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I am visiting today P. and her sister. From outside - nice looking house, inside ? - not so pretty, but still cozy. Of course - there is no electricity, as they havent paid. So the company cut them off from the power grid. P., is young, 18 years old girl. And she is also young mother - from 1,5 year. She was 17teen when her kid was born. What the girls of her age do in Europe ? Not that much probably...except studying. And very few of them are lonely mothers in such age. In Europe, such behavior is called - pathology. Here, in Dominican Republic - its normal. Kids having kids, babies having babies. Each day of life of P. is a hard work, despite the fact that she doesnt work.
Being 17teen , she is passing her exam from being adult - every day. And her child is the best rating juror for that. Abortion would be much easier solution for her (or rather before - anticonception), but she is taking her daily effort to raise the kid and give him some love & food - luckily, P. has her big family and they also help her. Her family is big and widespread in whole country and not exactly from one mother and father. Typical Dominican case.
P.'s toddler cut his finger on Friday, 10 pm. P. has no possibility to drive him that late to the nearest hospital - its 3 km from her house. So she just tries to do what she knows - and she just washes his wound with water, nothing more. No alcohol, no soap , no hydrogen peroxide - nothing to disinfect it at all. So the next day kids wakes up with high temperature and infection...Now P. has to act and take him to the hospital. We talk about his situation a little and I offer to drop her with kid to the emergency room. OK. But let's eat some basic dominican dinner together. What's for dinner ?Shrimp, caviar or argentinian beef 😛 ? Nah. Its just rice with cooked egg and some vegetables. The only thing that actually has any taste in that meal are vegetables...
So we are after dinner. The juice from passionfruit (chinola) that they made was just delicious. P. seems to forget at all about her kid and his wound. "Its so hot today ! Let's go to swim ! There is nice river and pond near here" - She seems to be very excited. "Damn, girl ! And the kid ? Whats do you want to do with him ? His infection is spreading, before we will come back, he would be much worse" - I'm trying to remind her whats most important now...
That's the example of typical dominican unconcern about anything - and the reason for typical dominican problems, too. Like kids having kids...
Emergencia in Dominican Republic
So we are in the hospital / emergency. Many health - promoting ads inside, like everywhere in the world, in every emergency building. "Stop the dengue" , stop the AIDS, take your test now. "Remember to wash your hands before eating" - and so on. P. in her grey dress is slowly reading them all, mumbling something to herself. From the movement of her lips its not so hard to guess what she is reading actually...
The young doctor. Its time for the kid. Because of the infection kids wound need to be healed. A little. By the doctor and his skilful hands. 30 minutes of pain for the kid, and 30 minutes of his cry. P. is holding him still while the doctor is doing his thing with scalpel. Ok, ready. Doctor gives prescription for some antibiotic.
Of course - P. doesnt have money to buy the medicine from the prescription. But she will buy it. Tomorrow, manana. She will buy it for sure, its just that she doesnt have money today, tomorrow she will have. Somebody will help, somebody will borrow her money. She will take care of it....
So we sit in her family's house once again. Together. P., her toddler, her sister - with one kid running around her and next one on the route (she is pregnant) and her sister's boyfriend. I tell them that people in Europe rarely have any children at all these days. Almost. If they have - the max is 1-2 kids...They are afraid of the kids' future. They not always have money. Or they are too egoistic. They calculate, They plan... They foresee... and they calculate...