Rainbow Families Foundation Newsletter - November 2002

November 2002

Margaret is often in trouble with her teacher at school. She doesn't want to listen and tries to be the boss of the other kids. Jannie is fine and has lost most of the weight she gained when she was pregnant. She is fighting depression, whether it's post-natal, I don't know. I think it is because she seldom ever leaves the house and her routine is the same everyday and Penelope and Margaret fight all the time. Jacobo goes to court in January for his termination at Club on the Green. He hates his job but must stay there until after the court determination of his pay and benefits. Penelope and Margaret go to the private school in Monte Llano where Andres church is located. Jacobo has debated to take them out of school since it is expensive for him, I think $10 a month. He pays a lot for motorconcho to take the girls to/from school in Monte Llano. His truck takes a lot of gas and the biggest expense. Jacobo was rear-ended by a motorcycle taxi (motorconcho). Though it wasn't his fault, if you're in an accident here everybody has to go to jail if you don't go to the hospital. Luckily he wasn't in jail very long and the man wasn't hurt. The back tailgate on the truck is dented where the man's helmet hit. Jacobo's mother had a mild heart attack and was in the hospital. The doctor put her on a restricted diet with no fats or fried foods with mostly fruits and vegetables but she has since returned to her old habits of cooking in oil. Jacobo doesn't like her cooking. She is also suffering severe pain from arthritis in her knees. Jacobo's father is fine and buys whiskey with the few pesos he may get from cutting hair. Jacobo's brother Santo has turned Christian and quit drinking. His wife Josie is Christian but Santo spent much time in the bars. I never gave them a donation because of this, despite Jacobo is my friend. You know how I feel, if a family has money for alcohol or drugs then they can buy things for their family. Many times I will never know but this case I knew the history. Jacobo's other brother Danny is here from England. His fiancé will be arriving in a few days and they will be married at a hotel in Playa Dorada. Then they'll return to England. Danny speaks English with a Spanish and british accent. Andres and Corina are getting on alright. Andres was suffering from gripe and sinus problems for a couple weeks. Corina has ongoing pain with her back and legs. The therapy helped for a while but now I think she's given up on any medical remedy. She is always on her feet cooking and taking care of other people. She won't say no to anyone and enjoys giving. One lady that they give a free room to sleep comes for lunch everyday. In exchange the lady washes the dishes. Another lady that they give a small house for free. She is talented in many things but has attention deficit disorder and cannot keep a job. She has 3 boys ages about 19, 13 and 8. The oldest boy has now kept a job at a hotel for a couple months and everyone is hoping he won't quit. The church helps this family a lot too. Grimaldy is doing fine. He has been getting quotes and supervising the makeshift renovation of Corina's kitchen. Grimaldy's older brother (who is an architect and architecture professor at a univeristy) and his wife and kids came from near Santo Domingo to bring two guys that lay ceramic tile. The two guys finished the job in two days, incredible! If you remember her kitchen about 14 x 14, the hallway about 3 x 14 and then the small living room about 8 x 10. The tile is terra cotta color that will hide the dirt pretty good. They have so much traffic in their house all the time it will be a good color, however, not one that I would pick. I stopped by last night and nothing else had been done since Sunday night. Do you remember Josué, the young man from Compassion International? He asks about you all the time. He said the church uses the organs at every service and the lady who knows how to play is also teaching a couple kids in the church. Isn't that great! Tears came to my eyes when I heard this. Compassion has not been able to use the computers yet. The roof leaks and they didn't have any money for repairs. Finally they got money to repair the area just where the computers will go. They are enclosing a very narrow area for the computer room so it can be locked. I can only imagine it will be like an oven. The man building the counter tops was supposed to install last Saturday but he hasn't finished them yet. Josué took me to the man's shop so I can see and I told Josué that I want to take a picture when the computers are installed. He then told the man that I want him to finish "rapido". They think I don't understand and often speak as though I'm the one putting on the pressure. Manuel, the Director of Compassion, I hardly see. He is also a professor at the private school at the church. Josué is applying to go to Georgetown University in United States through a program called CASS (don't know what it means). It's a two-year program for very underprivileged students in Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. The criteria is based on need, good grades in high school and the students' standing in the community. The scholarship pays for tuition, room and