Santo Domingo is a boom-town midway between Quito and the Pacific coast. When Rich first visited Santo Domingo in about 1986, there were just a few paved roads and very little infrastructure, and people were moving to the area at such a rapid rate that no one seemed to know how big the city was. Now there is Serious Urbanization, and although population estimates vary, the city currently states that there are 450,000 residents of the area. We are living in an apartment in the center of the city, where commercial activity is intense....On some days comparisons to Tokyo or Hong Kong are apt. Cars and trucks and vegetable carts are a constant serious threat to pedestrians, but no one seems deterred. Churning through stores that sell, separately or together, goods of every variety -- clothing, appliances, grain, furniture, fabric, tools, shoes, paper, pet food, plastics, meat, internet service -- people make their way on sidewalks filled with hawkers, food vendors, and restaurant tables. American concepts of safety seem quaint; mothers with babies and children in tow slip past vats of boiling oil and four-foot-long spits of chickens rotating over red coals.
In contrast, the neighborhoods where we are volunteering have dirt roads, and the level of activity is more like that of a back-country road in the American South. Most of the houses in these neighborhoods have electricity and at least part-time water, though not bathroom plumbing. In one respect, many of Santo Domingo's poor residential areas are better served than the rich or poor in most American cities: They have frequent bus service, and Richard and I gladly use it. The buses struggle slowly over huge ruts and bumps and rocks, and when the drivers reach the smooth sailing of the paved arteries, they drive like madmen.
We still have much to learn about this city, but one thing I found out today when Rich returned from a several-hour episode at the hospital (I guess there's only one hospital) with a three-year-old boy who'd been rushed to the clinic by neighbors: Santo Domingo doesn't have an MRI machine. In order to get that type of brain image, Rich would need to send the child to Quito, a three-and-a-half hour car trip through the mountains.
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Christ the King Habitat team visitors
When the Habitat For Humanity team from Christ the King was in Santo Domingo doing a build across town, the medical professionals in the group took a couple of hours off to visit the Hombro clinic and meet the staff there.
Julio Jaramillo School
This elementary school is a couple of blocks from the Hombro clinic; its students are among the many who came for pre-school physical exams, required by the state.
At Santo Domingo's Botanical Garden
About the only place of natural beauty in Santo Domingo (other than the Catholic University campus and a few private homes) is the botanical garden. This little guy had just helped himself to a piece of carrot from somebody's hand.
Agnus Dei
This is the chapel in the Agnus Dei religious community, where we attended a 3:00 a.m.(!) Easter vigil/sunrise service. There were about 40 people in attendance. The music was exquisite.
In-kind payment for Leonardo Oviedo's cardiology services
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