Rainbow Families Foundation Newsletter - February 2002

February 2002

I caught up with Jacobo. His dept was closed for three days and when I tried to call him at his sister's I could not connect. She has tricom phone service and it's the worst, then when it rains or the power is out, you cannot reach them in the mountains. So, Yes, we connected. He gave me the laboratory analysis for the man with the skin disease. I passed it on to my friend who has a friend that's a doctor. We're waiting for the doctor to advise of the man's problems, if any. Jacobo said we'll visit the man this weekend. He said his finger tips are falling off and worms were crawling out of his fingers. I thought maybe fly larvae got in there but I'm guessing without seeing them. Today Grimaldy and I went to Santiago. The paperwork for the container got lost between the customs offices in Santiago and Santo Domingo. Learned paperwork is signed but don't know yet if the process was completed. We'll call Santo Dominigo tomorrow morning and go if possible. Otherwise, very busy picking up the many donations I arranged and taking the tourist on tours of where donations have been made.  Got a large suitcase full of school supplies and donated them to my friend's school in Puerto Plata. All the people say their day with me was their best day on vacation, going on private tours, seeing how the native people live, etc. I ask them for money for gas and they also pay for my lunch or dinner.  Grimaldy's father's friend, (I think his name is Renaldo) works in customs at the airport. He is trying to help. He learned that the paperwork has been returned to Santiago. He does not know what stage the paperwork is in, if everything is completed or if it needs to be input into the computer in Santo Domingo. Tomorrow is Independence Day and all the offices are closed. Renaldo goes to work early in the morning and will call Santiago customs office from work on Thursday. Grimaldy said to come to his house on Thursday at 1 PM in case we need to go to Santiago on Thursday afternoon. It's no surprise that this country remains in third world status when most of the Caribbean is not. The intelligence here is very dense. I hope to goodness the paperwork is ready and I can get the container on Friday. If we go to Santiago on Thursday it will be too late to get it Thursday. Grimaldy's brother is having problems with his computer. He was taking it to a friend tonight in Puerto Plata. Also, he is having a problem with his phone so I must call him on Nena's phone and wait for someone to get him to the phone. Grimaldy said he left a message on my cell phone voice mail but I told him I don't have voicemail so he must have gotten connected with someone else's phone. In my calls to Grimaldy I got someone else's number twice. It's really crazy. Also, two different calls came in on my cell phone but I didn't know who they were. I have two donations to pickup at two different hotels in Confresi, west of Puerto Plata. I have four more donations to pickup in March. One donation of school supplies was very substantial. I got the cell phone activated. It works some of the time. I usually end up at the Codetel store to make calls. The Codetel activation is not the best and I've been told that Orange Company is the best service but when I went there they could not activate my cell phone because it does not have a computer chip. When I went to Puerto Plata to activate my cell phone I got a battery for Jacobo's phone for 500 pesos ($30). He will pay me for it. Cheaper than the $70 that Allltel wanted but I think's it's a knock-off. So, I also got his cell phone activated too. Unfortunately I haven't been able to reach him on it (in Mozavi) and have to call him at work. Not sure how Ganny will be able to use it if that was his intentions. The weather here has been a bit cool and rainy, hence the reason for so much gripe (colds). The teachers have been on strike because the pay is so bad, 3,000 pesos ($200) a month. However, I was also told that the Vice President, who is a woman, wants to improve and change the education and that's the reason the teachers are on strike. You never know what to believe. My Spanish is getting better but I still don't understand a lot. I am waiting to get approval from the Port Authority on exonerating the penalty fees. The port authority is a private company that manages the ports in the country. If a container is in any of the ports more than 15 days the Port Authority charges a $15 penalty per day. In addition, the government has a tax on top of the penalty fee. We learned this through many trips to the port to get the container after I got the approval letter from the Customs Director Sanchez Beret in Santo Domingo. I remember last year I had to pay the penalty fee but it wasn't that much. So . . . Grimaldy and I went once again to Governor Tommy Duran's office for help to get the penalty fees and tax exonerated. The Governor said he didn't have authority to exonerate the fees but wrote a letter to each office on my behalf requesting that the fees be exonerated. So, Grimaldy and I went to Santo Domingo two Saturday's ago to each government office to deliver the letters. Before we left we were told by the same offices in Puerto Plata that those offices had the same hours in Santo Domingo and were open on Saturday until 2 PM. We got up early and went to Santo Domingo and the private Port Authority office was open but the "Government officials" in