Loma - Tuesday, February 12, 2019

Today was Rainy in the morning, Rainy in the daytime, Rainy at supper time! (to the tune of Sugartime).   Bea and Donna went directly to Loma this morning and got right to work.  They helped with the children's programs today - morning session and afternoon session. When Bea wasn't doing that she was unpacking supplies, reorganizing and restocking shelves of 'gifts' (incentives for the children).  The gifts can be exchanged for 'points' that the children can earn in many ways.  A highlight of the morning (repeated in the afternoon) was celebrating Kelvin's birthday.  Kelvin works for Servant's Heart Ministries.  

Meanwhile Vic, John & Dario were hanging out at the local construction supply store, getting lumber, screws, nails, etc. and generally just having a good time while the ladies were hard at work.  We arrived at Loma over an hour later and got to work unloading the supplies and then rearranging and removing some of the construction equipment in our work space.  We did manage to get one shelf up before leaving for lunch.  We got the second shelf up in the afternoon.  We then had to shift everything from one side of the room to the other in order to start shelves on the other wall.  We managed to get about half the lumber cut in preparation for tomorrow.  

It was at this point that Vic walked into the area where the ladies were and announced,"How come your sitting down, we thought you were working?"  Donna's eyebrows shot up as she scowled at Vic, "We just sat down this instant.  And why are you in here?  Shouldn't you be working?"  Vic quickly left to join me out front.

 Loma Children - Welcome to the Great Adventure

Dancing

Celebrating Kelvin's Birthday

 Receiving Shoebox Gifts

 Kelvin & Phil in the Office

Wendy in the Office

Children can earn Incentive Gifts for 

Class Attendance, Behaviour & Work

 John Drilling Holes for Shelf Brackets

 Vic & Eddy Mounting the Brackets

The Completed Shelves

Have to Move all This

Ready for Shelf Construction on Other Side

Tomorrow's Job

Loma - Monday, February 11, 2019

Went to the village of Loma de Los Chivos in the morning for a briefing session, including a tour of the property to see all the improvements made in just one year - 3 rooms added, larger septic system, concrete channel constructed and buried to divert flood water, heavier steel security bars on windows and doors, new paint everywhere, new furniture for teaching rooms, foundation for a storage building, and many smaller improvements including high speed WiFi.  

In the afternoon, Vic and I measured spaces and designed shelf units for the room where Dave Chapman teaches his Art Classes.  Bea and Donna went to the Pregnancy Education Centre to begin the task of emptying and sorting the contents of dozens of suitcases of supplies and deciding what should go where.  Surplus suitcases were given away.  

At the Entrance to the Restaurant

Appearance of New Building Last Year

 New Front on the Loma Community Centre

 Foundation of New Building at Back of Property

 View from Back Looking at Community Centre

 The Women's Classroom

 Guitar & Teaching Classroom

 This is the Boy's Program for Loma

The Girl's Program is "I'm Different"

Looking towards the New Construction

Eventual Playground Between the 2 Buildings

 Vic & I will start Building Shelves in the Room Tomorrow

 Some more Stuff we have to Work Around

 Red Flag up at the Beach Tonight

And the Reason Why a Red Flag is Up

Puerto Plata - Saturday, February 9, 2019

Well, Friday was quite a day.  Up at 8 a.m.  Last minute purchases made.  Tried to rest for the day ahead.  Dropped the car at our son's house and hitched a ride with a friend to the church in Norval where we had stowed all our bags.  Now about 10 p.m.  Fine tuned the packing of many bags.  Waited fitfully for Aeroport taxi to pick us up at 2 a.m.  Crazy trip - up to 140 kph in a minivan full of over 700 pounds of passengers and bags in blowing snow.  Luckily the 401 was amazingly quite dry.  Arrived to a mostly deserted Terminal 3 and searched around for someone to direct us to the Air Transat counters.  Finally struggled there with our 3 groaning carts.

Bea pushing 2 monster carts of baggage.  Actually a 'photo op'.

