Trip Report - 2008 - Lynda and Frank - Wednesday, July 23, 2008

The day has arrived...we're headed to Don Juan in the Dominican Republic for the Mission from the Heart trip, 2008. Pilgrims making the trip this year from Sacred Heart and Saint Ann are pictured above:

Back row, left to right:
Shawn Doyle, Dave Rescott, Frank DeOrio, Lynda DeOrio
Middle row, left to right: Pat Messina, Kathleen Doyle, Meghan Churney, Mary Doyle, Katie Collier, Dale Rescott
Front row, left to right: Penny Anderson, Pat Collier, Marissa Rescott and Charlie Greene.

Our trip begins; we leave home at 4:00 AM, with Penny Anderson. Our Delta flight leaves Syracuse at 6:00 AM with a stop in JFK. We are delayed for an hour, and arrive in the Dominican at 2 pm. In the airport, we bought a $10 tourist card, with cash, went through customs and got our luggage. We were told to keep the luggage claim tag that the airline rep gave us in Syracuse, with the original boarding pass, to get out of the airport.

Father Ron, Sister Veronica and Johanna from Mustad met us at the airport, along with Jamie Dunnick, our interpreter, and her friend Katie Esmark, who arrived earlier on a separate flight. Our suitcases went into a pickup, the tarp was put over it...and then we headed to Mustad for a tour...

Then to the village of Don Juan, our home for the next several days. Traffic through the city of Santo Domingo is crazy; drivers pay no attention to what we would consider "rules of the road," in and out of lanes, passing on left and right. People selling everything from windshield wipers to cell phone chargers, and they walk right up to the vehicle in the street. We saw many half finished buildings, and were told by Father Ron this is common. Power lines are a mess...



Here's some pics of the village...

We went on a tour of the convent in the village - this is the chapel in the convent...

We were all taken to our host families, and introduced. We are staying with Chica. Dinner was ready, which was chicken, plantains (which look like bananas, but taste and are treated like potatoes), and cane juice.

The house is a cement block home, with three bedrooms. There is a bathroom, but no running water. There is a sink in the bathroom, a toilet, and a shower stall. There is a huge rain barrel in the shower stall, along with a five gallon pail, which is filled with the rain water. The toilet is flushed by pouring water from the five gallon pail into the toilet; the paper goes into the wastebasket. This was explained to us by Jamie, who came into our home with us to introduce us to Chica and help us get the "lay of the land." Chica does not speak any English, and we speak only a few simple Spanish phrases. We have a double bed, and have to sleep with a mosquito net over us.
There was no power when we went to bed at 9:15. Just had an oil lamp in our room. We were using our portable fans all night, as it was so hot. Lots of music and talking outside. Dogs bark into the night; they sound very protective.

Thursday, July 24 - Our work begins...

Up at 7 am with the sounds of Burnet Park Zoo...some yelping noise in the backyard (found out it was a puppy!), the roosters crowing, and the pigs eating next door...speaking of which, they joined us in the house before breakfast - just walked right in the back door! Chica opened the front door, and shooed them back next door, where they belonged.

Breakfast was coffee (half a cup, black, but sweet); fried plantains, cheese and rolls. Chica ate with us - you can see in this picture, that the windows just have louvers on them - no screens, which explains the need for the mosquito netting at night. She always set a beautiful table for us, with a nice tablecloth; you can see I always had my Spanish/English dictionary close by! After breakfast, we headed to church at 7:30 AM.

From there, we walked to the school to get our instruction on what our projects would be.

Some people painted in the school...

Penny and I cleaned some of the school toys, with some helpers...

Frank, Charlie and Pat put together the bookshelves that the parish had sent down, and set up the two basketball hoops, one of which was put to immediate use!



Lunch...break at noon; Chica came to get us. She served us rice, beans and sweet sliced plantains. Back to school at 1:30 to finish up the projects.

	The students of the school were watching, and wanted the pictures off the box (behind these girls)...
so Frank used his knife to cut the pictures out for them.

We finished our projects around 4 pm, and went by school van to a nearby church (don't remember the name, perhaps one of the other people can put it in the comment for this post) for mass. Marissa and Mary played their flutes; we were welcomed with hugs. There was a huge rainstorm during mass, didn't seem to phase anyone but us visitors...
Were dropped back in the village park; Katie brought out her bubbles, which the kids enjoyed...
Pat took some pictures, which the kids were anxious to see...
Chica came to bring us back about 7:30 pm, which was good, as we had no idea how to get home from the park! Dinner was a chocolate drink (she showed us the cacao tree at lunch, on the way back to school), some sort of fried orange sausage, and mashed plantains. We went to bed shortly thereafter; we really can't communicate with Chica except for a few hand signals. There was no power again.

Friday, July 25 - Our projects continue...