board, pays $50 allowance each week and airfare to and from United States with a student visa. I'm not sure Josué will fully qualify. His father was a professor in the schools but died last year from a heart condition. His mother doesn't work and gets help from Josue's sister (24) and brother (28). They work but don't make much money. Josué works about 18 hours a week at Compassion but doesn't make much money either. His average grade in high school was 87% but he has a good standing in the community by working at Compassion for four years helping other underprivileged boys in a Christian environment. He's also assisting with a foundation that helps Haitian/Dominican kids adjust to Dominican life. Though his mother lives in a rented apartment, her furniture is very nice, especially compared to the typical homes that I go to. Many women wanted to get an operation so they couldn't have anymore babies. A surgeon agreed to donate his time if the women first got tested for AIDS, Hepatitis A & C, Hemloglobin, Glucose and something else I don't remember. If the woman was over age 35 the doctor requested an EKG and Mammogram. With the help of Corina, I was able to get the equivalent of the Health Department to donate the testing to be done at the health department for only 100 pesos. The Health Department doesn't do EKG's and Mammograms so I had to pay. Grimaldy's sister in law Nena has a brother who agreed to pay the 100 pesos per person toward the testing. I prioritized the list based on how poor the family, how many children and the age of the mother and selected 8 women. We scheduled the days that Kenya (young friend of Grimaldy's who speaks English who is going to college in Santiago to be an interior designer) and I would take the women for the testing. Luckily all the tests came back negative. The surgeon said the anesthesiologist would not donate his time and the cost would be 400 pesos. I thought this was a small price for the betterment of these family's lives. The surgeries were done and then I didn't anticipate the doctor would prescribe antibiotics in the event of infection and pain medication. Obviously these poor women didn't have money to buy the medicine so I had to pay for this too. Then the surgeon got very sick with gripe. Jacobo stopped by his house the other night to see when we can schedule more surgeries. His wife, who is a pediatric doctor, said he is working many hours trying to catch up. The boys on the baseball team are still enthused to play. Unfortunately it gets dark early and doesn't leave much time to practice after school. Plus, some of the boys go to school in the morning and some go to school in the afternoon so it's difficult to get all the boys to practice at the same time. Games are usually Wednesday or Sunday afternoon. A man who organizes the boy's baseball league in Monte Llano organized teams to come from Santo Domingo for a tournament with Monte Llano and our boys. Our boys played very well. It was like a round robin match playing four innings and then playing another team on Friday night and Saturday all day. It was exciting but by Saturday afternoon the boys were getting too roudy, playing and fighting. I was happy they decided not to play on Sunday. You may have heard about the email message I sent out to several people soliciting donations to help a little boy who needs surgery. I'm going to paste my message below. "During my visits into the countryside I came across a family that live in Los Palos, a very small village about an hour from Puerto Plata. A volunteer named Jacobo and I had driven past their house on our way to Arroyo de Leche. As we came down the mountain a lady stopped the truck to ask for our help. She heard we were in the community the previous week delivering supplies to schools in Arroyo de Leche. Candida Rosa Garcia explained that her son, Jose Antonio Alcantara, swallowed Clorox bleach last October 2001. (The Clorox is bought in small bags similar to the same size bags as drinking water.) At this time she immediately took him to the Puerto Plata public hospital. Since the drive is so long it was too late for the doctor on call to help Jose Antonio. Consequently his esophogas closed and the doctor had to cut a hole in his stomach and insert a feeding tube. For over a year now, Jose Antonio is only able to receive liquids through the feeding tube. He isn't even able to swallow his saliva. Candida must keep a rag with her to wipe the boys mouth. Candida was referred to Dr. Carlos Montero, a gastroentologist at the Plaza of Health in Santo Domingo. I am told that Dr. Montero is the only gastroentologist in the Dominican Republic who is a surgeon and can perform the surgery. The cost of the surgery is about 60,000 pesos. The exchange rate now is 20 pesos to one US dollar, therefore the cost of surgery is about $3,000, plus Candida's expenses to travel to Santo Domingo three hours away to be with her son during the surgery. Jose Antonio will be three years old on December 2nd. He is one of five children, his father is a farmer and obviously his mother has a full time job in the house. Jose Antonio has a sister 10 months old and cries when Candida tries to hold her because Candida has to take much of her time to care for Jose Antonio. Hence, the baby, Lionela, thinks