Dajabon

Today I had the opportunity to go to Dajabon, a Dominican city on the DR/Haiti border. We went there to meet with the Haitian pastors - pictured above, sorry, it's not the best photo ever. There are 8, but only 7 were able to come. We also went so that we could drop off 2 of the staff members so they can visit the churches in Haiti and take pictures. They will also be looking for possible land to build a nutrition center/dormitory. We got to talk to the pastors a little bit about how the earthquake has changed the hearts of the people in their churches. They said that a lot more people now attend church and have become Christians because they saw how GO Ministries brought them food, water, and tents while asking nothing in return. The pastors said this was a great example of supporting preaching with actions. They thanked us for GO's support in Haiti and told how this was very encouraging to them as ministers.
Pastor Lucner was the pastor who was not able to attend the meeting. He is currently residing in Santiago, DR. December 12th he was in a motorcycle accident. Both legs had compound fractures and some ligament damage. He went to the hospital in Haiti - via the back of a pick-up truck. The hospital told him to come back in two days because their x-ray technician wasn't available. GO Ministries told him to meet them in Dajabon, got his paperwork in order, and brought him to Santiago by van to be treated. I cannot imagine the amount of pain he must have been in while in transport. The roads here are very bumpy and in some sections are not paved - the above picture is of part of the road from Dajabon to Santiago. I don't know how many surgeries he has had, but I do know that after the first round of treatment, he was bed-ridden 11 days. He has progressed from wheel-chair, to walker, to crutches. He has another surgery tomorrow morning. One of his legs, I can't recall which one right now, is in very bad shape still. It is healing at a funny angle at the knee. I'm not sure if the surgery tomorrow is intended to correct that or something else. Please pray for his healing. (Adam, I know you can pray very specifically for him; when I think of how much you went through and compare it to Lucner's story, it hurts me to think of what he's gone through so far.)

These are pictures of him posted to fb in April. It's hard to see (in the wheelchair picture), but he had an external rod/pins on his right leg.

The latter half of this week

We got to tour a bit more of Santiago. There is a cigar factory here that is world renown. They have a replica of the original factory that tourists can walk through and view people making the cigars under the original conditions. It was interesting - not because I smoke, or even appreciate cigars, but because the process takes about 7 1/2 years to complete. First, the tobacco ages for 7 years, then it is rolled into a cigar, next it is pressed for 2 hours, after this it is finished, but aged 6 more months, FINALLY, it is packaged and sold. (Above is a pic of them hand-rolling the cigars.)

We ended up working Thursday and Friday in the Central Church with the construction crew. When we got there, several Haitian women saw us join in the work, so they too joined us to help. Let me tell you, I have gained a new understanding of why people discontinued the work of the Tower of Babel after God changed their languages. The foreman, Luis is Hispanic, but speaks some Creole and a little bit of English. (I'm not actually sure how much Creole he speaks.) The workers are Haitian and Hispanic. The volunteers are American and Haitian. Receiving directives becomes a very interesting and intricate process. However, it is manageable. The Haitian women that worked with us were so much fun. The first half of Thursday, they didn't try to talk to us, but were very positive people who had a lot of fun working with one another. The second half of Thursday, they revealed to us that they could speak some English. Through a lot of sign and some translation from Creole to Spanish to English, we communicated. Between Thursday and Friday our tasks included, taking unused materials back out of the building (bricks and wood), carrying mixed concrete, cleaning up the building (picking up all kinds of trash and concrete debri), sanding the concrete walls with concrete block pieces, and chiseling the concrete floors smooth. The Haitian women were doing this work in cheap flip-flops. Lisa, one of the GO missionaries was able to give them shoes from donations. They were SOOO happy! very awesome to see.

Here are pictures of the church. It is HUGE! There are 7 class rooms, a main middle area (shown in the second of these two pics), a kitchen, dorms/bathrooms, and an upstairs sanctuary. It will be beautiful when it is finished! This church will hold worship for a Dominican/Haitian service for Hoya del Caimito. The current church location will be destroyed and rebuilt as a medical center.

