Testing, testing!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER BABY!

I'm taking a short break from my DR stories to celebrate my nephew's 2nd birthday! Parker turns TWO today and I can hardly believe it! Parker is the joy of my life and he just brightens my day with his laugh, his hugs, his kisses, his smile, and his heart. Someone asked me what one event in my life forever changed me, and I said, "The day my nephew was born." Being an auntie to Parker, as well as Audrey and Griffin, is my greatest accomplishment and there are no words to express my love for them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MAN

AUNTIE LOVES YOU SO VERY MUCH

Parker had a birthday party last Saturday at Chuck E. Cheese's. He absolutely LOVES that place! Here are a few pictures from the big event.

Getting ready to blow out the candles

Opening presents

Playing on the ball game

Griffin slept almost the entire time!

Audrey (my niece) on the trolley

Grandma, Mom, Me, and Amy

Day 7: La Zona Franca y La Comunidad de Cien Fuegos

DAY 7: We started off the day early and headed into Santiago where we wound through the very crowded streets until we reached the outskirts of town. There we had the unique opportunity to drive through the Zona Franca, which is the industrial part of town where all of the sweatshops are located. The Zona Franca is heavily guarded and you must have a special permit to get in. We were not allowed to get out of the van at any time, but we still were able to see inside a few of the sweatshops through the windows. Big name brands, like GAP for example (which happens to be my favorite store), have shops here in Santiago where Dominicans and Haitians are employed to produce clothes in less than ideal conditions. In one particular building, I could see rows upon rows of sewing machines with people hunched over them. I had read about these types of places before, but this was my first experience seeing it in person and it was incredibly disturbing and powerful.

Here is one of the sweatshops that we could see from the street. I tried taking pictures of the people inside on the sewing machines, but my camera just couldn't capture it.

After visiting the Zona Franca, we made our way to the community of Cien Fuegos. There we spoke with a man who worked in the sweatshops for many years and he told us his stories of the working conditions and labor laws. It definitely makes you think twice about where and how your clothes are produced. After that, we spoke with Tomas again (the Dominican man who also spoke to us in Franco Bido), and he relayed to us the history of Cien Fuegos. Cien Fuegos means "100 Fires" in English. The town got that name because 100 families were displaced due to fires, and all of them decided to come together and settle in this community, naming it Cien Fuegos. Unfortunately, the community became extremely corrupt and it became known across the entire country for its brothels and prostitution. Tomas told us that if he told someone he was from Cien Fuegos, they would immediately stop associating with him because of the town's horrible reputation. The government knew what was going on in this community, but the corruption of power made it so the people in charge just looked the other way. Tomas was one of the men in the 1970s who stood up to the government and fought to make his community a safe place for women and children. At one point, the owners of the brothels were holding a gun up to his head because Tomas was threatening their livelihood. Today, Cien Fuegos is no longer captive to Satan's schemes and is slowly working to rebuild itself.

Two little girls on the streets of Cien Fuegos. Just thirty years ago these girls would probably be selling themselves on street corners.

Many homes are made out of any material available, often times just sheets of metal.

Some homes in Cien Fuegos

There is trash EVERYWHERE!

We climbed up this little mountain overlooking Cien Fuegos. Over 300,000 people live in this small valley on the outskirts of Santiago.



From the mountain we could see all the way to downtown Santiago. In the distance is the monument that we visited on our very first day in the Dominican Republic.

Although Cien Fuegos is no longer battling prostitution, it is facing another tremendous problem. Right next to their community is a garbage dump that is constantly burning, 24 hours a day. When the wind blows a certain direction, Tomas told us that he can hardly breathe and that the smoke effects everyone in the community. As you can see, come families live just a few yards from the dump. I can't even imagine what kind of long term effects this air has on people's lungs.

