Hip Harmony by Juanita Rodriguez

This video was produced in 2017 when I was running a health bed and breakfast in the Dominican Republic.

It is self-explanatory providing the background of how despite dislocated hips at birth and multiple hip surgeries, I pursued a career in poverty alleviation for 30 years and then ran a health bed and breakfast in the Dominican Republic for 6 years.   

What does the search for physical harmony look like for you?

From an early age, I was aware of poverty and wondered why I had been born to a family that could provide.  I wondered what was life like for children with dislocated hips and parents who could not afford surgeries and treatments.

From this understanding grew my career choice. Serving the poor was a soothing balm drawing me away from any temptation to feel victimhood due to the physical limitation.  I drew to causes and to service.

The career became my spouse.  I could not achieve in romantic love. But I could achieve technical capacity and worked in 44 countries in micro finance and savings groups.

After an accident in 2013, I finished the last project and found that my Mother needed full time accompaniment.  So we teamed and ran the health bed and breakfast in the Dominican Republic.

In covid, it closed down and we moved to Cartagena Colombia where we continue to accompany each other.

Yes, it was a defeat and a loss.  We had tried to make the bed and breakfast thrive.  But circumstances were larger than us.  Mom’s advanced age is such that our lives our now small but large.  Small because we cannot do many things. Her mobility is low.  But we thrive in our sharing.  We devote a lot of energy on her nutrition and managing her diabetes.  A new tea she is taking, has lowered her glucose levels and she now injects insulin 2 instead of 4 times per day.

In 2022 I wrote a Prosperity Program to get people to practice Health In All Its Forms:  Financial Health, Body Mind and Soul Health and Environmental Health.   The program is for neighbors to practice the exercises in pairs and coach each other away from habits that lead to vicious cycles (for example, alcohol, moneylenders, inactivity, bad food choices) to habits that lead to virtuous cycles (for example, exercise, good nutrition, productivity, saving, neighborhood service). It has yet to have a deployment method.

Mom and I’s bodies and their evolution are a testament to harmony in all its forms.  As a baby, she took care of me and carried me even when I had heavy casts following surgeries age 2 to 4.  And now, as she is a baby in the other side of life, we carry each other.  That is harmony.

Juanita Rodriguez Juanita Rodriguez was born in Colombia. Her Father was transferred by the OAS to the Washington DC offices in 1970. She became a citizen in 1993. Her 30-year career in microcredit and savings groups for disenfranchised entrepreneurs took her to 44 countries. Since 2014, she and her mother accompany each other. They first managed a small bed and breakfast in Dominican Republic until 2020. Covid closed it and they transferred to Cartagena Colombia. They live a tiny life as her mother, Cecilia, is of an amazing age and a perfect mind with a body that slows. To stay busy by her side, Ms. Rodriguez wrote a Prosperity Manual to help people reach Health in All Its Forms: body, mind and spiritual health, financial health and environmental health. It is a method where neighbors sit in pairs and do exercises to change from vicious cycle habits (money lenders, debt, inactivity, bad food habits, etc.) to virtuous cycle habits (productivity, savings, planning, nutrition, organic gardening, planting trees, making compost, community service, etc.) After 30 years in international agencies and projects, it is her way of simplifying and getting to the core of the human experience which is not transformed solely by money, but by values and healthy habits, for their body, their family and their community. This Manual has yet to have a dissemination method. She is also finishing a novel based on her first year working in Haiti 1989 1990. It is called “Pa Gen D’Lo – Creyol for There is no Water”. It has an environmental call focusing on water and deforestation. Her Mother Cecilia is her inspiration. Cecilia ensured she would treat the physical challenge as a motor to serve – never allowing a mobility limitation to reduce what her mind could reach out to achieve.