Side note: the process of chiseling the concrete floors was frustrating to me. I just could not understand why we were doing it. I mean, I understood that the floor was uneven, but I could not understand why they go through the process this way. I asked Willby (Haitian pastor who is fluent in English and Spanish) about it. He told me that they pour the concrete floor for the foundation, however, when they build the walls and ceilings, concrete from these drips on the floor. The drips dry, then we have to chisel them off. After everything is chiseled smooth, another layer of concrete is poured onto it to make it a flat surface, THEN tile is added. At least this is my understanding.

Anyways, I want to share a story with you from Letta, one of the Haitian girl I visited with while we worked. She said that she was in her school in Haiti when the earthquake hit. The school collapsed. I think that a wall fell on her foot. Her friends pushed the wall off and took her to the hospital. She said that she was just screaming "Oh my God, Oh my God, Help me! Help me!" She said she looked around and her friends and teacher were dead. Only 6 other students survived. She moved to the Dominican to live with her cousin soon after the quake. She's been here 3 months. She is planning to go back to college here in June to study Chemistry. Her family is fine.

This is me with Nataly (Left) and Letta (Right).

School

This school is less than a block away from where I am staying right now.


Above is the outside view of the school; below is a picture of one of the classrooms.



This morning we visited the private school in Hoyo del Caimito. Gabriel, the recently retired GO President - from the Dominican, started the school about 26 years ago. Each of the kids who attend the school are supported by GO Kids. GO Kids program finds sponsors for each child; sponsors support the child with $30 a month. This is enough for the child to go to school, get one meal a day, and get a birthday and Christmas present. (If you have an interest in partnering with GO Kids, visit this link http://www.go-ministries.org/)

The school is very nice. The children get to learn English and French, as well as other normal courses. Here in the DR, school children attend half a day. There's one group at the school in the morning, a second comes in the afternoon. (High school is held in the evenings, though this school does not teach high school.) Out of last year's class of 27 (8th graders), 25 passed the national exam. This is impressive because the average public school only passes 50% of their students.


This picture is of a wall that used to have a small shelf of books. The depth of the pic is not very good, but it is only about 5 feet or less wide. This tiny section was the school library.


This picture is of the current library. Though some of the shelves are a little empty, the amount of books has been much improved! Also, someone partnered with the school donated about...26 working laptops. Before this donation, the school had only one or two for an entire class of 25 students to use for computer class. This room also houses a projector.

This is the view from one of the upper floors. The kids were having recess here when we arrived.

The Hole

Also, when I went with Greenville in 2008, we visited the Hole. It is a town built on a landfill. When we went, the feeding center/church were not yet complete. Here are some more then and now photos/videos...
Then:
This is the Nutrition Center area (however, we were doing VBS crafts in the picture.)


This is the kitchen in which they cooked for about 100 kids everyday; as you can see it is very small.



The kitchen was actually next door, so the food was passed through the window slats to be fed to the kids.

Now:

In these videos, I don't talk because it was a little loud. One is of the feeding center - the new kitchen is along the back wall. The other is of the upstairs sanctuary. It's beautiful! I was quite impressed. Amazing how much change and progress God's blessed this church/nutrition center with!

Update from Greenville's work in 2008

To give a little info of what the church looked like when we were there in 2008, I've added these pictures. (The third picture is of the main level.)





This is a video of the church that Greenville Christian worked on; it is still not completed, however, a lot of progress has been made. I thought people would be interested in seeing it.



And the beautiful front entrance view:

Just a little bit out of my comfort zone...

Earlier today, Amanda and I spent a bit of time cleaning house. I went to find the cleaner under the sink, couldn't see, got a headlamp, discovered water, looked closer, found that bacteria had also discovered the water, and proceeded to clean out the 1/2inch of water below the sink...This grossed me out mostly because the bacteria was large enough to be seen swimming around in the stagnant pool. It was not too difficult to clean up and bleach though. Now we just have to find the leak. It seems to be seeping through the base of the wall from rain water.
When we got back from dinner this evening, Amanda and Katie, my housemates and fellow interns, saw a mouse. Unfortunately we have little idea where it went...but I did discover that it likes my soap - as evident from the pictures below. Mice are my favorite. Any of the guards from camp would agree! not. haha...it's ok though. It won't eat me. :) I'm bigger than the mouse. Positive self-talk helps, right?