We woke up to the roosters "cock-a-doodle-doo" at 5:55 am...this is the view out our bedroom window...

...and here is a proud Chica with her roosters, which is our alarm clock every morning!

Breakfast was fried eggs and grilled bread with orange juice and that tasty coffee again. Chica does not eat with us; she has the table all set, and she sits in the living room while we eat. When we were almost finished, she brought us a plate of pineapple with a honey syrup.

We headed to the school and found the kids were already there, waiting for us...

We divided into groups - some continued painting in the school, and Charlie and Frank went to paint the farmacia, which is owned by the church. The remainder stayed at the school and played with the children and taught them how to use the sports equipment that had been sent down earlier...hula hoops, jump ropes, baseball, basketball and soccer equipment...


At noon, Chica came to get me; Frank and Charlie were still painting. Chica's daughter went to get Frank; lunch was rice with chicken, plantains and fruit. Frank headed back to finish painting with Charlie, and I stayed at the house until 2 pm, which was our meeting time at the school. Chica's daughter took me to the farmacia.

Frank and Charlie had been painting...

and were being watched, the entire time, by the pharmacist (with the curlers in her hair) and some villagers...

When we went back to Chica's so Frank could get cleaned up, it poured, and I was able to get some pictures of how the rain barrels catch the rain off the roof...

The rest of the group had met back at the school at 2pm to decorate for the party with the students; due to the rain and Frank's painting, we didn't get there until 2:30. About 100 students showed up, and we made visors with them, that Dale had brought with her. The kids sang and danced for us, and ended with big hugs for all in our group; we celebrated with cake and punch.

We went to 5:00 pm mass, then headed to Via Mia for a youth group presentation of their local culture - songs and dance.

The youth in our group shared in a "cultural exchange" with the youth of the DR...

...followed by dance lessons!

They prepared a buffet dinner for us. We returned to the village, unloaded the groceries that Sister Veronica had bought in town for our host family dinner on Sunday, and were all dropped off at our homes. We collapsed into bed at about 11 pm.

Saturday, July 26 - Trip to Los Llanos

Chica called us for breakfast at 7:30, which was bread and butter, and a big bowl of fruit - pineapple, melon and grapes. We walked to the farmacia (by ourselves! finally getting our bearings!) to be picked up to go to Los Llanos to paint....we always see such interesting things on our walks...

We had to go in two pickup trucks due to the remote location.There were five of us inside the cabs of each of the two trucks, and the rest in the beds of the trucks. It took 45 minutes from Don Juan.

When we arrived, there were about 10 cement block homes, and a store.

This is the church in the village...it may be a future Mission from the Heart project.

Sister Veronica wanted us to prime the front of the homes, then paint them, alternating yellow and blue. It was very hot; 100+ degrees; we did the painting, with help from the villagers.

We were brought coffee by the villagers, and also had a lunch of hot dogs and punch. It started to rain about 1, so we moved in the shelter of the store porch, and spent some time visiting and singing with the villagers, led by Sister Veronica.

What follows are some of my favorite pictures of the trip...

Frank ended up giving one of our watches to this young teenager, who was very interested in it...

Then we were off towards home around 2:15, stopped at Tripli San Pedro to celebrate their feast of St. Ann. The villagers rang a bell when Father Ron arrived, and they all came to mass; the church filled within 5 minutes. There was a baptism and a presentation of an infant.

We headed back to Don Juan after mass, and arrived back to the park around 5 pm. Our kids brought out sidewalk chalk and bubbles; Pat M and Charlie played hopscotch!

Frank and I headed home about 6:30; Chica had dinner ready, which was chicken, mashed plantains and orange juice. Frank showed Chica, her son and grandson the pictures in the camera that we had taken today; we went to bed around 8:00.

Sunday, July 27 - Coconut, Sugar Cane, Reflection and Fiesta!

Up and breakfast at 7:15 am - bread, fried eggs and pineapple. Mass at 8; it is Father's Day.

Here are some fathers that came up to the altar for a special Father's Day blessing by Father Ron. Our group sang, and individually thanked the community and our families for their welcome. We went back to Chica's to rest before 10:30, when we headed back to the church for pickup...

..and speaking of heading back to church and finding our way around, this is what starts my journal entry for today...we figured everybody else in our group found their way around by themselves, it was time we did too!!

We traveled by the school van to Peluda to see the church that Sacred Heart is helping to build. The members of the village sang and danced for us; everyone has been so welcoming to us wherever we go...

	After the presentation, they cut up some coconuts...
...and let us taste it and drink from it...you can tell how apprehensive I was about it (were they laughing at me?!?)...although it was DELICIOUS!

Then we got to taste sugar cane...chew the fibers only, don't swallow, we were told...

