A day in the Republica Dominicana

WoW is the word that both Lauretta and I used to describe the day. Actually, both of us came home and posted “WoW” as our status on Facebook without the other knowing it. 

Today was eyeopening in many ways. At times we were surrounded by beautiful scenery, yet we were also surrounded by things that were so ugly. The Dominican Republic has green mountains and crystal blue water at the beach; the pineapple here is exquisite and rice and beans are quite tasty. But there are people with no food here, and children that run around naked. There are whole communities of people that are discriminated against here and people that live day to day off of what they can scavenge in a dump.  See beautiful and ugly. 

This morning we went to a village called Aguas Negras (Black Waters). When we arrived our truck was met with children. We pulled out a basketball and tons of boys gathered to play at the village court. There were also several smaller kids hanging around that didn’t seem to have much to do, but one of the kids found a flat ball and we began to play catch. I noticed that the kids kept putting the ball up to their mouths and finally I realized that they were blowing the ball up with their mouths. American children would not have dreamed of playing with a ball in that condition and these kids didn’t mind that sometimes the ball went into the mounds of trash around our play area. They just continued to blow the ball up and we continued to play. After a few minutes we went to see a house that one of the young women in the village was building. It was a wooden home and to American standards it would not be considered a great place to live, but compared to the surrounding homes it was pretty nice. This young woman was doing the best she could to have a real home. I am excited that she is going to have a place to live soon. The best part of our visit to Aguas Negras was when we walked to Pastor Jacob’s church. Lots of children followed us to the church and when we walked inside the kids sat down as if they were ready for a service. We responded by beginning to sing a children’s song in Spanish. The kids seemed to really enjoy singing; they all wanted to lead a song. Actually many of the kids lead at some point. We clapped and sang and just enjoyed our impromptu worship service. It was really exciting to see the kids smiling and singing. 

After we left the village we stopped by a beach to celebrate Three Kings Day with a group of about 22 foster kids. These kids are known as Blanco’s Kids. The kids had a party on the beach. When we arrived they were playing with kites, making bracelets and getting medical check-ups. The kids enjoyed their time on the beach and it was nice to see Blanco’s ministry. 

After lunch and a little bit of rest we headed out to another village called Hollo de los Puercos. That means the hole of the pigs and I could see why. The village is home to Dominicans and Haitian refugees. It is located near the Puerta Plata dump; the smell there was one of the worst I have encountered in my lifetime. I have never seen houses so close together or streets so narrow. The main reason for our visit to the village today was to distribute baseball equipment that we collected before we left the US. When we arrived the baseball team was waiting for us at their field. This team had zero equipment to call their own until today. We gave them bats, balls, hats, and gloves. The boys were ready to begin using the equipment right away. They were excited to see the portable bases that we gave them to. Before our day was over the team played a game just to try out the new stuff. For me it was very exciting to see the kids throwing and catching and hitting. I loved playing ball with them. Yes this Gringa loved catching for one of the boys as he hit ground balls to his teammates. I am sure that we will post pictures of this event soon. I know Lauretta got some good shots, sadly my camera died halfway through our visit to this village. Towards the end of our time in Hollo de los Puercos, Lauretta, Brad, Abie, and I all walked to the Haitian portion of the village. We crossed over a trash filled river and spoke to just about everyone we saw. Several kids started to follow us and we played with them as we walked through the village. One of the little boys that we were playing with had the most intoxicating laugh. It actually brought tears to my eyes; he had so much laughter despite his sad surroundings. I don’t think I will ever forget his laughter. 

It is now the end of our day. Lauretta and I just looked through our pictures and we talked about what we did today. We are both tired and ready to sleep but we are excited to see what tomorrow will bring. 

Thanks for sticking with it and reading this lengthy blog. I got a little carried away! 

Dios te bendiga!