Loma - Thursday. February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine's Day to all!  😍
Back to Loma - Bea continued with painting and the guys assembled and attached the shelving unit which they built yesterday.  In the afternoon we stopped by the lumber store for more supplies.  This never stops amusing us.  It IS NOT Home Depot!!  In the afternoon Bea did more painting.  She also spent time consulting with staff members about programs at the Community Centre.  She learned what they could really use in the tutoring programs.  Meanwhile, the guys were making more dust to annoy Bea who was trying to paint.

From our Grand Daughters

 Vic, John & Eddy Testing the Set of Shelves

 Bea Primer Coating the Desks/Tables

 Haitian Workers assembling Rebar for New Building

 Foundation for New Building

 Loading Lumber

 Eddy Measuring Lumber

 John Drilling Screw Holes

 Vic Sanding and Sending Dust to Bea's Painting

 Bea Discussing Programs with Orquidea

Boys in a Tutoring Class for Arithmetic  

Loma - Wednesday, February 13, 2019

Phil and Donna picked up Bea and I and Vic and took us to the Community Centre in Loma.  There was nobody at the building Donna had the wad of keys required to gain entry.  Phil managed to open the padlock on the gate, the triple-bolt lock on the steel security bars and the deadbolt on the door.  Once inside the building he released the twist lock on the door to the art room and removed the padlock of the iron grating to get us into the room.  Next came the back door which again was a simple twist lock, but he was finally stymied with the triple-bolt lock on the steel security bars protecting the back door.  A couple of phone calls later and the cook came over with a key to this final barrier.  Getting into the office required another key.  And so to work.

Bea and Donna continued reorganizing the storage room:  unpacking, sorting, classifying, reassigning, etc.  Vic and John set about sanding and preparing the pieces for the shelf units.  They got two units assembled before lunch.

Following lunch back at the resort, Bea, John and Vic returned to Loma with Phil.  Bea spent much of the afternoon painting termite repellant on all the shelves built so far.  John and Vic assembled the final shelf unit.  Phil and Eddy helped with moving the units from the Art Room to the front of the building where Bea was painting, and then back again.

 Sanding and Measuring Boards 

 Termite Proofing Boards

 More Termite Proofing - Wearing Safety Gear

 Our Boss being Udderly Silly

 'Jack-of-all-trades' Eddy securing a Shelf

 Returning a termite-proofed Shelf Unit to the Art Room

 Shelf Units ready for Assembly & Attaching to the Wall

The end of Another Perfect Day

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