Sandy here on Rachel's log in. On the bus ride today one of the social workers on our team told me her story of living on a batey until she was in 4th grade when her parents moved her to the city so that she could continue her education. This is a rare story for the many Haitians who live on the bateys - one who broke out of the cycle. She told me that she had loved living out in the countryside and misses it to this day. She is dedicating her life to giving back to her people.

We're here in the DR at the top of the sugar cane season - when they begin the harvest of this year's crop. Last Sunday was the first day they opened the "safra", which means that the workers started into the cane fields to begin the cutting season. Workers earn very little for cutting an enormous amount of cane in a day. The cut cane is then collected and transported in carts pulled by oxen to the train tracks which wind through the cane fields. Open train cars are packed with cane stalks that carry them to the processing plant where they are ground, heated and eventually turned into sugar. The sugar industry and tourism are the DR's primary sources of income and define the landscape and life on this island nation.

Tonight we were treated to 7 innings of Dominican baseball at La Romana's home field - Los Toros v. Los Escogidos - grand rivalry, an especially lively fan base, a rousing band/percussion section that almost deafened us out of the stadium until we changed seats. What a fiesta of a baseball game - with a stadium full of Toros fanatics and a few of our own, it was great fun.
Up early tomorrow to continue in two teams - those constructing water filters and those working the health clinic on our next batey. Food packages are set to go and meds are prepped. Time for rest.

More from Day 4

En route to the batey -- a team of oxen pulling sugar cane at the weigh station.

Margarita -- one of the Dominican doctors who worked with us today.

Hayden, Jake, and Pat watch as a young girl strips sugar cane with a machete.
In the background is the school house where we set up the clinic.

A group of kids jostling for the camera.

A young girl came by herself to see the dentist and had two teeth pulled.
She didn't even flinch.

Kira S. at the blood pressure station.

One family's outdoor kitchen.

A huge hello to my family (Boston, NYC, NH & CT) and especially to my 2 most favorite girls in the world -Christina and Catherine. Thanks for spreading the word and forwarding the blog site to others. Maybe some of you will join us on the next trip!!! and a big thanks to Eric for all your support. I love you all! xoxoxoxoxo A quick update, today Jake and John Bracker, headmaster of Watkinson, were on toy distribution duty -giving toys to the children who were treated at the medical clinic. I had "bug juice" duty (Jake had this responsibility yesterday along with Sandy Garcia) -handing out cups of de-worming/parasite elimination liquid to all the people of the bateye. Most of the children do not have shoes and the parasites/worms bore up through their feet and infect their bodies. The juice eliminates the problem. Tomorrow, we are working at the hospital, building water filters to then be distributed to the bateyes. Keep posting comments -we love hearing from you!!!!

Images of Day 3, on Batey 50 with the Poorest of the Poor

Sandy hablas Espanol with Ariel, one of six translators with us for the day.

Setting up the pharmacy

Michaels makes friends with some of the absolutely adorable children of Batey 50

The water source on this batey, where people drink, bathe, wash clothes, and the pigs also wallow.

Taking blood pressures at the blood pressure station staffed today by Gary P. Jr., Pat Daniels and Michele Kadis.

One of the 67 patients we saw today. Every child we treated today received a comfort doll knit by volunteers from CT.

Jake marks the hands of the patients who have received de-worming medicine so no one gets double dosed. It tastes so good they would come back for seconds if allowed.

The truck arrives with water filters which were installed by Mike Kadis, Gary Pelletier Sr., Mike K. '12, and Kevin L. '11

We got to join a surprise birthday party for Mrs. French's brother-in-law, John Powers, who has volunteered for this project for decades and was down here on his birthday! This was a huge deal for the batey children and they absolutely loved it!

Devin K. with one of the adorable babies!

DAY 3 in the DR

The words of group members to describe the day: amazing, intense, overwhelming... but before we get there, some history as to how we came to be where the 23 of us are today. It all began in the late 1970s based on the vision of a man named Jean Luc, a Haitian pastor living in La Romana, Dominican Republic. His incentive derived from seeing Haitians living in the Dominican Republic being refused treatment in the local hospital because they were Haitian. His goal became a quest to build a hospital that would treat anyone, regardless of their ability to pay and regardless of whether they are Haitian or Dominican. In 1990, eleven people came to the DR from Connecticut, ready to help the poor of this country. Some questioned whether donating money wouldn't be more useful to the people, rather than spending money on flights to and lodging once in the DR. Jean Luc answered this question by welcoming the 11 people and telling them that, no, the $10,000 expended in airfare, food, and lodging , although desperately needed by the people of his community, would expand significantly if they went back and spread the word of what they saw and experienced during their stay. Jean Luc was right in his vision. Today, twenty years later, over 1000 people from Connecticut have come to the DR on service trips, and millions of dollars have been raised as a result. Today, these funds provide medical treatments and food provisions to thousands of children and their families.

