Dear Diary:
GC senior reflects on Dominican donation
Alicia Montoya ’01

June 8, 2000

Today was one of the most satisfying days I have experienced during my short nursing career – well, at least so far. It was the best service I have ever done.
We went to a little, poor community on the outskirts of Santo Domingo called Las Piedras del Toro. It was sort of a service trip. Rafael (Barahona) asked us, the nursing students, if we would be able to come up with a health assessment that we could do for the people. The rest of the group, who did not have nursing skills, helped clean up the area and cooked and just related to the people.
The place where we worked was like a roof with four brick stilts holding it up. That’s all it was. I came up with the assessment and led the activity. (It did help that I am a third-year nursing student and am a little more advanced in my Spanish then the rest of the girls.)
We each sat at a corner of a table. I had a stethoscope and Regina (Miller) had a stethoscope and we had a blood pressure cuff that wasn’t very reliable. Carrie (Georgion) checked blood pressure and pulse, Regina assessed dehydration, Allie (Burchett) assessed skin and I assessed heart, lungs and bowel sounds. I was last. We just wanted to be able to tell people if it was important for them to make the trip to Santo Domingo to see a doctor.
As I assessed them, Rafael would write down my findings and this was of such great help to us. We probably assessed around 100 to 125 people.
The villagers just opened up to me. Many, I think, thought that I was a doctor. I had to remind them that I was a nursing student and that in many cases they would have to visit their doctor. As each of us assessed the patients, the girls would ask me questions or tell the patient to ask me because I knew more. This also made me feel important. For a second, I thought that just maybe – just maybe – I should reconsider my idea of becoming a doctor. I did, however, feel a little overwhelmed. At times, I felt so useless I just wanted to go home.
There was one patient, an older lady who was maybe 66. Her blood pressure seemed OK and then, right when she was ready to go, she took off her shoes and two toes on her right foot and three toes on her left foot were BLACK! I immediately thought of diabetes. In our culture, people usually only get gangrene when they don’t take care of themselves, but this lady had no money and she didn’t even know what was going on. She had all of the diabetes symptoms, but we weren’t doctors and couldn’t diagnose. Luckily, a local Mennonite pastor knew there was a diabetes clinic in Santo Domingo and referred her there.
Another little boy had burned himself with hot water all over his face. You could tell the mom was taking very good care of him, that he was doing OK and not getting an infection, but it was awful to see that, because they had nothing, they had to deal with the burns by themselves.
Rafael told me no group had ever done a clinic like this before, but he said we did such a great job that people are asking when we are going to be back. All in all, I’m glad that we were able to be of help to those people, at least I hope we were. To know that little me, a nursing student just finished with her third year, was able to have an impact on people’s lives and lead them toward health care was so satisfying. Back home, we have so much available to us in health care but here they have nothing. They appreciate the little things that you do so much more than patients in the U.S. do.
I’m so exhausted. I’m going to take a shower and go straight to bed. We were so busy just trying to get all the people through. We started about 10 in the morning and finished at 6 or 6:30 in the evening.
Without a doubt, this will be one of the best memories of my whole SST experience.
Amen.

Return to December Bulletin contents
The journey of the magi, and travel journaling, editorial by Rachel Lapp
Lifelong learning: the long approach home by President Shirley H. Showalter
A small boat on a big sea by Mary Lois Detweiler Miller ’50
On service: Ireland, Indiana, Mali by Jacob Liechty ’02
Lessons from Africa by Sally Jo Milne ’67 with Rachel Lapp
Pole position: uncluttering down under by Greg Lehman ’93

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