I´m sorry it´s been so long since I´ve updated you all on the activities here in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. I hope you all are doing well. I´m sure all of you that are in the U.S. are preparing to celebrate Thanksgiving and then jumping into the Christmas/holiday season. I´ll be coming home for two weeks in December to spend Christmas and New Year´s with my family, as well as to attend my sister´s wedding. For now, I´m still here in Puerto Plata, overseeing all of Project Esperanza´s activity here, which includes:

 

- 3 grassroot schools begun in Haitian churches for Haitian immigrant children living in the Dominican Republic.

 

- 2 boys´ homes for Haitian immigrant boys that were previously without a safe home and without educational opportunities.

 

- a social work program for other boys that are not in the boys´ homes, helping to find employment, housing, educational opportunities, medical help, and other services to meet their basic needs. This program seasonally includes a soccer program which is not currently taking place.

 

To read more about these programs, as well as our programs on the US side of things, go to http://www.esperanzameanshope.org/currentprojects.

 

It has been too long since I last wrote to you all. My camera has been lost or stolen, which means this update will be without pictures. Sorry! In my last update, I gave some detailed accounts as to the activity at the boys´ home. I have recently written several pages accounting the activity of the boys´homes (now separated into two homes), as well as updating on the social work program with the rest of the boys not in the homes. I will send this update out in a series of e-mails to boys´ home sponsors. If you wish to be included on such updates, please fill out and send in your boys´home sponsorship packet. E-mail Sponsor@EsperanzaMeansHope.org to request that your packet is sent to you through e-mail.

 

 

For those of you that are not sponsors, here is a short update: I now do not live in a large, rat-infested house in Maimon with several boys anymore, but in a small mosquito nest of an apartment in Costambar, which is closer to the city with just three of the boys. In July, we opened a second boys´ home in a quiet section of Puerto Plata called Los Limones. 7 older boys live and go to school there. Everyone is still without work other than shining shoes, selling hard-boiled eggs, and selling Skim Ice (freezie pops). The construction project still has not begun and we don´t know when or if it will.

 

24 boys in our program were registered in 6 different schools at the beginning of the school year. The boys were registered in the various schools depending on where they live, their grade level, and their ability to speak and understand Spanish. 4 boys have since dropped out for this year or have been scarcely attending. 20 boys are still going strong! We now have three boys in school at the high school level, which is a huge feat if you understand just half of the obstacles they´ve gone through to get there and continue to go through as they continue. 

 

Lastly and most importantly, I have to make a correction to false information I shared with you in the last update. While describing the rat problem we experienced, I said that Alex had woken up with a patch of missing hair due to a rat eating it during his sleep. I later found out that he had asked Ronal to cut the chunk out in order to trick me. I had to clarify that because I received several comments about that. Nonetheless, the problem was still very serious and I´m thankful that we don´t face it anymore. 

 

In October, we were blessed to have my father come and visit for the first time. For me, him coming and meeting everyone here was like two of my lives colliding. He seems to have come away from his experience here with a new understanding of the situation that is faced by many, being unlike situations he has witnesed before. He also seems impressed by the actions we are taking toward changing the situation here and continues to support the work in various ways. I talked to my dad just before writing this update to you all and he gave me advice as to how to explain the need to others in the U.S., being removed from the situation. With that being said, here is my plea on behalf of the Haitians living in the Puerto Plata community as well as their struggling friends and family in Haiti whom their prescense here represents, and ultimately, on behalf of God, our father and creator, that as our U.S Constitution recognizes, has created all men and women equal. 

 

 

As Christmas season approaches as well as in response to the newspaper article and videos on Project Esperanza that ran in October, several individuals and groups have collected or offered to collect donated items to send to us here. I am thankful for this response and for the willingness of others to take action. However, the truth is that material donations are not the most practical way to support our efforts right now.

