Plata and the same day the rest of the team arrived at the Puerto Plata airport.
I was picked up by Cristina, chairwoman of Bocas Sanas Latino America and Arantxa one of our translators/volunteers.
We went quickly to the airport to pick up the rest of the team with Andrea, another volunteer/ translator.
Here we are checking if all the things came in good order. All the medicine we used was from Dominican Republic. This way we support the locals and they are in the native language. In this case Spanish. The thing I love most from MCC is that they work according to WHO protocols. Those protocols are known worldwide and therefore you can work without any problems with local doctors!
We stayed at Dreamview Estate. The property from Cristina and her husband Frans. Simply beautiful! Thanks for your hospitality.
14-3-17 the mission started!
We checked at 2 places: Llanos de Perez (Los Feliz) and Ingenio. This day we checked about 150 kids. That day we saw a lot of Haitian children. I met here an old classmate too, dr. Ventura! We ate some empanadas. It was delicious!!
The next day 15-3-17 we went to Baraguana. This was a really nice location. The carrousel was supported by local doctors. They added a vaccination station to the carrousel! At the end we received a great and delicious lunch in the community. We drank a hand-crafted chocolate milk.
16-3-17 We went to los Caños. It was a great community. We saw a really sad case here. Fortunately it is now being treated! We got a treat from the mayor’s village.
17-3-17 We went to the Javillar. It was a very small location but this was not a problem for us! We made our carrousel and it worked out perfectly. We get a lot of help from our chauffeur José… super enthusiastic with the toothbrushing station! This day we did not see many children because of the rain. At the end we had some fun with music on the street!
18-3-17 We checked in two locations: el Cupey and Sabana del Corozo (La gata). These were great locations. The community was really enthusiastic too. We got some tea from an old and retired doctor. At the end we were invited to dance in a local place.
20-3-17 was our last day. It was in Maimon (Clinica CEPREMIDA). It was a “crazy” day. That day most of the team went back to the Netherlands. We had some tension too because the flight was delayed with high probability of departing the next day. Thus we checked from about 9:00 to 12:00.
As you know the Dominican Republic is wel known from its beautiful beaches, so after hard work we had some time to relax!
Overall we checked about 600 kids. We wanted to see more, but the kids that were checked were the children that needed it the most, so we are happy!. There are more than 20 who needed to be referred and a lot more who need to see the dentist. I’m really happy with the support of local colleagues who are go to help us with the follow up.
Ines, Miguette, Saskia, Oscar, Arantza and Eske travelled the next day via Punta Cana because of problems with TUI. Carmen, Dorien, Judith and Toine stayed in the Dominican republic for some days. I went to my family for some quality time. My sister Cristina is not in the pictures. She lives in USA. But we talked a lot via Skype!
Big thanks to:
- CEPREDIMA : dr. Olivares, dr. Silverio, dr. Peña and Cristina
- MCC: Ines, Miguette, Oscar, Saskia, Toine, Judith, Carmen, Dorien, Eske, Arantxa, Stephen and Robert
- Translators: Arantxa, Madelon, Andrea and Frans
- Pharmacy: Henny
- Locations: Nina, Ana, Junior, Cristina, dr. Ventura, dr. Rosset and all the medical interns and nurses
- Chauffeur: José
- Dreamview: Cristina, Frans, Rosa, Nena and Junior
- Dominican colleagues: dr. Vittini, dr. Alburquerque, dr. Burgos, dr. Guzman and dr. Sanchez
