Rainbow Families Foundation Newsletter - April 2003

April 2003

I have been very busy with people coming from Canada, England and the U.S. bringing donations. I have to meet with a guy from California about possible funding for RFF that his organization is considering. Also have been working to get 20 plus computers shipped from Wisconsin. A lady emailed to me that some students got the computers and want to donate them to the DR. I asked for a listing of everything they want to ship but she has not replied. She received a donation from a shipping company to deliver them anywhere in the U.S. I was able to find a man from Canada who is shipping half a container of house windows. He agreed to donate the other half but I have been waiting to get the listing of computer equipment. It has not been easy. If I don't hear from her soon I will miss the opportunity for the space on the container. Jose Antonio is doing fine and continuing with appointments to the doctor and testing to be sure everything continues to function properly and we have no risk of infection. His mother is pregnant with her sixth child. She is only 28 years old. Because we were so busy with his medical problems we did not have the opportunity for her to get an operation. I want to see if it is possible after her baby is born. She and her husband both want her to get an operation. I am meeting with an attorney this afternoon to see if he will donate his services to help me get her cedula. This is the dominican form of identification. I suppose like our social security cards. If one does not have a cedula the children cannot get birth certificates when they are born. Therefore, none of her children have birth certificates. In turn, if the children do not have birth certificates they cannot continue to high school. It is a difficult process. Fortunately she has a birth certificate and the process should be more smooth than if she didn't. If this attorney won't donate his services then I know another attorney to ask. Her husband does have a cedula, thank goodness. We have had a lot of rain and high winds lately. Thus the breeding of mosquitos. They are attacking my legs right now and I have to jump up and move around to get relief. I had the opportunity to go with a dominican friend to Santiago to spend a few days. Her elderly aunt lives in the countryside and her second cousin was in an accident in the public bus. Her left leg was nearly severed. I still have some crutches at Corrina's and was able to bring her a pair of crutches when she is strong enough to walk again (is possible). Her 12 year old daughter has taken over washing the clothes and helping the grandmother with cooking and cleaning. They live at the end of a dirt road with beautiful fruit trees of all kinds. The dirt path then leads to other shacks. The family is as poor as poor can get here. They have an outside toilet, no water in the house, dirt floors. The kitchen is a hut in the back of the living house like we saw in Barrabas. The water is from the cistern (rain water). I was able to help with cooking in the primitive kitchen and washing clothes in tubs in the back yard. It was quite an experience. I was hesitant to eat the food that was prepared with the rain water but fortunately I did not have any problems after the fact. I had to take the laptop computer to Santiago since no business in Puerto Plata could fix laptops. The business has had it for a month and hopefully it will be ready for Grimaldy and me to pickup tomorrow. The computers that we donated to Compassion International got wet from the roof leaking. The monitor will work but then the screen will go black and lines will form. Grimadly and I will take two of them to Santiago for repair when we go.