Saturday, February 11, 2012

Today was the final day of our Journey.  We returned to Esperanza, where 2 duplex apartments were given to 4 single men.  Since one of the duplex houses will not be completed for a day or two, we only moved 2 of the men.  Each man received a bag of food and will be getting a new bed.  After the dedication ceremonies a ‘party‘ was held for the community.  Pop and cookies were distributed to all and bubble mix was given to the children.  Following the festivities, a work crew headed over to Los Algodones to move the possessions of the 2 men.  Try to imagine all your worldly goods barely covering the bed of a pickup truck!!  Most of us throw away more than that every month.  Following the move, a tear-down of one shack was accomplished in less than an hour.  This activity gave a feeling of great satisfaction.  Where once stood over 200 shacks, only a few remain and they will be gone soon as well.  Next week a team from the University of Guelph arrives to bulldoze the site in preparation for creating gardens for the community.  And another chapter will be written in the story of Elio Madonia and his 'Samaritan Foundation'.  http://www.thesamaritanfoundationdr.com/

Dennis Translates as Pastor Jim Dedicates the Homes

Pastor Dale Blessing the New Homes

Everyone Loves a Party

Joselito Leaves His Shack for the Last Time

Worldly Possessions in a Pickup

Tear-down Begins

All Materials are Saved

Gone for Good

Friday, February 10, 2012

The whole team went to Ascension Village for the morning.  About half of us walked up to the top of the village to see what had changed over the year.  There is still a feeling of tension, even 2 years after a murder occurred and the Dominicans and Haitians battled over it.  At the time, the village was about 80% Haitian, but many were driven away so that now it is closer to 50%.  This village has the unfortunate disadvantage of being rather isolated.  It costs about $3 to get a motor taxi ride to town and back and many jobs don’t pay well enough.  There is one old man who has a garden which is a 4 hour walk away.  He leaves at 5 and returns at 7 each day. 

Our purpose today was to help serve lunch to over 200 village children, which is done twice a week under a program run by a couple from B.C.   It was accomplished very efficiently with children rotating through the ‘dining hall’ as spaces became available.  Today’s meal was rice, beans and vegetable stew.  Water or juice is provided and each child gets a vitamin pill as they leave.   The meal is often a very hearty soup made with packages of dried beans and vegetables from ‘The Gleaners’ in Cambridge, Ontario.  Our team brought several  hockey bags of this soup.  A 3 kg bag will make enough soup to feed 100 kids. 

Another program in the village works with maternity.  About 90 babies are born each year.  One of the challenges, apart from providing nutrition, is to educate girls about birth control.  Average birth weight has increased from 4.5 pounds up to 6.5 pounds over the last 2 years, which has greatly reduced infant mortality.  This has been a mixed blessing.

We ate lunch aboard the bus on our way to ‘Paso Valiente’ village, where we packed and distributed 250 bags of food.  The local pastor identified the neediest families and issued each a special ticket to be exchanged for food.  The beans, rice, pasta, tomato paste, sugar, oatmeal and cooking oil is enough to feed a typical family for 1 to 2 weeks.

Following the food distribution, we went to ‘Nest of Love’ school in the village of ‘Emanuel‘, where we dropped off a hockey bag of school supplies and 2 refurbished laptop computers. This new school is still under construction but its first classes are already operating.  Two years ago classes were being held in a house and the teachers were receiving almost nothing.  The school is being funded by 'The Samaritan Foundation'.

Our final stop today was in village ‘Paraiso’ (Paradise), where we got to see the new technical school being built.  Classes are already being taught in Tailoring (2 classes of 25 women each day) and woodworking.  Bea donated a lot of material from her sister in law.  Shops for teaching electrical and plumbing are nearing completion.  We were given a tour of Paradise School, run by Kim and Josie Pensinger of ‘Dominican Advance’, a nonprofit charity organization based in Vermont, USA and in Cambridge, Canada.

A Street in Ascension Village

Preparing Lunch for Ascension Feeding Program

Children Having Lunch in Ascension

Food for Distribution in Paso Valiente

250 Bags of Food

A Family that Received Food

The Tailoring Shop in Paradise

Thursday, February 09, 2012

Got off to a better start today – lunches were ready!  Once we were seated on the bus, Cath informed us that, “It’s going to be a little hectic today.  We’ll be going in separate directions together”.  Huh??  It brought to mind the office sign of a former colleague at school:  I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I’m not sure you realize that what you heard me say is not what I meant.

The group was divided among 3 locations today.  (Ah, that’s what she meant.)  First stop was Can Grejo, where Phil and Donna Williams, a couple from Nova Scotia, started a church/school building a few years ago. It now has 4 classes of students and will continue adding a class each year until grade 8, when hopefully some will continue on to higher education.  Phil came on the bus and announced a tour of the village if any new people were aboard.  Someone pointed at Vic (who has been coming here for many years).  Phil retorted, “Vic’s not new, he just forgets he’s been here”.  Some of us went to see the school library which received money from Norval Church congregation last year.  Several men stayed to help put up chain link fencing, paint the new ‘storage house’ and to try to sort out some wiring problems.