 

The reality is that our organization continues to be in need, unable to consistently meet the most basic of needs, as the individuals that make up Project Esperanza here in Puerto Plata continue to be in need, lacking the means to meet their own basic needs as well as the needs of their friends and families. They lack the education and legal documentation to find work that will provide stable income. There is a lack of work opportunities for the uneducated, illegal, and those that lack the familial and community connections that come from being in one´s own homeland. I am referring to the connections that many Dominicans here have. The situation in the home country of those we serve, Haiti, is much worse off as far as opportunities are concerned and is physically and spiritually dangerous. I can attest to both of these types of dangers (physical and spiritual) having lived amongst poor and uneducated Haitians for the past year. I share more testimonies and thoughts about such dangers in boys´ home updates, but some I continue to work through in my mind and heart with God. 

 

My dad, used to viewing and understanding poverty with the prior experience of what he sees in the U.S., reminded me that the type of poverty faced here is poverty on a whole different level...a level that the average American may not understand. Someone living in poverty in the U.S. can potentially receive aid from the government or another service organization that will at least meet the basic needs of that person. These basic needs include housing and food. Free education is also available, as well as many programs that aid immigrants while integrating into the country. Here in Puerto Plata, the only one of these listed things available to Haitian immigrants is a lower quality public education which is also difficult for them to obtain, as further explained in the boys´ home updates. Furthermore, there is a system that assures the protection of children and human rights in the US. While people still criticize the aforementioned government services provided in the U.S., the fact is that they exist and the nation continues to attempt to perfect them. Here, these services are non-existent. Therefore, when putting my plea into context with other requests placed on you, please consider that reality. I come to you with this plea because, although our budget is smaller than it was last year at this time, we still lack the support base to be able to rely on consistent monthly incoming funds that go directly toward providing food, housing, and teacher salaries. However, thanks to God and the support of others, we have not failed to provide these things each month. But once again, our bank account is close to zero and I have only been able to pay the grassroot school teachers a portion of their pay for October. With one grant application sent in and under consideration, we have not yet heard of whether or not we will receive funding. If we do receive funding, it won´t be available to us for quite awhile. This means that it is once again time to ask for help. 

 

 

With that being said, I am going to ask that you consider supporting Project Esperanza´s efforts in one of two ways. 

 

Hello everyone!

Things have been going very well since my last update. We have had a lot of fundraising success as I will explain later. Everyone here, myself included, continues to be disciplined, educated, liberated, humbled, and loved. I feel more secure because our financial situation is better for the time being and is still on its way to being sustainable, but I'm still wanting to remain frugal and proactive about continued fundraising. I also feel like I have a new awareness of the long term committment and teamwork that is required to instill the lasting change in the boys in the boys home, in the three communities where the three grassroot schools are, in the Puerto Plata community as a whole, in the Dominican Republic, and in Haiti. My main personal focus and commitment is toward the boys in the boys´home. The aforementioned communities and countries are way too macroscopic to try to begin with them.

 

Personal Thoughts

My recent realizations are…Wow, NOTHING happens overnight. I shouldn't expect it to and I should prepare myself with endurance for the long run. We should continue to make short term goals and celebrate progresses as we move along this journey. We had two visitors from Haiti that stayed with us this past week. Their names are Gaby and Maricile. Several VT students involved in the Newman Catholic community have visited Gaby´s Project in Pignon, Haiti. Gaby is a Haitian man who the Catholic church funded to attend Virginia Tech several years ago. After graduating from the two year agriculture program Gaby returned to Haiti and began a school, along with many other projects in his community. It was great to have he and his wife stay in the house with us for a few days. His life is a great example for the boys… and strong, Haitian, male, serving leaders have definitely been lacking in their lives. Through talking to him about the work he's been doing, I was again made aware of the long term committment that is needed to instill change and the need to celebrate progress along the way. Gaby said that he likes to see results, wich anyone working hard toward a goal does. It seems as though he is often discouraged because so much effort is needed to get people to work together and to educate people to understand the projects they're working on, that it is rare that he sees tangible results. But after he expressed that, we talked about Moses leading the people of Egypt to the Promised Land and how he spent such a large part of his life leading the people but never actually made it to the destination. However, he passed his role onto Joshua who led them to reach that goal, which was really just a new beginning with new challenges and lots of advancements to still be made. As I'm writing this I'm reminded of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s references to Moses in his last speech befote he was killed. His comparisons showed his hopeful faith, that the goal he had been leading people toward would be reached, but that he didn't need to see that day with his eyes. More and more I am seeing that this is the type of attitude that a true servant has to have.

