Rainbow Families Foundation Newsletter - February 2003

February 2003

I am doing fine just very tired from waking up at 6AM yesterday and going to Santo Domingo. We returned after 1AM last night. This morning I had to wake up early once again to meet someone about a donation. They said they will make a deposit in the bank tomorrow so I will have to check the account. So many things have been happening and I have not had too much time for myself. I am paler than any other tourist here and look like I just arrived. Jose Antonio was in the hospital for 17 days on nutrition through the feeding tube to build his iron and protein since home feeding was not working. His mother has been with him the entire time. I take his father for the day when I go to Santo Domingo but last Monday his father stayed and came back to Puerto Plata with me yesterday. Last week Monday the doctor said he was ready for surgery and said we have to transfer him to another hospital since the hospital he was is in did not have a ventilator in the event he would stop breathing during the surgery. So, Grimaldy and I went to Santo Domingo on Monday to make this move. His surgery was Wednesday, lasted 7 hours and went well. The doctor used part of his large intestine rather than the stomach. Jose Antonio was in intensive care for three days. His father was a basket case because he did not understand why Jose Antonio was just laying there unconscious and not talking. This past Saturday he came out of intensive care and in a regular room. He is continuing to improve but is not out of danger. Yesterday we transferred the family back to the other hospital which is less expensive. The doctor will order a radiography on Thursday, 2 days, with liquid barium to learn if the transplant worked. If so, Jose Antonio will begin to eat soft foods on Friday. He still has the feeding tube and receiving the same nutrition called PediaSure as before. If everything continues to go well he will get to come home in 7 to10 days. My plan is to bring the family back home in the same way I took them to Santo Domingo and then shortly thereafter return home. It has been a long haul and a lot of different things happening but I am so happy that things are going well for him. The fund raising has been up and down. Businesses, policitans and others have promised to donate and then when I ask for the money I get many excuses. It has been very frustrating. The Auyuntamiento, basically like our city councils, have been saying they will donate 20,000 pesos since mid-December. It has to be approved by the council and they did not have their january meeting until last week. The two council members who put the item on the agenda did not have enough information for the other members and deferred the item until the next meeting which is Friday, this week at 10AM. I will be there to present the case and hope someone can go to interpret. One man deposited 30,000 pesos in the account and the check bounced. After one week of going to his house and asking for the money I met him at his bank and he gave me the check and I cashed it on the spot. He received donations from others and donated the money by his personal check. He said one person who wrote him a check for 10,000 pesos was not good and caused his check to bounce. This check I had to deposit in the second hospital where the surgery was done. The family has no idea what so many people are doing to help them. As for others here, Jacobo has been suffering a lot of pain. He does not have money to go to the doctor. He thinks it might be kidney stones since he has had problems with this before. Janny is also having pains in her stomach and was to go to the doctor yesterday. Yaneris has a cronic problem with constipation and cries when she is uncomfortable. Janny was to take her to Puerto Plata to the doctor by moto concho and then by public car. Penelope and Margaret have their constant colds, which they call gripe. A cousin of Jacobo was in a car accident Saturday night. Both his legs were broken. The girl in the car was killed. She was not wearing a seat belt. Saturday night the locals were celebrating the baseball win against Puerto Rico. When Grimaldy and I passed through Santiago on our way home from Santo Domingo the motorcycles and cars were pulling large tin cans and large pieces of metal to make noise and celebrate. It was funny but very crazy and dangerous since many times the metal would break off and fly through the street. They are crazy here with the baseball teams. Anyway, I suspect Jacobo cousin was participating in this celebration since it was said he was drinking. Unfortunately the girl was family to Grimaldy and the Polanco family had to go to her funeral on Sunday. Grimaldy and his family are doing fine. Corina still suffers with back pain and the family is concerned Andres is losing his memory. When I arrive at Corina and Andres house and the granddaughters are there they start to chant my name until after I get in the house. They are crazy for me. Corina s dogs come to greet me when I arrive. Josue Silverio from Compassion International is in the last stage of his scholarship approval process to Georgetown University. He is very excited for the opportunity but having a lot of anxiety because he has an interview on Friday. Fortunately his friend Ramon is applying and has a good chance of scholarship as well so they may go together. A team of doctors, dentists, eye doctors, nurses and volunteers were here a couple weeks ago. They brought medical supplies and examined patients in Monte Llano, Mozovi, Carroballo and then in Puerto Plata. The dentists could only pull teeth since they did not have any other equipment. Grimaldy, Josue, Jacobo and Grimaldy girlfriend Kenia translated for the ones who did not speak spanish. They all spoke about my work here and the team wanted to meet me. Finally I got an afternoon free to meet them in Mozovi. A priest travels with them. I was sick with gripe and they gave me antibiotics for 10 days and I have finished with the medicine. A family came on vacation from Minnesota and brought a lot of donations for Jose Antonio and his family. They also brought equipment, pants and sneakers for my baseball teams and a lot of school supplies. I wanted to deliver the school supplies to a school in Arroyo de Leche near where Jose Antonio lives. The 4x4 truck got stuck in the mud as we tried to cross the river. We tried for about 2 hours to get the truck out then the family and I walked a long way back to Jacobo house. A bit later one of the locals came to tell us the truck was out of the mud but I refused to continue since it was late, very dark and we had to cross 2 more rivers and I did not want to take a chance to get stuck again. We had so much rain for many days but I did not think this large 4 x 4 would have a probelm. So . . . we took the donations to Mozovi school at 8AM the next morning since the family had to fly at noon. They were excited for the adventure.