As we made our way back to the retreat center in the afternoon, we stopped at a candle shop that is run by an organization called One Respe, which is Creole for "Honor Respect." This organization feels that all people in this world deserve honor and respect, and work to integrate people with AIDS and tuberculosis back into their communities. They also have community schools, a health program, and a research program about racism. For more information, you can visit www.onerespe.com. We visited their arts and crafts workshop where the proceeds from our purchases go directly to their organization. I bought quite a few candles (we even got to pick out the scents that we wanted and they would paint them on!), as well as a t-shirt with a powerful message. It says:

EL RACISMO MATA EL AMOR
DIVIDE EL PUEBLO
DESTRUYE LA DEMOCRACIA

In English, this translates to:

RACISM KILLS LOVE
DIVIDES THE CITY
DESTROYS DEMOCRACY


The candle shop knew we were coming so they made special WSU candles just for us! It was truly a surprise to walk into a shop in the Dominican Republic and see your school emblem!

Day 3, 4, 5, and 6: La Comunidad de Franco Bido

DAY 3: After one night at the retreat center, we packed up our bags again and headed into the mountainous region of the DR to the coffee farming community of Franco Bido. The four hour drive was the bumpiest ride of my life, and yet one of the most beautiful!

Here we are boarding the bus to drive to Franco Bido

Crammed in the back of the bus with our luggage

The view as we drove

Isn't it just breathtaking?

After we got close to the community, the bus dropped us off because it could no longer handle the roads. We walked about a mile and a half up and down large hills to get to the home were we would be eating lunch.


Walking to lunch at Fea's house (I'd actually prefer to call it hiking!)

When we decided to make our way from Fea's house to the center of the community, it began to rain. For those of you who have ever been to a tropical location, you know that the rain comes fast and hard. It was like nothing I had ever seen before. Unfortunately, we had to hike a little over three miles in the rain, and to this day my shoes and pants are still covered with red mud! Did I mention that we walked A LOT on this trip? When we finally arrived in the center of "town," we were greeted by all of the women and children who were singing songs for us. We were wet and dirty, and yet they still embraced us! After our "Welcome to the Community" party with lots of fun games, we met our host families who we would be staying with for the next three days. Kalen and I were paired up with Lela and Antonio, one of the most loving couples I have ever met. The rest of the day was spent getting settled into our homes and interacting with our host families. The first night was a little bit of a shocker for a couple of reasons. First, the conditions were so rustic! I really wasn't prepared for using a really nasty outhouse, having chickens walk under the kitchen table as I was eating chicken, sleeping in a home where none of the walls reached the roof, or sitting in the dark when the electricity randomly would turn off. Secondly, although I know how to speak Spanish, it was still extremely difficult to communicate due to their accent and how quickly they spoke.

My host family

My bedroom

The view from my bedroom door

The bathroom

The sink and shower


Playing with the kids on the first night

I gave the children stickers and they decided to decorate themselves!

DAY 4: After waking up bright and early (did you know that roosters start their wake up call at around 3 AM?), we began our intensive training on the art of coffee farming! Every single family that lives in Franco Bido harvests coffee and relies on it to provide for their families. We had the opportunity to follow Mario throughout the day to see the labor involved in producing our morning cup of hot coffee.

The view of the village as we headed up to the coffee fields

Coffee fruit

In the field picking coffee fruit. This was an extremely difficult task because the fields are dense with coffee trees and you are working on a steep incline.

One of these boxes filled all the way to the top will get a coffee farmer about $2. On average, a coffee farmer can fill 4 to 5 boxes per day. Our team helped pick coffee for about an hour, and even with 12 extra workers we were not able to fill an entire box.

After a sufficient amount of fruit has been picked, it is transported by mule in bags back to the farmer's home. At that point, it is placed in this structure where it is poured down a shoot to have the skin peeled off.

As it is poured down the shoot, the bean and the skin are separated by this contraption that is either operated by hand or by a small motor. All of the beans go into the cement trough where they will be washed, and the skins go on the other side where they will eventually rot and be used for compost. When the process of separation is complete, the cement trough is filled with water. The low quality coffee beans eventually rise to the top, while the high quality beans remain on the bottom of the trough. The farmer then scoops the low quality beans out and keeps them for personal use.