 

Fundraising Update

As a reminder, we had set the following goals which I shared in an e-mail on March 21 in order to catch up on our expenses when we fell behind and in order to meet our monthly budget each month after that, plus to save up for the summer during vacation when we have less fundraising opportunities at Virginia Tech.

 

$475 by Monday, March 24
$4,359.09 by Friday, March 28
$4,359.09 by Monday, April 28
$13,077.27 by Wednesday, May 28th

 

I am very glad to say that we reached the first 3 goals, although we reached the March 28th goal a few days late, and we have $2,500 left to reach the May 28th goal. THANK YOU again everyone who has made donations, become sponsors, participated in fundraisers, etc. We still are far from gaining the sponsorsip committment needed to assure our monthly budget, so if you were considering sponsoring the boys' home or school but haven´t committed to it yet, please do go ahead and do it! And for anyone that has been recruiting sponsors, let's continue to spread the word!

 

Boys' Home

Things are going great here at the boys' home. A project for this weekend is to make a compost pile. Alex, one of the first boys to live in the house, is back! He seems to have gotten a lot of things out of his system through living on the streets and is way more committed to the house now. He's doing well and is so silly and mischevious. Enso, an ex-employee and long-time volunteer that has been with us since the very beginning, also returned from Haiti during the past month and is staying with us until he finds work. It looks like he'll be able to get a job at a bakery in Costambar, a nearby zone. School is going great. We now have weekly vocabulary lists called "Wow Words," a term I got from a wonderful 6th grade teacher I had. The boys have to know the definitions and parts of speech so it's definitely broadening their vocabulary. They also have weekly spelling lists and are learning about forming sentences, punctuation, etc. Today we read the 7th chapter of The Purpose Drive Life by Rick Warren, which is a 40-day devotional. Some things are difficult to translate but I think it's written in an amazingly simple yet deep and multicultural way. It's been a pleasure to read and discuss with the boys and I look forward to the rest of the 33 days.

 

Grassroot Schools

All three grassroot schools continue to do well. Since reaching our fundraising goals we've been able to provide them with a little more monthly support which goes toward renting the church buildings where school is held. The Muñoz school is especially overcrowded and is looking for a bigger building to rent. The Munoz and San Marcos schools are still in great need of tables, chairs, and books. Lafontant, the director and teacher of the Munoz school, said that he has been saving up some of his money to buy books in Haiti soon. I hope that we´ll be able to buy new books for the boys´ home as well because they have long since finished with the last ones. If you wish to help with books, there´s a great website (www.haitibooks.com) that has a ton of great books in Creole that would be more than useful in any of the schools. There´s an even better site that I lost... Mom, do you know which one? :)

I am always amazed at the teachers´abilities to give class day alter day without materials, and without separated classrooms. I´m often having to rack my brain to plan lessons at the boys´ home, although I have several science books in English to give me ideas and I know I´ve seen a ton more creative eduational activities throughout my education in the U.S. than the grassroot school teachers have, who have all received their education in Haiti and some have received a portion in the Dominican Republic. I would love to be able to send them to some sort of teaching workshop during the summers and I plan to research that but I doubt there is a feasible option for that nearby. I think the most likely possibility would be to plan sort of a teaching methods and creative activities sharing time with the directors but I´m not sure if we´ll get to that this summer.  

