Elizabeth Krawczun, a Verrazano and CUNY BA student studying Epidemiology in the Class of 2014, had the opportunity to spend the winter intersession in the Dominican Republic on a global public health study abroad program. This was the second study abroad program in which Elizabeth participated, having spent last winter in rural India. Below she shares her experience in the Dominican Republic.
I was
very excited to be accepted into CIEE (Council on International Educational
Exchange)/Macaulay Honors College's Global Public Health and the Future of
Water program in Santiago in the Dominican Republic. The experience reaffirmed
my choice of study, and my fellow students made my time there enjoyable and
emotional at the same time. The reading and daily morning classes were
informative and interactive. Dr. David Simmons, a medical anthropologist at
the University of South Carolina, was a wonderful teacher, site instructor and
mentor.
During
class, we read articles related to public health in the Caribbean and
Hispaniola, focusing primarily on vector and water borne diseases, such as
cholera and malaria. To highlight our readings and classroom activities, we
visited two water treatment plants, one urban and one in the countryside, and
learned of the filtration and transportation systems of water. We traveled to
several communities in the Dominican Republic to study the effects of water inadequacy,
access and abuse.
However,
in these communities, it was difficult to concentrate on the tour of the water
system as nearly all the children from the village swarmed us to hold our
hands, be carried or to ride on our shoulders. We met several physicians who travel through these poor
communities, called "bateys,” monthly and take care of those who are ill
and cannot afford to travel and receive treatment at a health care facility. In
conjunction with water scarcity, we studied the discrimination of Haitians in
the Dominican Republic; all the bateys we visited were Haitian communities.
Often, when Haitians contract a water borne disease, they are unable to travel
to a hospital as many Haitians are not issued a birth certificate, ID or
passport. The Dominican Government has implemented checkpoints, so that
Haitians are stopped and deported if they cannot provide Dominican paperwork.
We saw the devastating effects of the denial of healthcare in the condition of
the sick community members.
For the
course, we were assigned two papers, a final presentation and a final exam.
For my final presentation, my group decided to focus on our visit to one of the
bateys. At this particular community, Baraguana, the group of us was split
into smaller groups of four, provided a translator, and conducted interviews
with members of the community to determine if they knew where their water came
from, when water was clean, how they received their water (trucks, bottles, the
river, etc) and which water was used for what household activities, etc.
We
saw that many members knew when water was dirty and understood which sources
were the cleanest. However, most members did not have the means to buy bottled
water and had to use the polluted river or rain water as their primary water
source. When we traveled to Baraguana, we stayed at a hotel that had first
been described as
"rustic"
by our guides. When we arrived, the hotel ran out of water within twenty
minutes. This hotel, like the communities in the area, was only supplied with
water for a certain amount of time during the day and was only provided a
limited amount. That night we did not have water to brush our teeth, flush the
toilet, or take a shower. We all took "baby wipe" baths. The next
day, water was supplied to the hotel for only a few hours, so we all took
three minute showers, as the water was only available for five minutes on
each floor. This was certainly an experience I was not expecting and it was
extremely difficult to adapt to having no access to water, a privilege that I
had taken for granted.
We
took classes at ALPI (American Language Partnership International), a language
institute in the center of Santiago and a forty-five minute walk from the
hotel. When we were not visiting communities or in class, we were allowed to
explore on our own. Dr. Simmons encouraged us to walk around the area and
explore the city, believing that the best way to learn the language and the
culture was to live it, and not to learn about it in a classroom. Some of us
visited Santo Domingo and the beach in Sosua on the North Coast. CIEE provided
each of us a stipend for meals. Ordering in a restaurant for almost every meal
was a challenge in itself. Navigating the city by "concho", the
equivalent of a New York City taxi but which has a specific route and "fits"
up to six people, was also an unforgettable experience and squeezing into the
back seat with five other students definitely brought all of us a little
closer. Not knowing more than a sentence or two of Spanish before arriving
was certainly a disadvantage, but the group of us often traveled together and
many students were proficient.
I had
not expected the group to become as close as we did in such a short amount of
time. The community visits were emotional experiences that exposed certain
insecurities in ourselves. I believe that many of us became close because we
were emotionally vulnerable together. In the afternoon of our second to last
day we held a reflection session on the professor's roof, where students had
the option to share their experiences .The majority of students shared felt
that this trip showed them that it is impossible to change the world, but it
is possible to affect and change a few lives for the better. It is important
to recognize this and to understand that we have to be open to change too, and
in doing so we become better people. Meeting the physicians and community
members of the bateys showed us how true this can be.
The
trip was an adventure and I am extremely glad I was accepted into the program.
I met people who have the motivation and intellect, as well as the emotional
maturity, to go very far in their discipline. Dr. Simmons
("DSimms") is a wonderful person, whose thoughtfulness and care was
evident when we spoke in class or walked through the villages. He made the
experience what it was and made sure that we interacted with physicians and
community members. He is an example of someone who loves what he does and
dedicates his time and influence for the populations that do not have the means
to ask for help. Dr. Simmons opened his home to all of us as a personal space
and a break from the impersonality of the hotel. No matter when we showed up
(usually with bags of dirty laundry to do), he would spend hours talking with
us, trying to help us figure out what type of future goals we had. What I took
away from the experience is that projects like this are important and that
caring for the underprivileged is important, that seeing the globe as one
entity with many pieces is important, particularly for health and global
health, and that it takes effort to affect change.
Photo Descriptions
The first photo is of me with a child in the Baraguana community.
The next two photographs are of the group of us on the first day.
We took a tour of the major landmarks of Santiago. The picture was taken from
atop "the monument". This monument was located in the middle of the
geographic basin that Santiago was in and it was erected after Dominican
independence.
The following three pictures are from the community of
Baraguana. We interviewed and interacted with the community members and the
children.
The next photo is of the "bus" that we traveled in
to get to the communities. We were tossed around for up to an hour and a half
in this open-air seat belt-less vehicle. There was no door, gate or other
safety feature in the back and so those of us who sat back there was very
afraid that we would fall out. It was quite an experience.
These two group photos were taken from the optional trip to "27 Charos", or 27 waterfalls, in English. We climbed to the top of a mountain and trekked through streams and rivers to 27 different waterfalls of varying heights and types. Some areas along the trail were very treacherous and all of us left with many cuts and bruises on our legs. This tourist attraction lasted over three hours. I am very glad I decided to do it because it was a fun opportunity and certainly a once in a lifetime adventure.
The last picture was taken on our second to last night in the
Dominican Republic. We had our farewell dinner with the professor, the
Dominican students whom we interacted with, the staff of CIEE, and the
physicians we worked with.
To learn more about study abroad programs and opportunities, please explore the following three online resources:
Center for International Service – http://www.csi.cuny.edu/international/
CUNY Study Abroad Opportunities – http://www.cuny.edu/studyabroad
College Consortium for International Studies – http://www.ccisabroad.org/
