Senior Project/Paper

I completed the main part of my senior project in the summer. In early June, I spent one week in the Dominican Republic, in a medical and dental clinic, volunteering as a translator for a pediatrician. The first day, we spent a few hours setting up the clinic, stocking the pharmacy, cleaning, etc. Then, for three days, I worked with the pediatrician, acting as the only bridge of communication between the doctor and the patient. After each patient, I recorded age, symptoms, ethnicity (Haitian or Dominican), and final diagnosis. At first, it was difficult to understand the patient, especially since the Dominican dialect is different to the Spanish I am used to hearing and speaking at home. However, once I became more comfortable, I was able to effectively communicate between the patient and the doctor, to help figure out what was wrong with the patient's health. I also contributed by instructing the patient on how to use/take the medicine the doctor prescribed them.

For my senior project paper, I wrote about health in the Dominican Republic with an emphasis on rural health, (since I was working in a small village in the mountains). At first it was difficult to find information about it, but then I began to search more specific issues, such as infectious diseases, and the nation's water supply. I also found two books at the Napa library that were helpful in describing typical Dominican life. The World Health Organizatin also had many useful statistics about numerous aspects of the health situation. Once I got enough information about health in the Dominican Republic, my paper came together quite smoothly. I suppose I could have searched for more articles from books or magazines, further in advance to have made the research process smoother.

The research I found was also very interesting because it coincided with my own observations of rural areas. A lot of the research I found was about the nation's contaminated water supply and the mosquito-borne diseases that arise from it. Sure enough when I was in the DR we could not drink the water, and all the volunteers had to take chloroquine weeks before arriving and a few weeks upon returning to the United States.