UK Delegation

Last week Dr. Tom Young brought a group of UK faculty down to review things at the clinic and investigate possibilities for collaboration between various UK departments (nursing, pharmacy, social work, public health, education, family practice) and their counterparts here at the Catholic University of Santo Domingo. They came on Tuesday afternoon and were gone by Thursday afternoon, so it was a whirlwind. The group met with the bishop and leaders from FASCA (Fundacion Accion Social Caritas - like Catholic Social Services) and various individuals met with faculty at PUCE (Pontifical Universidad Catolica de Ecuador). A delegation visited a nearby community of Tsachila indians, one of the tribes of the Colorados after whom the city is named (Santo Domingo de los Colorados); there is some discussion of sending a doctor and/or nurse to this tiny pueblo which currently has very few medical services.

We had two nice dinners, one of which featured extemporaneous entertainment from the two guitar-playing clinic doctors. Rich did himself proud, considering how long it had been since he´d played much guitar.....he had had just enough wine to loosen up his fingers, I guess.... He was commanded to perform after Cristian (who has entertained professionally in the past) sang a few heart-wrenching trova (love songs).

The other dinner was a thanksgiving cena, after which the group came over to the Oviedos´place and we (Rich and I and Amarilys, the peace corps volunteer who lives next door to us) served dessert - apple pie and cookies.

This three-day event was a lot of fun, and a welcome break from our daily struggle to communicate with the world in another language. Two of the UK folks were fluent in Spanish, a fact that served the group very well, but the rest spoke exclusively English; I´d forgotten how fast I can talk!

When they left I was a little homesick, but also felt a renewed enthusiasm for the work that can be done here.