We switched gears today compared to yesterday and spent the day talking with 2 NGOs, the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the United States Agency for Internatinal Development (USAID). A welcomed change for today was that we were actually able to control the flow of the meetings. On a typical day, as soon as we start the needle-free demonstrations, the flood gates open, and we get bombarded by about 10 people.
We showed up at JICA at 9 in the morning and our contact pretty much let us ask all the questions we wanted for around 2 hours. We learned a lot of interesting background about Japan’s involvement in the DR health system and about their current projects in the DR immunization system. The JICA office was in a very nice building that had a very nice view and Air Conditioning so we were in no rush to leave. Our lead investigator in the DR also joined us today, which was nice because it gave us 2 translators/investigators in addition to the 3 gringos.
After our meeting with JICA we ate a Bordersesque place called Thesaursus. Very nice bookstore/café where we got Panini style sandwiches and coffee – a little taste of the US in the DR (also a nice change from the Criol/Chinese food that we had the day before). Following lunch it was off to the USAID office to have a meeting in English. YES!!! Azucena got a break, the gringos could lead a meeting. We were free from our cage. Everybody was excited. The meeting went well. We mostly talked about USAID’s involvement in improving the management of injection waste (needles) in remote areas of the DR.
The evening was quiet. We ate mac’n cheese and watched TV with our new remote control that allowed us to sit more than 5 feet from the screen - ahh, paradise.
-Sapun
Caption: View of a nicer part of Santo Domingo from the JICA office.
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