Sacred Heart serving a meal and distributing clothes in Los Lanos

Painting the chapel in Los Lanos

Parishioners of Sacred Heart painted the chapel in Los Lanos on February 18th.

Cornell Men's Hockey Team Visit

May 27th to June 3rd some members of the Cornell Hockey Team, their coach and my very good friend, Mike Schafer, and five friends of the hockey team came down to build a chapel and community center in the community of Bosque Abajo. The group also visited the Portal de Belen Children's Center.

 Mass at Bosque Arriba

 This group photo is at the beach celebrating my 53rd anniversary as a priest

Lunch at Pizza Hut SD on way to the beach hotel

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.

Project in Los Lanos

Alicia Manteiga and Jeff Anderson were here for most of August, working on getting land promised by the government to the people of the village, Los Lanos. The people of Los Lanos will use the land to grow their own food and maybe sell some. We are working to help organize the people to form a cooperative, which is a work is progress. Alicia and Jeff also bought three manual sewing machines and materials so the women and young girls could make products to sell. The machines must be manual as there is no electricity most of the time. I am waiting for Jeff to send me some photos of their work together, and will post those additional photos when I receive them.

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.

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!

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.

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.