Thursday November 11, 2010

Day 69

Going back to work is never fun after a nice vacation.  I think it is the waking up part that is the hardest.  I actually got to sleep in a little later today because I was getting a ride to the clinic and didn’t have to take the kids to school.  (Teresa is still in Mexico.)  Today I observed in the laboratory at the clinic.  This area is much different than any other area I have been in before.  First of all, there are a lot more rules and procedures.  One rule is that you need proper lab attire.  I didn’t have a white lab coat so I borrowed Cynthia’s lab coat she uses for her science class.  Wearing a lab coat just makes you look important. Another thing that was different about the lab is that there is constantly something going on.  They had a lot of “emergencies” which means they need to get the results out quicker than normal.  They are working without a secretary so everyone is very busy.  I unfortunately couldn’t help much because the system is very exact and I would never want to mess anything up.  I learned a lot about how they collect and distribute results and the entire system is very interesting.  The only problem is that the computer is so slow and everything takes way too much time.

A special Veterans Day announcement: Thank you for all that you have done!

Friday November 12, 2010

Day 70

Today was my second day in the lab and it was a bit different than yesterday.  Today was a little slower and less stressful for the people working.  I also found some things to keep me busy.  I cut and folded gauze from a huge roll to use for cleaning the equipment.  I can do mindless tasks like this for hours but unfortunately I had to stop when I ran out of room in the boxes.  One thing that is difficult about working in the lab is that patients come to the window asking questions and I always have to tell them “one minute” or some form of that in Spanish so I can find someone to help them because I don’t want to answer their question incorrectly.  I think a lot of the patients think I am ignoring them or being rude, but obviously I am not.

Saturday November 13, 2010

Day 71

Another weekend in Santo Domingo and you know what that means: relaxing.  Silly Jaclyn went to do laundry but I was quickly reminded by Nanita that there isn’t water on Saturdays.  I have so much laundry to do since I was away and now I am getting stressed about it.  My mom taught me that the longer you wait to do laundry, the harder it is to do. This is definitely true when you are washing most things by hand and also when you have limited room for hang- drying things. 

Cynthia and I made a cake for Teresa’s welcome home festivities.  We used a different gluten free cake mix and it turned out a lot better.  I also figured out what went wrong the last time we made a cake and now I feel a bit foolish.  The last time we made the cake the oven was way too hot because the oven has the temperatures displayed in Celsius and the temperature on the box was in Fahrenheit and so I just put the oven on the max temperature thinking that was 350˚. Ooops. This time I figured it out before and made the conversion and the cake was a lot less dry.

After the successful cake making, I went with the kids and their dad to pick Teresa up from the airport.  It was so nice to see her. She looked so happy to see all of us. She told me I looked different but I am not sure what she meant. I hope it isn’t from eating too much. Hmm.

Sunday November 14, 2010

Day 72

Instead of going to church in the evening we went to church around noon.  It is much more crowded at this time but I like it because they have always have little babies there at that time for christenings and they are just the cutest little things in their white dresses.  Teresa got to see her friend Blac from Haiti and they spent some time chatting after the mass.  I think we are going to visit him this week sometime because she wants to bring him a few things. 

After church we went to the mall because Cynthia had to get a birthday present for the party she was going to tonight.  We had lunch at the food court (I had a salad from Quizno’s) first and that was a bit difficult because it was so crowded.  We literally had to wait for a table. I guess the Jumbo Food Court is the place to be on a Sunday afternoon.  This was a different mall than we normally go to and it is attached to a huge store that reminded me of Target or Walmart.

When I came back from the mall I decided to do my laundry before the sun went down because sun is one of the three necessary things for laundry (power, water and sun).  I was able to do about 70% of my laundry and then the water suddenly stopped.  Apparently, there wasn’t water to start with and I was using all of the remaining water from the tank which I didn’t know.  Needless to say, I used up all of the water that they didn’t have to begin with and I didn’t even finish my laundry. 

At night I went with Teresa to take Cynthia to the birthday party at a fancy mall.  The party was at this place that did all of the traditional girly stuff like hair, makeup, fashion shows, etc.  It was totally pink and totally for tweens!  Teresa and I watched a little and then we sat and had some popcorn and chatted in the food court.  It was nice to hear all about her conference in Mexico and I think she learned a lot while she was there. I don’t know if I learned that much while I was in Puerto Plata with my brother and neighbors.

Fun Facts:

1.       On Friday during lunch at the clinic we had a breakthrough: Two of the people who I could never understand half of what they were saying realized that I could understand them if they spoke slowly. One of the other employees told them this and they all get it now. Woohoo!

2.       All of the new envelopes in the lab are half sealed so I decided to open a bunch of them up to save time for everyone else.  Trickier than you would think!

3.       I ran out of yogurt and cereal and if you know me you would know that this rarely happens.

4.       They asked me at lunch if I would prefer to be called “Americana” or “Jaclyn” and I told them Jaclyn.  They stressed the fact that “Americana” was a loving name and not rude but I still like my name better.

5.       I watched a kid’s show in Spanish on Saturday morning and I loved it.  They spoke slowly and I was able to understand nearly everything. 

6.      I met a bunch of Teresa’s family from Ecuador on Skype and they are all just like Teresa. They are such fun people!

Peace,

Jaclyn