WORKING

WORKING

August 12, 2012
If you want to just look at pictures click:  HERE

This past week was very busy for us. Sunday we were back in Los Alcarrizos checking on our project with Conani (a day care for abandoned/very poor children). Monday we met with the West Mission Office to report projects we have in their area.  We joined in celebrating with Elder and Sister Ford, the completion of their mission. This was their 5^th mission!

Batey Hoyo del Toro

Tuesday we rode Dr. Evenlyn Diaz, Ophthalmologist out to a very poor community called Batey Hoyo del Toro next to San Pedro de Macoris.  The people (mostly Haitians) were field laborers in the Sugar Cane fields.  The original owner sold the fields and the new owner no longer employed workers, using machinery instead, leaving people without employment.  There is one ray of hope for them.  A mining company is building a large power plant close by which will deliver power to their mines in the north part of the country.  They employee 200 people as construction workers on the new power plant, but there’s not nearly enough jobs to go around.  Many old people are abandoned by the young as they move to the city to find work.  Dr. Diaz is doing an amazing work in offering a free eye exam clinic.  She requires that they take training on eye care first and then will bring about 50 doctors in one weekend to serve the community.  They often see about 500 people and do about 50 surgeries during one of her visits.  The church donated the portable equipment that makes her outreach program work and we are trying to get our Church members involved in assisting her during her clinic visits.

ADR Bonao

Thursday we traveled northwest to a city called Bonao.  Here we presented some physical therapy equipment that we purchased for one of our partner organizations, Asociacion Dominicana de Rehibilitation (ADR).  ADR offers reduced or free services to the poor for physical therapy, occupational therapy, and special education and is one of our wheelchair distributors.  They have been remodeling their facility in Bonoa.  It was a nice ceremony—we call it an entrega here because it usually involves the delivery of something. There is always a lot of picture taking and big speeches.  A special part of the ceremony was a speech given by one of the youth from our Church telling about how it made him feel to give service to this facility.  Nineteen youth cleaned the facility and started digitizing all the patient records.  They plan to continue their service until all the records are digitized.  This is a big commitment.

Constanza Food Project

Saturday we traveled a narrow winding road up the side of Pico Duarte a 10,000 feet high mountain, passing through 10 little villages and down into the picturesque fertile valley of the town of Constanza. We were there to present the Food Initiative to the members. After our presentation, they fed us a big dinner, the “bandera”--rice, beans and chicken, the traditional meal.  Most people in Constanza are farmers.  We visited a tomato farm greenhouse covering nearly an acre of land.  It is highly automated and produces tons of beautiful tomatoes.  The tomatoes trunks are left to lie on the ground as the stem grows until some of the plants were at least 10’ long and still producing on the end of the plant.  They gave us some of their prize tomatoes.

It was a good week with a lot of traveling.  We enjoy getting out of the city and we enjoy coming back to our little apartment and no matter where we go it is always an adventure!

Almost a record

Wallace was a little slow on the camera trigger.  This moto family had just left off a family member before Wallace took the picture.  It would have been a record with 5 people riding a motorcycle at one time

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