her eight year old sister, Yhoana, is her mother since she takes care of her most of the time. This is very difficult for Candida but Jose Antonio requires a lot of care. The family seems happy and doing the best they can. I haven't seen any signs of alcohol abuse by the mother or father. Many times, usually the father, will spend any spare peso to buy rum or beer, leaving the children without shoes, clothes or supplies for school. I told Candida that I cannot make any promises to her but will try to help. Jose Antonio is so adorable, however, very thin from a diet of only liquids. This is a request for monetary donations to allow this boy the opportunity to eat and grow like a normal child. If you know of anyone or any organization that would like to make a donation they can make their check payable to "Rainbow Families Foundation," write in the memo line "Jose Antonio," and send to Rainbow Families Foundation, 8543 Hemlock Ridge, Kirtland, OH 44094." Initially I went to many businesses to solicit donations but things here are very bad and many businesses are closing and laying off employees. I prepared a letter for Rotary and met with the same person from two years ago who helped me with Wilson. The guy was going to speak at the weekly meeting that night and see if anyone knows Dr. Montero and ask him to do the surgery for free or at a discount. He explained that Rotary is unable to provide monetary help with a "family donation" since they are involved in community projects to install water purification systems in small communities and schools. He told me to call in one week. I called him but he still had not heard anything. He said to give him more time and he would fax the letter to the district directors of Rotary in search of someone who knows Dr. Montero. So, I thought I would prepare an email and send it to a few people in United States. So far one person from Minnesota said she'll send money when she gets paid. Other people have suggested nonprofit organizations that may have money but I have not contacted any of them yet. It will require going on line and spending much time doing research, which costs money at the internet café. Another person emailed regarding a Dominican website that has about 60,000 hits a year. He asked that I send pictures and pertinent information. I asked if, in the meantime, he could add RFF link to his website. I'll see if he responds. Last time Jacobo and I were in the mountains in Arroyo de Leche I asked the mother of the boy to bring him to the maternity hospital for a checkup the following Monday because I was sure I brought tube and patch supplies for his type of stomach surgery. I gave her pesos for the motorconcho. I asked Corina to call the maternity and have them call her house to advise when the mother and boy arrive. On Monday I went to Corina's house to wait for the call. The hospital called and I went to meet her with Kenya to translate. The doctor said she was keeping the hole clean and he cleaned it thoroughly and applied new patches and tubing and gave her some supplies. We then went to Corina's house and I asked Grimaldy to take a picture with Aronis' digital camera. I've asked Grimaldy to send the picture to my email but he hasn't done it yet. I don't want to push him too much because he's busy with the renovation of Corina's house but I need this photo to send to the Dominican website. Not only is this mother responsible, she brought me a bag of limons too. I gave them to Corina to prepare juice. She is the master of preparing juice and my favorite cook here. One person I know who is from Brazil is taking a copy of my Rotary letter with him to Brazil in hopes that an organization there may be able to donate money for the surgery. He asked for the RFF bank account number so potential funds could be deposited. He won't be back from Brazil for two weeks but his wife will be in contact with me if anything comes up. I hope to hear good news from Rotary. Wednesday I was on my way to meet Jacobo and couldn't pass through the main road. Traffic was backed up and I could see a huge plume of smoke. By the time I got close enough to see what was happening there were tires burning and beer bottles broken in the street. Many large boulders and pieces of concrete were blocking the road. I had to turn around and wait until later. Many times the Dominicans protest because the electricity is off much of the time and the government keeps increasing the cost. I expected this was the problem. Later Jacobo told me that the police shot and killed a motorconcho. I don't know the circumstances only that the motorconchos are very dangerous drivers and it seems someone is killed every week as a result of their negligence. Grimaldy says the motorconchos are men from the countryside who never learned how to drive and they drive like donkeys, they just turn into the street without looking. However, everyone depends on them to go short distances. The cost is 5-10 pesos depending how far you have to go. So, as you can see my time has been busy and many people are counting on me but I must return home to the responsibilities of my own family and home. I'm going to give it a few more days and see what happens with the doctor who performs the surgeries and if Rotary is able to help.