Visit with the president of the DR

Visit of Fr. Ron and Sister Monica with the president of the DR on June 1st in his office as we seek his help to secure some property we would like.

 When the Dictator Trujillo was assassinated, the land mass he and his family had accumulated was more than 60% of the country. J F Kennedy, our president at that time, had all that land put into a trust foundation to be redistributed to the people by the government of the DR.

Our plan is to construct a softball diamond to be exchanged then for the present softball diamond in front of our school. The dream then is to construct on that property a new church, poly-technical high school, clinic and pharmacy, God willing.

Board member visit

On May 28th three members of the board, Greg Galvin, Peter Koch, and Juan Arroyo arrived with Fr.Joe Marcoux, pastor of St. Catherine's Ithaca, and Fr. Dan Mc Mullin, chaplain at Cornell University.

The group made a whirlwind, 3 day visit to the prominent projects of the foundation.

They visited the daycare at Portal de Belen, which St.Catherine's has support now for 13 years, as well as the school at Hato Nuevo, and the school and convent in Don Juan.

Also they went to the site of the new chapel and multi-use building which Cornell Hockey raised the funds for and helped raise the walls.

Cornell Hockey Team visit

Cornell hockey team members Greg, Cole, Kevin, Nick, Justin, and Andy, their coach, Mike Schafer, with his sons John and Luke and supporter, Scott Howard, arrived on May 21^st. Tony Eisenhut with his daughter Emily (who arrived a day later) and her friend Lauren also traveled to the DR at the same time to work on a project that they had raised the money to build.

 Their project was to begin construction on one building with a chapel for mass and parish events as well as a classroom/meeting room in the community of Bosque Arriba. Both of the facilities will function as hurricane shelters.

 The distance to the local school is quite far for the little ones in the area of the new chapel. Our hope is to establish preschool and 1st grade classes for them at the new facility.

 In four days they raised four walls, much to the surprise of our Dominican contractors. This group did lots of hard work in a short time.

After four days of work, the group relaxed on the beach on Saturday and Sunday, a treat which they greatly deserved.

Sigma Chi Christian Fraternity mission work

Several young men from the University of Rochester's Sigma Chi fraternity came to Don Juan the first week in January to paint the homes of very poor Dominican families. These families do not have the money to buy paint to paint their houses on their own.To maintain one's house painted and decorated is an important sense of pride for Dominican families.


Alicia Manteiga, our then volunteer from the Peace Corp, together with Fr. Brian Cool, faculty adviser of the fraternity, headed up the work detail.

Playground dedication

The Thursday before Christmas we held a dedication of the new playground behind our school in Don Juan.
The playground was the gift of an anonymous donor from St. Mark's parish in Greece, New York.We also received support for the playground construction from our national government senator, Charlie Mariotti.

The playground is named in honor of St.Francis of Assisi.
This school now has over 480 students, the majority of whom are disadvantaged children.

The best way to celebrate Christmas

The best celebration of Christmas I had this year was on the weekend before Christmas.
Some families from Santo Domingo came to put on a complete and generous meal for all the people in a very poor campo, Los Lanos.
Some 77 persons took part who have known a great deal of hunger this year, as well as three there dying from cholera.

Thanksgiving in the DR

Around Thanksgiving time people often ask me if I celebrate it in the Dominican Republic and the answer is YES.
This year was especially gratifying as I had three Americans with me at that time.

My guests were Patrick Ferree and his adopted son Yeison, who is from the DR, and our Peace Corp Volunteer Alicia Manteiga, recently recovered from a bad case of Dengue.
I cooked the turkey with dressing and the rest of the fixings with the help of Chicita. We had an American imported turkey and Patrick brought the cranberry sauce and the dry stuffing mix from the US. All in all it was a very satisfying meal and day.