the government taxing office decided not to come in that day. The Port Authority office just starting renovation on their office space and everything was in disarray. An assistant told us the director meets with his staff once a week and she will put my request on the agenda for the meeting. She said they have approved exoneration of these fees sometimes in the past depending on the situation. Grimaldy explained to her that the Customs Director in Santiago lost the original documents and was the reason for the delay in the original exoneration approval by Sanchez Beret, the top customs director. She said they would take all this into consideration. Grimaldy also helped me with a letter to the Port Authority director explaining all this. The lady asked me if I had a rubber stamp to authendicate my letter. Apparently people have written letters in the past, forging names of government officials or pretending to be someone from a company. I told her "no", but gave her my business card to prove I was the founder of RFF. I explained that we did not use this type of method in the United States. All the letters I have received from the Governor, Sanchez Beret and others have had the "official seal" on a rubber stamp using blue ink near the signature. So, the following Monday Grimaldy and I went again to Santo Domingo to the Government office to deliver the letter and meet with the Director. He left the office before lunch and was expected back at 2 PM. We waited until 4:30 PM and he still didn't show. We asked to speak to the next person in charge. We were taken into a room where 3 older men were sitting, drinking coffee and reading the newspaper. Grimaldy explained why we were there. One of the men called his assistant (perhaps a secretary) to come in and asked her to help us. She was very knowledgeable and eager to help. She said we needed to get approval from the private office of the Port Authority first and then to come back to their office after their approval. Grimaldy called the Port Authority office every day last week and because their office was under renovation they did not have their regular weekly meeting. They continue to tell him to call each day. So . . . we are waiting for good news. Jacobo and family are constantly fighting colds. The baby, Janeris, is so big with such fat cheeks but she is always sick with a cold. Penelope and Margaret trade their colds with each other it seems every week. Last week Jonny was sick with the cold. Jacobo is waiting patiently to get the portable baby bed that Bill Nemeth's wife donated. Now the baby sleeps with them and he said he is unable to sleep in the night for fear he will roll over on her. Jacobo's mother was feeling very poorly and went to the doctor in Santo Domingo. She learned she has high chlorestoral. The doctor ordered her to exercise, eat fruits and vegetables and no meat and do not cook with oil. So far she has been following the doctor's orders but Jacobo laughs thinking how much she doesn't like it and wondering how long before she goes to her old ways. I remember Jacobo told me in the past he didn't like his mother's cooking because she fries everything, whereas, Jonny boils everything and doesn't like to eat too much meat. Penelope could eat only bread rolls and be happy. Corrina is getting better with her physical therapy, acupuncture and massage therapy. I told you before she went to several doctors and got different evaluations. The evaluation she was happy with is that, because she is getting older and always on her feet all the time cooking and walkaing to visit people in the community, her spine is compressing and pinching the sciatic nerve in her back. She has two more months of therapy. I can tell she is feeling better and does not have as much help from the ladies in the church as she did before. Andres is doing well and continuing his sewing business and serving the people in his community through the church. Grimaldy's brother Andy and his wife, Nena have been renovating and painting their home. If you remember, when we sat in the kitchen of Corrina's house and look out the back door, Andy and Nena live in the house directly behind Corrina and Andres. It was Corrina's mother's house before she died. Grimaldy tells me that both his parents come from money in the past but his parents spent all their money helping people in the community. I learned that all Corrina and Andres children went to private school in Puerto Plata and finished all 12 years, contrary to most Dominican children. Grimaldy's sister Carol is about to graduate from college as an architect. She goes to a college about 3 hours away to the east where Grimaldy's older brother is a teacher in architecture. She is working as an intern with a very respectable architecture company in Santo Domingo. His sister who lives in Spain went to fashion design school in Spain and continued to live there and was a model in her younger days. Now she is older, has two kids and overweight. Her youngest baby is almost a year old and the sister has since quit working. Her husband is a Spaniard. They were here for vacation. Grimaldy and his artist friends donated some paintings to a school in Sosua for an auction to raise money. The auction was last Friday night. He expected they raised $1M pesos. What would that be, about $60,000 with an exchange rate of 16%? I asked Grimaldy the lowest price he has received for his paintings. He said his first painting while still in college he