More on our experience on Batey 50 later tonight!

Day 2 - Our First Full Day

We had an early breakfast this morning, followed by a visit from Kristy Engel, an American Baptist missionary and pediatric nurse practioner who works at the Good Samaritan Hospital. She gave us a good sense of what to expect when we visit the bateys, and she also told us about her recent trip to Haiti and the cholera epidemic.

Most of the group then took long and bumpy bus ride through sugar cane fields to visit and deliver food to Pilar and Francisco, who used to be a foreman in one of the sugar cane plantations. Their batey was relocated, but because they live in a cement home built by another team, they stayed where they are and are now completely isolated. The couple responded very differently: Pilar hugged and kissed everyone; Francisco was very quiet and reserved until the end of the visit when he wanted to pray with and for us. The land around their house is filled with papaya, orange and lemon trees. They plant sweet potatoes and corn, raise several goats, chickens and a donkey. It sounds very plentiful but they are quite old so caring for it is challenging. They lost their children to AIDS and are now trying to care for their two grandchildren with few resources to do so. We prayed in circle with Francisco and Pilar and it was a long goodbye.

Much of the afternoon was spent organizing the donated meds -- sorting, dividing, labeling, counting -- in preparation for our trip to Batey 50 tomorrow. We continued to work together like a well-oiled machine using many different but equally efficient systems for getting batches of 30 aspirin or children's vitamins or ibuprofen or tums into small plastic bags.

The highlight of the day for many of us was a visit to Beraca Iglesia for their Sunday evening service. This church services a large Haitian community that lives in a barrio called "Kilometer 6" right outside of La Romana. We were warmly welcomed by the entire congregation but especially by the children who had no hesitation greeting us, sitting with us, even climbing into our laps and falling asleep. They loved our digital cameras -- seeing instant photos of themselves, taking photos of each other and of us. When Kevin asked one little boy if he liked having us there, he replied, "Yes, it's like Christmas because you're here to help and make a difference." There was wonderful singing through the service by the whole congregation and a choir of 40 men and women in robes and very special hats for the ladies. A band accompanied the music with sax, trumpet, drums, keyboard, and 2 electric basses that kept blowing the fuses and leaving us clapping and singing in darkness. The show did not stop. What a night!

We're back on the ground again, filling tiny plastic bags with more meds for tomorrow

Day 1, Our Travel Day

Tonight we are blogging in the womens' dorm. While we are using Jenni's blogger account...we are all putting our thoughts here.

Pat Daniels' remarks at what a long travel day we had. We arrived at Watkinson at 7 am and left for JFK at 7:30. Arrived at JFK at 9:30 and after a seamless check in, boarded our flight at 11:10. And yes, JetBlue waived our fees for the extra bags we had! At 11:40, we were wheels up and airborn. Hayden French was the most excited as he'd never ridden in a plane before. Our flight was uneventful, and we landed in Santo Domingo at 4:10 and quickly turned on cell phones to find out the result of the soccer game that kept four members of our group home until Monday. (They won 4-3 in a very intense battle and will play again tomorrow in the championship game!)

We made it through customs with all of the meds donated by friends and family from Watkinson without a hitch. The big yellow school bus from the Good Samaritan Hospital was waiting for us, and we met our host for the week, Emilio. (He is shown in the second photo above, included because he stood in the stairwell of the bus for the 75 minute ride to La Romana and please notice that the bus only has one door.)

Our hosts at the dorms, called Casa Pastoral, had dinner waiting for us. After dinner we talked about our plans for tomorrow and then spent about an hour packing food kits to be distributed at Batey 50 on Monday. Both Pat Daniels and Michele Kadis remarked on how well our team worked together. Everyone found a job, a massive assembly line formed, and we had 130 food kits packed in what felt like the blink of an eye.