Law Classes and Children Shelter

Oct. 22

Hey guys! Just have some things I wanna write down. Yesterday I spent the 3 hours at a public hospital named Hospital Cabral, and we got a tour from a medical student of all the different wards. It was really cool, I was with David, Jenn, and Kelly. We got to go to internal medicine, neurology and others. We got to read the charts and ask questions if we wanted to, to the doctor and the patient. We actually got to meet a patient with Lupus. That was really cool, I've always heard of Lupus in House, but never got to see it. That was really cool to see. The tour was just really interesting cause we got to see how health care works in DR. 4 people to a room, no air conditioning, and families are always with the patient. Just really incredible to see. Once I have my permission from my professor I'm going to start my investigations for my independent study. But next week we get to go again and see more of the hospital. I'll let you know how that goes!

Afterwords I had dance class, and then I was going to meet a dominican friend of mine to join her in her law classes. To say the least, they argue a LOT down here in the classes. Just back and forth, back and forth all the time. It was really hard to me to understand cause the professor kinda just mediated the class, and let the students talk, and the students well talk way too fast for me sometimes. But it was interesting to see the difference between their classes and our classes back home. The second class was easier to understand, just sooooooo boring. It was the Law of Work. Man, just about salaries, vacation time, and other boring topics. However, it was really interesting to hear that farm workers only get paid 175 pesos a day. FOR 10 HOURS! That's 4.86 dollars. A lot of the students in the class said thats an abuse! I was happy to hear that the future lawyers of the DR were appalled by this, but makes me wonder too if once they're in power they'll do anything to change that. The corruption here is disheartening, my program director says she's scared of the situation sometimes, and really hopes something is done to fight corruption, otherwise she said she'll move. We'll see, I have faith my friend Geraldine. She really seems set on changing the situation as much as she can down here. After the classes, she invited to me to a Cirulo, which was a event where people give testimonies of a near death experience and how God and their faith saved them. Another interesting thing, religion is very important down here to the people. Very interesting to observe.

Today we were able to visit a Children Shelter outside of Santiago today, and it was cool. Two nuns run the place and teach the kids good morals, songs, and, of course, religion. They do great work, the kids were very polite, nice and hard working. A lot of us were able to play with the kids, and get to know what their living situations are like. Hopefully sometime again, we'll have the opportunity to work there again. The situation was not as bad as I thought it would be, but they still need help. Hopefully once I figure out what I want to do with my career I can help out these shelters and make sure health services can reach everyone. Its a long shot, but aiming for high hopes keeps you motivated. Hopefully it has and still does motivate you guys in your lives. I sure hope so. Hope all is well back home. Thanks for reading. Best regards!