Dominican Republic- Day #2 - Sunday, July 3, 2011

Sunday was a great day!! After prayer and worship and breakfast, we went around the block to the church. This is the church that hosts our group when we are down in La Romana and who also is connected with the hospital.

 

In La Romana, the people either speak Spanish or Creole. There are many Haitian migrants in the DR and therefore, Creole is a main language. The whole morning service was in Creole except for the sermon, which was preached by Pastor Lubin, a pastor from Wallingford, originally from Haiti who accompanied us on the trip. He was planning on preaching in English and translating into Creole himself, but that day another pastor from Haiti, who spoke both English and Creole was there and was able to do the interpreting. The sermon was about the freedom we can have in Christ. The service was over 3 hours long!! It was really encouraging to see how excited the people were to be there and how much they loved the Lord. The way the people interact with each other and were accepting of our group, was amazing even though we couldn't communicate with them.



One of the choirs singing. I love music in another language.



After church, we had lunch and changed and then made our way to Batey 205 to play some soccer and softball with the people there. A batey is a community within sugar cane plantations in which the cane workers live. They are primarily populated by Haitian immigrants. On our way, we saw Pilar, the woman of a family the team has taken care of over the years, walking down the road. We picked her up and she rode the rest of the way to her house, where she told us, her husband was sick. We stopped at their house on the way to Batey 205. Francisco, her husband was very sick. He had lost alot of weight, was having difficulty breathing and had a cough. It appeared as if he had pneumonia and we suggested he go to the hospital. Money is the biggest obstacle to health care in the DR. In order to go to the hospital, one has to have the money to go. We were able to provide the money for Francisco to go to the hospital where he stayed until I believe Wednesday. The Good Samaritan Hospital provides care to all people. While patients still have to pay to be seen or treated, it differs from other hospitals which won't even see certain people depending on where they are from. I also should note that none of the bateys are close to the city of La Romana. We took bus rides as long as 2 hours to get to the bateys for work each day.

Sugar cane fields

Francisco and Pilar's house

Francisco

Pilar praying for Francisco

After we picked up Pilar, Francisco and their granddaughter, some took them to the hospital while the buses continued to Batey 205. We played soccer and softball. Some of the kids of the batey joined us. Mimi, one of the ladies in our group, who teaches Zumba here in the CT, did some with the kids. It was a nice day.

I met Brandy and his brother Brando. I was working hard to remember all the Spanish I had learned both in high school and college and began to communicate with him. He told me his name and told me that Brando was his brother. When I asked him how old he was, he responded in English, "ten". I then asked him if he spoke English, to which he said "yes." All my horrible efforts to speak Spanish to him became a joke. haha



Brandi y Yo



Brando y Brandi

The kids there were very excited that we were there. They were running around playing with each other and I couldn't help but notice how happy they were and at the same time how little they have. One little girl kept coming to me to have me fix her sandal which had broken. It was held together by a bobby pin. I fixed it once and then once she started running again, it was soon broken again. Again, I fixed it. It broke my heart that these were this girls only pair of shoes and they were broken and would continue to keep falling apart. The kids love to get their pics taken :)

That night we went to Elza Phanord's church in Kilometer 6. The service was primarily in Spanish. I again was impressed by the people love for God and the energy that they had and expressed when worshipping and singing. Another wonderful service followed by Pastor Lubin where he preached on finding refreshment in Christ. That service was also about 3 hours. We had a fabulous time!!!