Bea and I traveled to Sosua Abaho to help paint part of a school.  Eight of us painted for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon and accomplished our assignment.  The school administrator and teachers were thrilled.  We were the first group to come and help them. 

Most of the remaining folks went to Liberacion village where Phil and Donna have a medical clinic.  Medical Supplies were brought by Journey 2012 were donated to the clinic.  One of our team members, Carolyn, spent part of her day examining children at one of the schools and at Liberacion.  Also at Liberacion a workshop was held for about 25 young girls and boys on how to make bracelets from ‘gimp’ (plastic string).  This was led by our youngest team member, Danny, who had given a workshop the previous evening to those of our team who helped him today.

Phil and Donna recently acquired the services of a young lady who is starting the ‘Empower Girls Program’ which she designed to enable the young women of the area to escape from the cycle of poverty which often leads to prostitution.  This is a ground breaking project in the area and we wish her every success.

So, as you can see, our Journey 2012 team did indeed “go in separate directions together”.

Phil Showing Us the Library

Putting Up the Chain Link Fencing

Painting the School in Sosua Abaho

Clowning in Sosua Abaho

Danny Instructing the Instructors

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Today started with a minor glitch – somehow the resort missed our order and lunches didn’t get made.  A ‘raiding party’ descended on the dining hall and spirited off several dozen hard boiled eggs, buns and plates of fruit.  Hey, we’re nothing if not resourceful!!

We arrived in Esperanza just in time to offload a pickup truck piled with doors and shutters to be painted.  Another crew went to carry the metal roof sheets from storage to the building site, while others shoveled, barrowed and leveled gravel to prepare the floor for concrete.  Some of us took a break to tour the few remaining shanties of Los Algodones (the place of cotton – an odd name considering that sugar cane cutters live there).  It is slowly being evacuated as new houses are constructed in Esperanza and families are moved in.  About 250 new houses will eventually be constructed.  We met a humanitarian group from Western Canada, who were just completing 2 weeks of work in the village and dedicated 15 new houses today. 

By the time we left the village in the early afternoon, all the new wood was covered with paint and the metal roof on the duplex was nearing completion.  We are definitely feeling the effects of working in the heat (speaking for myself anyway).

We did a bit of touring this afternoon, including a trip to an old fort perched on a rise above the entrance to the Puerto Plata harbour, where several large freighters were riding anchor or tied up to be loaded or unloaded.  Our return to the resort was interrupted for a brief stop at the Dominican equivalent of  Walmart, where we purchased coffee, vanilla extract and other sundries. 

Moving Metal Roofing Sheets

Another Load for the Painting Crew

Los Algodones Will Soon be Gone



Our Most & Least Senior Team Members



Planting Corn & Beans

School Playground in Esperanza

The Fort

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

After a better sleep than last night (several of us phoned security when the party started again at 2 a.m., which is when the Disco at the beach closes), we were away once again to Esperanza where we spent the day.  We divided into several groups:  painters, block layers, carpenters, tilers, etc. (I use the terms very loosely since our skills are moderate at best).  The morning was spent at these various tasks as the sun rose steadily to its zenith. Lunch gave us a pleasant respite from the building heat (and it’s not even Spring yet).

The afternoon was more of the same from morning plus a sewing class for the village women.  They each made a ‘hot pad’ for placing a pot from the stove onto a table.  Over 50 women of all ages took part and were eager learners and proudly showed off the finished items.  Bea made herself useful looking after babies for the mothers taking part in the lesson.

The afternoon also brought our first heat casualty.  One of the block layers (whose name shall be omitted to spare him further embarrassment) (not me) had the heavens break open and a rain of stars flood his vision.  He was taken by truck up the hill to the clinic, where he rested and drank electrolyte until his strength returned.  In fairness, he is a steady worker in his seventies, and had been careful to take rest breaks and drink lots of water.  It was a lesson to all of us – we are not used to working in the heat, especially coming directly from our winter cold.  

Charlie and Marilyn are becoming skilled tillers and look forward to renovating a bathroom when they return home.  Gerry has acquired the expertise of applying urethane and spent the morning finishing two bed frames which were constructed in Paradise woodshop from money left by the folks in Week One.

Story Within the Story

Gerry says, "Bring me another bed to paint".

Team member Gerry survived polio as a child and spent time in the dreaded ‘iron lung’ and several years of wearing leg braces.  To add injury to insult, he was run over by a truck later in his life and received further damage to an arm and leg.  While moving around has sometimes proved to be a challenge, especially in the villages, Gerry has strived to make himself a productive team member.  He has developed an enviable skill of painting while seated - and gets less paint on him than the standing folks.  He is truly an inspiration to us all.  Way to go Gerry!!

And a Lesser Story

On the very rough gravel road to and from the village, our bus must cross through a creek bed, which can flood and prevent passage.  While never having this happen (it nearly did in 2008) today we experience something different.  When we got out to the main road, it became apparent that the twin tires at the back had picked up a rock which caused a jumpy ride.  Manuel stopped the bus and a very large rock was pried out allowing us to continue back to the resort. 





