Dominican Republic: March 2006

a thankyou

If you are reading this, then you probably were one of the people who helped make this trip happen. This trip was the most amazing experiance in my life. The children were so beautiful and wonderful. The work was extreemly hard, but it was so rewarding and it felt so good at the end of the day. It was so rewarding to be able to speak spanish to everyone and talk to them about Jesus . I made some of the most wonderful friends. The pastor of the church we worked at for the first part of the week even invited me to live with them in order to go to school in the DR. I am excited that this might become a reality for me. My biggest hope would be to go to school in the town, work at the church and the orphanage and travel to the camp on the weekends to continue the work that we started.

Right now I am trying to collect shoes for the children there, because there were so many barefooted. I am also sending clothes and trying to find more things to do. This trip has helped to solidify my hope to do humanitarian work for the rest of my life, and has jump-started my passion to do something about the conditions that people are living in around the world. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I know that if you had the time and the money to go, that you would. Unfortunatly, careers begin and families grow, and the work to be done is here. I thank you for sending me, for through me you have done the most amazing work.

Here are our leaders:
Liz McAlpine - at the resort in the smallest possible life jacket and lead us from Grand Valley.

Greg Hensley - who works for CareForce International and coordinated the trip.

Christian Santiago and his son Leo - who just moved with his wife from Grand Rapids with a call from God and without enough money. He now leads us from the town that the work is done in.

I hope you enjoy the photos and that they show you what you did for the people of Los Alcarrizos and Bonao, Dominican Republic.

in a tree!?

They don't call me "The Tree Girl" for nothing!!!

the tree that I wanted to climb - but couldn't because it was surrounded by fence

the plane, the arrival, the group, the camp

The map - just in case we got lost... :-D

Chillin' at the Detroit airport at 6am Saturday morning. Breakfast was yummie.

On the plane - looking out the windows at THE BAHAMAS!!!

Waiting at the airport in Santo Domingo.

Our group.

The boys.

The ladies and the guys who work at the camp.

the camp we stayed at

church, the town and baseball

Sunday was our first day there. First we went to a church in Los Alcarrizos, the town where we were going to be working.

Then we walked through the town and got to see what who we were about to help.

This little girl walked with me for so long, but she was barefoot. I asked if she wanted to be carried over some sharp rocks, and she said no. Then we almost walked over broken glass...

Then we got back to camp, changed, and played a wicked game of baseball against the neighborhood boys. It was so much fun. At one point a little boy sitting next to me said "Eso Americano tiene un brazo!" - he forgot I could understand so I began cracking up, then all the other boys laughed because I understood, because the boy had said "That American has an ARM!" referring to one of my friends up to bat.

in Bonao

We arrived on Saturday and were sat down by our leader. He told us that a church in Bonao had called CareForce asking for help - they were about to have a big conferance at the church, and they didn't even have a floor yet. Money and time was lacking. We became their miracle...

We stayed at an orphanage overnight that was near the church in Bonao.

We prayed over the family on the last day.

The outside of the church - we worked on the second story where the main room was.

Sifting the sand to make cement and plaster for the walls. We laid all that you see on the floor the day before - the dirt, the pipes for electrical wires, the lines of cement. It was hard work, because we had to haul all the dirt up from the ground below through the windows.

The choir loft and Ali, the guy who worked with us a lot from the camp.

The family and friends that worked with us.

our friend

This is Valentin - he worked with us a lot. He protected us when we crossed the street by standing in the middle of the road and even putting his hands on cars to stop them. He brought us to get ice cream. He hung out with us. He basically became our brother for a week.