 

Soccer

 

Supesta, the boys´soccer team, will be starting up again soon. We´ll be separating into two teams: Ti Supesta and Gro Supesta, which means ¨Small Superstars¨ and ¨Big Superstars¨. Last year there was a big problem in that the littler boys always came and practicad where as the bigger boys more came as they pleased. However, it was always the older boys that played during the games and the little boys were often upset on the sidelines. So splitting into two teams is definitely the solution. A man named Renold will coach the older boys and Jireste, who coached his peers for part of the summer last year but also played, will now be able to focus on coaching the younger boys. We´re all excited to begin! Gro Supesta will start practicing three days a week in the yard of a school in Puerto Plata. They´ll get started sometime within the next few weeks and will have games on weekends. Ti Supesta will most likely wait until summer vacation in mid June to get started and will practice the other two days of the week at the same field. The groundskeeper of the school who actually lives at the school is a good friend of ours so he will hopefully store balls and a water jug in the school for us so we don´t have to worry about lugging them around everyday.

 

Supesta wish list:

 

- 40 pairs of cleats, mainly sizes 7-11. A few smaller and a few bigger could be of use but the majority should fall in tose sizes

- 40 water bottles

- 80 pairs of soccer shorts (Youth L – Adult M)

- 120 pairs of socks

- 4 sets of jerseys (Youth L – Adult M)

- 40 pairs of shin guards

- 40 small backpacks to tote cleats, etc.

It would be WONDERFUL if these items could come down with Cameron and Nathaniel at the end of May.

 

If we can receive these ítems, after a few weeks of practice, we will be able to determine who the dedicated players are and distribute these ítems at the beginning of the season. Any extra ítems will be sold ASAP to avoid theft and to make money for team expenses such as water (with ice!) and traveling to away games.

 

A Few More Tid Bits            

 

1. I mentioned in a previous e-mail that many Haitians told me about a rat that grows wings and flies when it gets old. Well, Jonel found a picture of one while looking through one of my science books. It turns out, it´s a bat! Haha.

 

1. An opposite bit of metamorphasis miseducation: They didn´t know that caterpillars turn int butterflies! I would love to find a cucoon so we can watch it happen!

 

1. The landlords´16 dogs have seen some activity. While I was in the U.S., two of them died suddenly. During the night there are often big dog fights, which on two different occasions, we´ve found a dead puppy the next morning. Tig, the killer, killed one of the neighbors´sheep. The neighbors asked our landlord to pay but he didn´t. The neighbors, therefore, gave the dogs poisoned meat, killing Tig along with a few others. So we are now able to have chickens at the house.

 

1. Still no electricity in the house…although I´ve been continuing to make trips to the company and talk to the landlord.

 

1. Dunel killed 7 rats in one week! They´re getting to be a big problem… I woke up to one pulling my hair the other night. Alex woke up in need of a haircut because they had eaten his hair. Everyone else in the house is more used to close contact with mice and rats than I am. They all have stories of rats chewing the bottom of their feet or biting their fingernails down in the middle of the night. Apparently, as Jireste says, they blow on the bottom of your feet befote gentil chewing them, attempting to make the experience enjoyable for you so that you allow them to continue. I find this hilarious but definitely don´t want to find out for myself so I´ve been buying a gooey paper that traps the rats so you can will them. The first night was successful, killing 2. But we will not try poison. That brings the total count to 9!

 

Volunteer Trip          

 

It looks as though volunteers will be coming throughout June and July and doing work in Munoz. We´re all also excited for that! Along with the Supesta wish list adn the books in Creole, here is a list of additional ítems that we would gladly receive from volunteers´suitcases:

 

-         bookbags

-         pens

-         notebook paper

-         white copy paper

-         white chalkboard chalk

-         toothbrushes

-         soaps

-         deodorant

-         band-aids

-         a few flashlights would be nice

-         ziplock bags

-         LARGE 50 gal. Trash bags

-         A few towels

-         Durable sandals

-         Hangers

-         Tennis shoes in good shape

-         Folders (preferably plastic)

 

PLEASE DO NOT BRING

 

-         large educational books in English

-         glue sticks

-         crayons

Okay, well thanks for reading! Hope you all are doing well! God bless you all.

Caitlin