The high quality beans are then spread out on a cement patio to dry for approximately 5 to 7 days. Over that period of time, the farmer is consistently raking the beans to make sure that they all dry evenly.

After seeing the coffee process first hand and helping out a bit, our whole group sat down to discuss the importance of Fair Trade for these small coffee farms. Farmers who are involved in the Fair Trade process get about $0.40 more per pound, which when added up over time, is a significant increase. I would hope that when all of you go out and buy your coffee, you would look for the Free Trade label because it really does impact lives around the globe.


During our Fair Trade discussion, Mario's wife made us fresh squeezed orange juice...simply delicious!

After our coffee lesson, we sat down with Tomas and Papito to discuss the racism between Dominicans and Haitians that is so prevalent in the Dominican Republic. Because of Haiti's extreme level of poverty, over the years many Haitians have moved to the DR to make a better life for themselves. Yet the Dominicans are very resentful and don't like the idea of foreigners coming in and taking their jobs. Even in the loving community of Franco Bido, it was clear that there were certain lines that Haitians and Dominicans wouldn't cross. For example, the Haitians had the worst houses in the community, they had the lowest paying jobs (usually working in the coffee fields for a Dominican farmer), and there was this silent feeling of jealousy when a member of our team would talk with a Haitian instead of a Dominican. Tomas and Papito are VERY aware of this daily struggle and both hope that it may someday come to an end.

Tomas (Dominican) and Papito (Haitian)

DAY 5: On our last full day in Franco Bido, we headed back up to Fea's house to visit the medical clinic and visit a bee farm. The medical clinic serves approximately five different communities in the surrounding area and is the only medical service available other than the hospital in Santiago (which is three hours away). We talked with Fea about the common diseases that she encounters in the clinic, the importance of the medicine that groups such as ours deliver to her, and how many people use her services on a monthly basis (right around 100). Fea isn't even a registered nurse, but she spent many years working in hospital and is very well trained.

If we weren't walking, we were usually all jammed into the back of a pickup truck.

While we were working at the clinic, coffee was being roasted. This is the final step of the coffee producing process and it smelled amazing. However, it is an extremely dangerous job as it is very hot and not healthy to breathe in the coffee for more than a few minutes. As you can see, a Haitian was employed to take on this not so desirable job.

Sorting supplies at the medical clinic that we brought with us from the U.S.

A wheelchair that only cost $40 instead of $400 (freewheelchairmission.com)

After stocking the shelves at the clinic, we headed over to a family's home where they raise bees for honey when the coffee industry doesn't bring in enough money. It was very fascinating, but I was really scared of being stung! We also got to eat some fresh honey right off of the comb and it was amazing!

Up close and personal with the bees

Fresh honey!

Later that afternoon we returned to the community center for lunch and some leisure time. That evening, the community had a big party for us as a going away gift. We played games and then danced the night away! I actually had to leave the room for a few minutes because my hips hurt so bad from dancing so much!

Doing dishes with VERY dirty water.

Worshipping in our free time.

Dancing at our goodbye party

Bob and Tim with some of the kids

When I returned to my host family's house later that evening, I persuaded Lela and Antonio to dance for me. Kalen and I also played outside on the patio with the kids doing cartwheels and such. It was the perfect way to end an unforgettable experience in Franco Bido.

Lela and Antonio dancing for us...they have been married for 30 years and are SO cute together!

Playing with the kids (wheelbarrow races) on our last night in Franco Bido

In front of my host family's house with the neighborhood kids.

DAY 6: We got up very early and said our goodbyes to our host families...it was SO sad! We drove four hours back to the retreat center and spent the rest of the afternoon processing our experience and sharing our stories with eachother.

One thing that really hit me during my time in Franco Bido was the hope that these people have. Compared to us, they are poor beyond words and yet they have a happiness, a light, and a hope for better things to come that thousands of rich Americans will never have in their lifetime! They have nothing, and yet they gave me everything they could. What an amazing example of Christ's love!

I apologize for how long this was, but I didn't want to leave anything of importance out. I will post again about the rest of my experiences in a few days.