All that, and it was only lunch time...back to Don Juan for lunch, which for us was meatballs, mashed plantains, chicken, something that seemed like fried salami, and bananas. We met back at the school for reflection with Father Ron from 2-4, then prepared for our fiesta for our host families. We decorated the hall, and made them tossed salad, pork chops, potato salad, watermelon, and cake. This is a group shot in the church hall, before the fiesta began.

We had a great turn out; we made our host families thank you cards; Jamie read ours to Chica, thanking her for being such a wonderful hostess...Chica cried. Then she told Jamie to tell us, if she did anything to insult us, she was sorry...they seem to be very concerned that they are going to do something wrong. She was a wonderful hostess and we are thrilled that we got to stay with her! This picture is from that fiesta...

All the host families were treated to a ride back to their homes in the school van (stocked with leftovers from the party); we cleaned up the school, headed home, and were in bed by 10.

Monday, July 28 - Finishing up

We were up with the rooster at 6 am, with breakfast at 7 - fried eggs, bread and bananas. We gave Chica everything extra we had brought - our battery powered fans (which we LOVED)...she seemed to find them very interesting; extra toothbruses, toothpaste, all of our leftover soaps and our remaining pesos. She walked us to the farmacia for an 8 am pickup. We headed into Santo Domingo to prepare for our trip back home.

Here's Eduardo; he is Chica's dog (he understands Spanish!! impressive)...all the dogs there are the same size, weighing approximately 25 lbs. They are very protective at night; it seems like just about everybody has a dog, and you can hear them growling and barking all night long.

Here's a few more shots of the villagers, all happy to have their pictures taken...

The pharmacist in her pharmacy (minus the curlers...)

Tuesday, July 29 - Heading back to the US - Adios!

We headed to the airport for our flights home, saying goodbye to our new friends, until next time...
Left to right: Jon Carlos, seminarian; Pedro, our driver; Sister Veronica

Final thoughts - Speaking in Church

Every year when the pilgrims return home, we are asked to share our thoughts about our trip. What follows is what Frank and I presented:

It changed my life….

For the past two years, we’ve all listened to the pilgrims who return from the Dominican Republic say the same thing…it changed my life. The time was right for us to go, so we signed up in the spring to make the trip this year, along with Pat and Katie Collier; Dale, Marissa and Dave Rescott; Charlie Greene, Pat Messina, Penny Anderson; Kathleen, Mary and Shawn Doyle; Meghan Churney, and Ed and Mike Galka. We attended the monthly meetings and learned what we could about our upcoming visit. We got our shots, and took our malaria pills. Armed with our Spanish/English dictionary, our bug spray, mosquito nets, and battery operated fans, we were ready to go. But nothing prepared us for what we would experience there. The villagers in Don Juan opened their homes and their hearts to us.

Our days were filled from morning to night. We woke with the roosters in the morning. The home we stayed in had no running water, and we had power only 2 nights while we were there. During the days, we painted the school and the pharmacy, and taught the students how to use the sports equipment we as a parish had sent down - baseball, soccer and basketball equipment, hula hoops and jumpropes. We stocked the new bookshelves our parish provided with the books we had previously sent down. We traveled into Santo Domingo one evening and were treated to a cultural program of local dance and songs by the youth group from one of the churches there, who then shared food and conversation with the youth in our group. We traveled by pickup trucks to the very remote location of Los Llanos, the “poorest of the poor”, Father Ron told us, and painted the fronts of their cement block homes. We were joined in painting by the thankful villagers, who brought us coffee in what we would guess was their best glassware – their way to thank us for being there. At the churches we stopped at, the villagers came to mass on a moment’s notice when Father Ron arrived; he can visit most of the parishes only once a month due to their remote locations, but still celebrates mass to a full house, all giving thanks for their blessings. We witnessed baptisms, and presenting of infants. We listened to their joyful songs at all the churches we visited, always led by the never tiring Sister Veronica. In one of the villages, we drank milk from a coconut, and tasted sugar cane. And all of this done in 100+ degree heat.

We saw for ourselves where our donations to Mission from the Heart go; from the books, paint supplies, playground equipment and insurance for the school van that was our transportation while we were there, to the building of churches. We saw the smiles and heard the laughter from the children of the school, whose breakfast and lunches we provide through our Sponsor a Child program – it takes so little to do so much for them.

Did we miss some comforts from home? Sure we did…but we had what they had…food, shelter, and the love and support of friends. What else did we REALLY need?

Did it change our lives? Yes, it was a humbling experience – and physically and emotionally exhausting. But it was an experience we’re glad we had the opportunity to have, and share with you. We’re still not sure who got more out of it…them or us.

Please continue to keep the people of Don Juan and the surrounding villages in your thoughts and prayers, and know that your donations to Mission from the Heart DO make a difference. We were met with hugs and thanks from young and old; the villagers know and appreciate all that our parish does for them. That’s the message we bring back to you. Thank you.