Intro

In June of 2007, we traveled to the Dominican Republic to investigate the opportunity for implementation of needle-free jet injectors (NFI) in the immunization program.

NFI delivers immunizations via a thin, high-speed liquid stream and eliminates many negative consequences incurred from using needles including biohazard sharps waste, inadvertent needle sticks, and needle reuse. We used individual interviews of health care workers, administrators, public policy makers, and international organization workers to gather feedback on the usability, cost saving potential, and adoptability of NFI technology for immunizations.

-Mike, Azucena, Sapun, and Rich

Monday, June 18, 2007

Day 7: June 16, 2007. "The Beach"


Ahh, the weekend. After a week of getting up at 6:30 am and going to bed around 2 am, we could hardly wait to hit the beach in Rio San Juan. We spent the bulk of the day at Playa Grande, one of the nicest beaches in entire country, and were not disappointed. This beach was deserted with less than 100 people inhabiting the hundreds of yards of sand. No people, lots of sun, sandy and warm beach, and NOT Santo Domingo = relaxing. No offense to SD.

Upon arriving at Playa Grande, Rich rented snorkeling gear from Ricardo, a local proprietor of fine aqua gear and beach furniture. We snorkeled for all of 1 hour before Rich lost the goggles for his set, and we spent the next 1.5 hours looking for the goggles over a vast maze of reef that he “remembers” swimming around. All the reefs looked the same, and it’s pretty much impossible to navigate around looking for small goggles. After failing miserably, we resorted to baking in the sun for a few hours until we got hungry and decided to get a margherita pizza at this local joint back in Rio San Juan. Much to my dismay, we learned a new lesson: the pizza toppings included the standard tomatoes, garlic, and mozzarella in addition to the ever prevalent ham. Once again our other project, Analysis of the Sustainability of Vegetarians in the Dominican Republic, is receiving failing marks. This is looking very bad for me in the future…

The rest of the evening was dedicated to learning the dance steps to Bachata and Merengue at a neighborhood bar. This place was essentially a large open space with chairs and tables oddly positioned around the space and people dancing in the open area between the furniture. Merengue seems to be the main dance music in the Dominican Republic, and is quite fast, but Bachata interruptions break up the Merengue sets to allow people to catch their breadth and use copious amounts of paper towels to soak up all the sweat. We all relished the opportunity to make fools of ourselves on the floor and announce that the gringos had officially arrived in the Dominican Republic. Until next time.

-Sapun

caption: Mike, Carol (DR med student), Azucena, Sapun, and Rich working at Playa Grande

1 comment:

Bohemigrant said...

Oh no! Rich unleashed @ da beach! Holla!