Rainbow Families Foundation Newsletter - July 2002

July 2002

Thanks for your message and encouragement.  I am fine and doing the best I can to finish here so I can come home. Not sure when that will be but I'm pushing. Saturday was Margaret's graduation from kindergarten. Jacobo asked me to come to take pictures. I worked with Grimaldy in the morning and early afternoon. They didn't have water in the house so I had to take a shower at his sister in law's house before the graduation. It was held in the church in Monte Llano. You may remember where we put the boxes the first time at Compassion, then the church is in the middle and the private school is the building on the left. The ceremony was very long, 4 1/2 hours and they marched from the police station to the school. It was very hot and I felt like I didn't just take a shower. The march was supposed to start at 3PM but didn't start until 4PM standing in the hot sun. Last year I attended the kindergarten ceremony for the Mozavi school and donated toys. It was a long ceremony too. I don't understand why they spend so much time. The kids are running around and people are talking and not too many people are paying attention to the speaker. Jonny was there with the baby and she didn't bring diapers and the baby pooped her pants and it smelled very bad.  Oh well, I was glad I went for the experience. I met Sue Redding, her boyfriend and daughter yesterday. They had a large duffle bag full of things and a kitchen garbage bag.  She is very talkative. I wanted to get back to work but she wanted to talk so after 3 hours they got hungry. Her boyfriend is Dominican but moved to NY when he was 7. He comes back often. Delivered a wheelchair to another little girl hit by a car. Nobody told me in advance she was paralyzed, couldn't talk, hear or anything.  It was very sad. I tried to be upbeat and joke with the other kids to keep things light.  However, I left feeling so sad but on the other hand very lucky to be able to help. I registered the family for a donation of clothes. The father is an electrican but there is no work now. They live near the sugar cane factory in a concrete house but very poor. It is very hot here and draining since no air condition. I take a shower in the morning and shower before bed. If possible, sometimes during the day. Haven't had a chance to donate toys to the hospital. Hope to do it next week. I've been in contact with the man from England and planning to go to Punta Cana to receive the money. Not sure which day yet. Hopefully he'll bring US cash. He wanted to bring a check but I have no way to cash a check here. Started another baseball team for young boys. I think the coach of this team is more strong than the other young man. He's older and has a son on the team so I think he has more commitment. Jacobo said more boys from Severe are coming and he wants to start a team in Severe but needs to find a coach. I went to Punta Cana to receive the donation. The couple was elderly and very eager to make a donation. They were here last year as well. I'm just getting a chance to check emails and it's been a while. Yes, I have been to the hospital to deliver toys to the children. Before I left it became quite chaotic. The children who were there visiting family or friends wanted toys too. The mothers wanted toys for the other children at home. The hospital staff wanted toys for their children. A couple mothers asked to change toys that I gave to their child. The nurse with me didn't like that they asked this. Overall, this is a very emotional experience. One little girl was 8 months old and was only 8 pounds from malnutrition. Another girl was 9 years old and about 20 pounds. Neither child could hold up their head. Many babies born prematurely and in incubation. Very heartbreaking. I had to take many moments and go outside to recompose myself. One little boy was burned very badly. Another family had 3 children in the hospital due to an accident in the public car. They had about 15 other family members there, many of them children. The children all wanted toys. I took two large bags of toys and first gave them to the patients, gave 1 toy to the 3 nurses who helped and then only had about 5 left over for the smallest kids who were visiting. A trail of children followed me outside, I expect they were thinking I had more toys. Many mothers were very grateful and cried tears of joy that someone cared about them. As I was walking out a teenage Dominican boy greeted me speaking English. He wanted to express gratitude that I came to donate to the children and that his sister was a patient. He and his sister were very grateful.  Many times when we go into the villages to deliver the packages the mother is not in the house. The neighbors want me to leave the packages but I refuse. I even refuse to leave the packages with the fathers. I hear too many stories to take any chances. I've been talking to an exchange center about changing the British pound money to Dominican pesos and then changing to US dollars. It's a little bit complicated and I'm working to negotiate the best price. Yes, it has been very hot here and draining from working in the heat.  I look forward to returning to the comfort of air conditioning once again. I hope to be home within the next two weeks and will call to make a return flight when I get my phone back.  Yesterday when I returned to Cabarette the traffic was very wslow. I m not sure but I think the people were revolting against the disruption in electricity. There were large boulders in the road, tires burning and bags of garbage. The electricity goes off every day for hours at a time. This affects all businesses and of course daily life.