Bea and I checked our bags and got our boarding passes.  The 3rd member of Journey 2019, Vic Lytle from Kitchener arrived pushing his walker, around 4 a.m. to join the maddening crowd of 100's of Caribbean bound mostly seniors.  After checking his bags, Bea and I left him to the mercy of the GTAA team of wheelchair jockeys while we proceeded to Gate B29 to await our aircraft.  Vic arrived about an hour later, looking a bit frazzled, and immediately asked for a coffee.  I obliged him within 15 minutes by locating a less popular venue than Tim's or Starbucks, which had massive lineups.

Boarding was a tedious affair, involving an initial fleet of wheelchair-bound passengers who were delayed in the near freezing loading ramp for 10 minutes while the plane crew made final preps for boarding.  Once the wheelchair contingent was aboard, loading proceeded without further incident and the plane actually left on time - 6:30 a.m.  The Jet Stream Gods favoured us and pushed the plane to it's destination nearly 15 minutes early.  However, the Resort Gods conspired against us and without our rooms until 2 p.m. so we passed the time with a leisurely lunch and puttered around for awhile, sweating and trying to remain calm.  

The resort where we are staying was recently renovated following extensive damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017.

Track of Hurricane Maria in September 2017

After settling into our room, Bea and I toured the resort and took a few pics for you to see where we will be staying.  We will be working on Servant's Heart Ministries projects during the daytime and recuperating at night.

 East Beach looking towards Sosua by the Sea Resort 

where we stayed the past few years.

 Selves-ie

 Surf pounding the coral.

 West Beach 

Looking into the sun towards the Puerto Plata Airport

Georgetown - Sunday, February 3, 2019

On Sunday we received some additional contributions for our trip to the Dominican.  On Sunday afternoon we did some juggling and repacking of the 6 hockey bags.  They are all near the maximum weight of 50 pounds (23 kg).

Cambridge - Saturday, February 2, 2019

Bea and I rendezvoused with Vic at 'Halfway Tim's' on Townline in Cambridge where we picked up some supplies going to the Dominican.  Included are two laptop computers, a drill, knitting and sewing items from St Luke's Lutheran church in Kitchener, where Vic attends.  We also went over the plans for meeting up at Toronto airport and went over our tentative itinerary when in the Dominican.  I showed him some plans of what David would like built in his Art classroom in Loma.  We should be kept busy.

 Vic & John amused about something

Vic & John being more serious 

Studying David's plans

Picking up Supplies

Some of the knitting that we received was done by a 90+ year old woman in Kitchener.

Here are her contributions

 100 Bibs for Babies

Sweaters, Hats, etc. from St Luke's 

Tuesday, January 29, 2019 - Picton

We now have 4 bags packed, each one close to the 50 pound (23 kg) limit.  The open bag is mostly tools and materials for woodworking, including, masks, goggles and gloves.  Oh yes, and a first aid kit just in case.  Some items coming from our 3rd team member (Vic in Kitchener) will fill up this 5th bag.  That leaves us one more to pack.  We will be ferrying all our bags to Georgetown this weekend in preparation for leaving on the following Saturday, February 9th.

Preparation for the DR - Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Our 2019 team consists of 3 people:  John & Bea Henderson from Picton, Prince Edward County and Vic Lytle from Kitchener.  We will be in the DR for nearly 2 weeks this year so that we don't have to feel rushed and can hopefully enjoy a bit more 'down time' than in past trips.  We will continue working with Servant's Heart Ministries in the Sosua area near Puerto Plata.  We are flying Air Transit this year and staying at a different resort (next to the one where we have been staying for a few years now) to save a bit of money.  Unlike WestJet, Air Transat does not have a regular policy of allowing an extra 'Humanitarian' bag to go for free.  However, a charitable organization can send a special request to Air Transat asking for dispensation of the fee.  We have received approval to each carry a 23 kg (50 pound) bag in addition to the usual 23 kg bag of stowed baggage.  The pictures below show some of the supplies that we take with us to support the various programs run by Servant's Heart Ministries.

Tools and Painting Supplies

School Supplies and Teddy Bears

Towels, Clothing etc. for Various Programs

Craft Supplies

For the Pregnancy Resource Centre

Medical Supplies

Jewelry for the Women & Girl's Programs

We Will be there for Valentine's Day