Don Juan Garden Update

The school garden at Don Juan is maturing well. 

As you can see if these recent photos, the garden is a success! 

 Now the work of the student gardeners is feeding the rest of the students in the school.

School Garden in Don Juan

One of our new programs at the school in Don Juan is teaching the students the art of gardening and raising vegetables.

 Close up of corn and beans

The Chapel in Bosque Arriba

We recently completed the chapel in Bosque Arriba, a gift this past year from the Cornell Hockey Team.

This is our fifth new chapel and my favorite so far. I think that my construction ability is improving with age.

Christmas and Catching Up

You have not heard much of anything from me because of a wedding and two deaths of family members. As a result, this fall and early winter I traveled back and forth from the Dominican Republic several times. I am just now able to play catch-up here on my blog.

Below are some of the Christmas pictures from the Portal de Belen, Hato Nuevo, and Don Juan Christmas children's celebrations.

The Census and angel at El Portal de Belen

The stable at Hato Nuevo

Children receive gifts at Don Juan 

A busy July in the DR

July has been a busy month for us here in the DR. First, we had two couples celebrating their marriage vows in the chapel of Triplici Ossama. 

Most couples in the DR live together for sometime before solemnizing their marriage in church, often their children and grandchildren are gathered around them.

Next, one of the seminarians, Rev. Mr. Neftali Brito, of the parish in Don Juan was ordained a deacon on July 20th in preparation for his soon-to-be ordination as a priest, sometime in the coming year.

On July 25^th, eleven parishioners from Sacred Heart Parish in Auburn, and St.Ann's in Owasco, arrived for a week-long visit. During their visit they renewed old friendships and formed new ones in Don Juan.

The group kept busy completing the first coat of paint on the new chapel in Bosque Arriba and doing projects with the children in some of the communities of the parish.

The container shipped from Auburn on the 20th of June arrived in Monte Plata on July 27^th. Some of the people who helped load it in Auburn, NY were on hand to unload in Monte Plata, DR. Quite an interesting happenstance.

 Saturday August the 4th was the first mass and blessing of the new chapel in Bosque Arriba (the monies for which were raised by the Cornell Hockey team under the leadership of their coach and good friend Mike Schafer).

Final touches of painting inside and out are yet to be done. The chapel also needs to be connected with electricity and water, and we will build an eco latrine. All in good time.

A very busy four weeks indeed!

Bosque Arriba & Good News Update

Work continues on the project in Bosque Arriba.

We hope to have it ready to be painted when the group from Sacred Heart arrives near the end of July.

GREAT NEWS!

Our visit with the president of the republic has paid off! On Monday July 9^th I will receive the papers that will give us control of the property we have been seeking. We will build a softball diamond on the new property which we hope to then trade for the property we want in front of our complex here in Don Juan, which is the present softball field.Anyone want to help us build a softball diamond?

Children's Global Health Alliance

On June 23^rd Jeff Anderson arrived in the DR. Now a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, Jeff first came to Don Juan on a project three years ago sponsored by his fraternity, Sigma Chi, while he was a student at the University of Rochester, NY. 

His heart was deeply touched by the obvious health needs of the children here in the DR. Since then Jeff and his friends have started their own foundation, Children's Global Health Alliance, to service the health needs of children, pregnant women, and mothers in the Third World. They are in the process of partnering with us in the municipal district of Don Juan.

Jeff spent his week here interviewing mothers, doctors, nurses, visiting homes, area bateyes, local clinics, and health services. Most clinics were very cooperative but not all,  the clinic that deals with AIDS patients was not.

His findings were a mixed bag as a few health services function quite well, and while look great on paper, the actual services provided do not match the description. Children's Global Health Alliance.