6/4 and 6/5
We got the opportunity to speak with the director of public health as well as epidemiologists in D.R.. It was amazing to see their processes and their passion for truly making the D.R. a better place. We are in the groove of going to our locations. We are able to have people switch locations just to get a sense of the two locations. As you may recall, one location is at the hospital specifically focused on the Canguro program and the other location is at Casita de Salud. After gathering data and visiting patients at our respective sites, we set off to visit a cacao farm and factory. It was very interesting to know where cocoa begins. The factory we visited was filled with cacao that was dried and ready to be exported.
Here is a picture of the cacao fruit. 
We discovered many things including …chocolate wine!!! We visited to the farm and a feast of snacks awaited us. The owners gave us a tour and took us through the process of collecting the cacao. We even got to taste some amazing chocolate that literally melted in our hands!
We left there and visited a hospital in the area of Castillo. This hospital was funded by Taiwan.It was well organized and pretty quiet. There was one gentleman who had fallen out of a tree and had a hematoma. He was awaiting transportation to a bigger hospital to get the help that he needed. 
After a long day, we made a stop by one of our favorite places…La Sirena. In our minds, it is the equivalent of a Wal-Mart!
A few students had the opportunity to go to the hospital to explore the emergency room and to see a birth! It was a long day.
Today, everyone was focused on getting data at their respective sites. We are now preparing to analyze our data and to determine what else we need to collect tomorrow. Marielle is also leading us in preparing for our big CPR demonstration tomorrow! We may be able to attend the neighborhood Zumba dance in the park this evening…but the weather does not appear to be Zumba friendly…
The pictures should be in our gallery!