Master Tiler Marilyn

Gavin & Stephanie Entertaining the Kids

Shutter Painting Assembly Line

Up on the Rooftop with John

Gloria Teaching in the Sewing Class

Danny the 'Mudder'

Monday, February 06, 2012

After a night of fragmented sleep due to the many ‘good-timers’ carousing until 4:30 a.m., Bea awoke to notice that our alarm had not gone off.  ‘Housekeeping’ replaced the batteries in our clock last night and reset the time to 9:10 a.m. instead of p.m.  We still managed to make 7 o’clock ‘meditation’ led by Cath.  We enjoyed a hearty breakfast and then were away to Esperanza (Spanish for ‘hope’).  This village was started in 2009 and now has over 220 houses, a church, a school, artisan shops, and a medical clinic. Our team of 23 people split into 3 groups – painters, diggers and block layers.  Just to clarify, yesterday I said that 22 people came here for week 2, but Vic (our industrious bookkeeper and go-to-guy) came down for week 1 as well.  He spent a lot of his time in the woodshop in Paradise village making window shutters and doors to be installed in Esperanza and a new village (Zion). After a sweaty morning of labour we glad to break for lunch.  John Huizinga, the Director of ‘Samaritan Foundation’ arrived to express thanks and tell us that he would like to see us finish one of the houses so that a family could be moved in on Saturday.  This means filling and leveling the base for a concrete floor and porch, mixing and pouring the concrete, putting on a wood and corrugated metal roof, and installing window shutters and doors.  A huge challenge since most of the work must be done in the next 2 days!!! 



Master Blocklayer (behind me)



After lunch of ham & cheese sandwiches, muffins, croissants and bananas we left for the Public Hospital in Puerto Plata.  Note:  We never consume all the lunch food provided by the resort, so it is discretely distributed to the neediest families in the village.  There we visited the children’s, adult’s and maternity wards to give our greetings and gift bags containing many items, including toiletries, washcloths and toys for the children.  We dispensed nearly 80 gift bags to patients and babies. 

Story Within a Story:

Before leaving Ontario, Bea had a very vivid dream about a baby that had been abandoned by its mother and was in a crib at the far end of the maternity ward.  Imagine her shock when we learned that there was indeed such a baby in that location. She had been brought in by a young couple who were giving her care and who hope to keep her.  It was a very touching (i.e. teary) encounter.  Bea was later found lingering in the maternity ward, rocking a newborn baby and giving its young mother some techniques in consoling a baby.

Two Happy Brothers

Bea's 'Dream Baby'

Sunday, February 05, 2012

Waiting at Toronto Airport

Journey 2012 (22 people) arrived in the Dominican Republic safely, on time and with no complications.  We were even served a hot meal with complimentary wine on Air Transat. There was no baggage check at DR customs and no questions asked.  We were in our rooms around midnight.  The rooms are very nice and food is excellent, with too much choice.  Slept in this morning, but made it to breakfast before 10 a.m. closing.  Cath Wilke (‘Boss Lady’) called a meeting for 12 to brief us on the daily procedure for our work week and gave an overview of the itinerary, which is usually subject to change at any moment depending on weather and scheduling of the people we work with in the villages.  After lunch, several of our group sorted and packed ‘gift bags’ for our hospital visit tomorrow afternoon.  The rest of today is ‘free time’ to wander around the resort or enjoy the beach.  Bea and I watched a father and son experiencing an aerial view of the beach from a paraglider.  We met a lady from Vancouver, B.C. who was impressed that we would come here on a holiday and spend our days in the outlying villages doing humanitarian work.  I think Bea and I are more impressed that people can come here and spend an entire week eating, sleeping and getting burned to a crisp.

Packing Gift Bags for Hospital Visit

Arriving at the Resort

Report from Week 1 Group

Friday - Day 6

Another fantastic day. Weather was good. 

We had a bit of a sleep in. Freddy and Denis picked us up at 9:15. 

Off to Poncho Mateo - very poor village where lots of Haitians live. There is no running water. Once a day a truck comes in with water. 'Island Light' mission comes in twice a week and helps with feeding a few families. 

Then into Ascension village. In our early years we worked primarily in this village. 'Island Light' comes in 3 times per week. This program helps a lot in the community. Filling the tummies of little children. 

Distributed our diapers and such to the families and then helped in the feeding program. The usual chaos ensued but eventually over 200 children were filled with the hearty soup from 'Ontario Christian Gleaners'. Bill played some tunes on his bagpipe, which of course the children loved. 

On the road again to 'Mosbi' village for our food distribution. Once again chaos ensued but we were able to organize 75 grocery bags full of food. Then we had the delightful task of collecting tickets and giving them the bag. 6 team members helped carry the very heavy bags to their casas (houses). 

Back to the resort and a much needed rest. After dinner read the journal and discussed how we spend our money on all the much needed projects. 

Last day - always very bittersweet. 

Julie and Dave. 
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network

Teaching Crochet Skills in Village of Paradise 2011