earned $500 US dollars. He went to college at Parsons School of Design in New York. I remember my former boss Dave Mullins' son David was a very good artist and had planned to go to this school when he graduated high school. We visited the man with the skin disease once again last night. He is very bloated and I don't know why. His eyes are seeping a yellow puss. The man who cares for him is discouraged that this man will not bath or do anything to help himself. He is continuing with the medication and has about 10 days left before we start on the other medication. Jacobo sent a doctor out to see him and the doctor said there is no hope for the man. He diagnosed the man with leprosy. I took my young German friends with me and they donated some money to help buy food for him. The man's arm does not look quite as bad and looks to me like the skin is healing somewhat but he had on a very big long sleeve shirt and I could only see just above his wrist and just below his calves. He cannot walk very far and came to the door. I did not want to go into his house because it smelled so bad where he goes to the toilet inside the house. Very sad situation. I don't see my friend Annette too often. She is always working with only one day off in the week. That day is for laundry and chores and errands. She and her boyfriend fight so much because he drinks so much. I told you before about two girls from England who live here. I spend time with them. One of the girls works and the other saved her money to come here to stay with her friend. They are really nice but the one I can hardly understand what she says, she has such a strong accent. I always have to ask her to repeat herself. My Dominican friends from Puerto Plata who helped me before are also waiting patiently to help again. Jose got a job as maitre 'd at one of the hotel restaurants in Playa Dorado but said he still wants to help on his 1-1/2 days off. His hours were 3 PM to 11 PM but was changed this week to 7 AM to 3 PM and has offered to help in the evenings as well. His wife doesn't work now and wants to help more. Now their youngest daughter is 20 months old and their son is 10 years old. Jacobo also asked the older, more stronger boys on the baseball team to help when the container is ready. Corrina asked if I had a wheelchair for a child. She said a boy 6 years old was in a car accident and can no longer walk. Unfortunately all the wheelchairs are for adults. She said her uncle had one leg amputated and asked for crutches for him. Barbara, a friend from Canada, broke her ankle while riding on the motorcycle taxi (motoconcho). The motorcycle skidded in the gravel during the rain. About two months ago her husband broke his wrist on the motorcycle taxi. The driver lost control when he tried to avoid a car coming in their lane. The motorconchos drive so crazy as though they are the only ones on the road and are not careful. I've met many people from Germany and two couples I have become acquainted with. The one couple is older and the man works for Porsche in Germany. He has been with them for 35 years and has, I think 3 months vacation each year. They are here to be away from the winter in Germany. He is 55 and she is 45 and they have two boys. He will retire in 4 years and wants to travel in a motor home in the US. She has never worked outside the home. They currently have a motor home in Germany and travel and camp on weekends. They both speak English but have to consult with each other often in German to learn the proper word to say in English when speaking to me. Surprising they do not smoke, as with nearly all the other German people I have met. The other couple is young and so cute. She speaks very good English because she took it in school from 5th to 12th grade. The young man speaks broken English and Melissa has to translate sometimes. The donations from tourist have slowed. For whatever reason, somebody emailed to me that Debbie's Dominican Travel no longer has a link to the RFF website. I haven't emailed Debbie to ask what happened. I received an email from an American man who is working in Puerto Rico. He said he works in agriculture and will be coming to Puerto Plata soon. He asked if there was anything I needed from Puerto Rico and offered to allow me to use his truck when he arrives. We'll see what happens. I'll assume he speaks Spanish. We have had rain almost every day the past couple weeks, as has most of the Caribbean. Today is overcast and very breezy. I brought 2 long sleeve t-shirts and my jean jacket so I've been wearing them a lot with long pants. I love to wear sandals here but the past week I've had to wear sneakers because it is so wet and muddy. Everybody is fine here, except alot of gripe (cold) going around. I was surprised I had not gotten sick but today I woke up with a sore throat and lots of flem. Grimaldy said to drink the juice of six lemons so I'll have to go to the grocery store. Grimaldy and I took Corrina to the doctor for physical therapy and then for acupuncture. They are saying that because of her age, 61, her spine is compressed and pinching a nerve causing pain in her leg. She is doing better and tonight she's in the neighborhood so that's a good sign. She is uncomfortable after the acupunture and can't do much thereafter but then is better. She goes three times a week but this week the Dominican independence day is tomorrow so she'll go again Thursday and start three times a week session once again next week.