Latrine Building

Please let me introduce you Bolivar and Arlin, who are building latrines for those who have none. With our latrine building we are working to eliminate lack of sanitation, a principal cause of illness among poor families in the parish of Don Juan.

Filling the support columns of the new cafeteria of the school in Don Juan

Side Project: Andrea's house

One of our side projects was rebuilding the home of Andrea, a widow who lives in the small

community of Hoyo de Plum ,DR.
Andrea and her house before work began

 Andrea's house after

University of Rochester Sigma Chi Fraternity visit

Eleven young men from the University of Rochester fraternity Sigma Chi visited the DR January 4th to the 15th. The group worked on building ten new latrines (out houses) in the barrio of Buenos Aires, Don Juan.

Latrine Building

We are in the process right now of completing six new latrines. We received financial support for this project from Rotary, in memory of my first cousin, Steve Gascon. We hope to build 15 more in an area called Buenas Aires, where previously all 64 homes had no latrines or bathrooms. Due to our recent efforts 21 of the homes will now have latrines.

 We have learned from prior experiences and have cut costs on this project. Previously, if the families receiving latrines wanted larger facilities we forgave the difference in cost. During this wave of the project, each family is asked to come up with the money for additional construction costs.

 The rim of the holes are lined with rocks cemented in to form the foundation support.

Platforms are built so they can be moved to new holes when the other is full.

I have hired a man named Bolivar to complete this project. Bolivar is very poor but savvy. I had hoped to have volunteer help, but I guess this type of work is not glamorous enough.

 Bolivar

The huts are built to be moved also and laid on their side in the event of a hurricane.

New classrooms in Don Juan

 The ministry of Education here is the DR is building five new classrooms for our school in 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!

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.

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.