Park Visiting, Warehouse Cleaning, and MORE! :)

Yesterday, we had the privilege of walking to the park. It's about a 1/2 mile or so from where we are staying. It's beautiful! Looks just like any US park. It has a walkway, ping pong tables, basketball courts, picnic areas, and a dance studio. Quite impressive. Below you see the playground equipment:
This is a view of the ping-pong tables:

And here is a shot of the walkway with some of the picnic areas. The walkway actually has golden numbers stating the distance traveled. The whole track is like 500Meters.

Something else that happened yesterday...I made my first purchase at the colmado (little store).

I went to the colmado to get some butter. I explain to him that I want a little. So he goes to get a butter container from the fridge or something. He then grabs a little baggie, scoops the butter from the container with a spoon, into the baggie, then hands it to me. Without weighing it or anything, he just charged me a certain amount. It was a funny experience. Yes, it is safe to eat! We double-checked before we tried it out.

Also yesterday, I killed my first flying cock-roach. I feel that this is important to mention because it is the first - probably of many. The bugs haven't been to bad yet for me...Though I have been bitten a few times by bugs we refer to as no-see-ums (because you never see them, but they bite you...and Jimmie, this is different than the ones I don't see but get bit by in the states. ;))

Today, Amanda and I worked on cleaning and organizing the GO Ministries warehouse. Walking into this project was definitely overwhelming. So many donations have come in over the last months and have not been able to get properly put away. Below are some shots taken 2 hours into the re-organizing process...

Tuesday we will hopefully be able to finish organizing in there - or at least get the shelving back up and stuff over there picked up. I'd like to point out, that the bins in the middle picture are all shoes. We sorted through all of them dividing them into bins labeled for women's shoes, women's sneakers, men's shoes, men's sneakers, kids shoes, etc...It's awesome how many pairs of shoes people have been able to send to GO.

A few of my thoughts...
It's been so so nice to get here before teams arrive. Amanda and I both are taking in so much information. We are asking all kinds of questions that at some point this summer, we will probably be asked by team members. I'd like to ask that you pray that we (and the other interns soon arriving - there are 11 total summer staff/interns this year) will be able to remember all/most of the things we are learning...specifically the people and names of Dominican/Haitian ministry partners. I have met so many new people. One of them asked me today if I remembered him...I felt terrible that I couldn't (though I did remember his name once he reminded me of where we met).

Few pictures...

Above you see the passion fruit...Below you see an oh-so-becoming picture of me with the humongous carrot...

The above picture is of the kitchen in the house I'm staying at; below is the living room; bottom picture is of my bed with the mosquito net - no the bugs are not too bad here, but I'm using it just as a precaution.

I'm Here!

Yay! I made it to the DR last night. Flights were not bad...
I got in to my temporary room in Hoya del Caimito; it's in a GO Ministries house. Currently, I have the room to myself, though tomorrow, I think another intern will move in to share it with me. The house is very nice. We have running water and electricity! Praise God! The weather has been very humid. Last night, in my bedroom, my thermometer read 85 degrees. Thankfully I now have a borrowed fan! The neighborhood here is much louder than I'm used to. Last night the Dominicans were out on the street until after midnight playing music, visiting, and shouting. Also, I got to eat a passion fruit last night...think I'd eaten one before, but can't remember. It's very sour and slimy...very interesting.
Today, we went shopping at the main stores in town and picked up another intern from the airport. I saw the biggest carrot I've ever seen...I will be posting pictures!
I am pretty tired now and trying to process all the things I'm learning about this culture...so I'm running short on words. I will try to post as much as I can.
Again, thanks for your prayers! It's amazing how much I can feel God's peace in my decision to be here.

My Itinerary...

For anyone who would like to know, here is my itinerary...

May 18th:

Departure :02:10 PM - Louisville, USA - Louisville International

Arrival :04:45 PM - Miami, USA - Miami International

Departure :06:30 PM - Miami, USA - Miami International

Arrival :08:35 PM - Santiago, Dominican Republic - Santiago Municipal

July 27th:

Departure :08:50 AM - Santiago, Dominican Republic - Santiago Municipal

Arrival :10:55 AM - Miami, USA - Miami International

Departure :02:25 PM - Miami, USA - Miami International

Arrival :04:35 PM - Chicago, USA - O'Hare International, terminal 3

Departure :05:25 PM - Chicago, USA - O'Hare International, terminal 3

Arrival :07:35 PM - Louisville, USA - Louisville International