great article about little town of juan santiago

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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Juan Santiago, el pueblo del olvido - DiarioLibre.com

among all the sensationalism, crime and any other tema de momento DL published this great long story about a little pueblo of juan santiago and its people. interesting, touching and well written. not something you see every day in the papers here.

sometimes when i travel through small, sleepy town i wonder what do people do there. what do they live from. this article gives you a bit of an insight into the reality of living off the land and on tarjetas de solidaridad. in wooden houses with earth floors. without fridges, stoves and tvs. with a cut of foam as a bed. in a place where pigs are sheltered in unfinished hospital and policemen cook their daily meal on a fogon outside the estacionamiento.
 

suarezn

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Feb 3, 2002
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Excellent...What I also find incredible is how somehow mother nature takes care of it's people. The first lady live in extreme poverty (Has probably lived like that her whole life), no access to clean, sanitary conditions yet is 85 years old and relatively healthy it appears. In the meantime some of us living "the good life" are slowly dying of high cholesterol, obesity, etc...and probably won't make it to 85.
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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yes, you are touching on an interesting subject here. i think it may be a result of a diet low in calories. the article mentioned few times that many of the people ate only once a day, and very simply at that: arroz con cin de sal y grasa and cafe medio amargo. this controls lots of diseases caused by the excess of sugar and fat. and most of these people work physically on their land too.

on the other hand the article mentioned deaths of children so i guess this kind of life, and especially the fact there is little access to medical services, takes its toll on the most vulnerable, most likely due to diarrhea ad related issues.
 
Aug 6, 2006
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This is a great article. It reminds me of another tiny town up a donkey path from Imbert I visited in 1979.
 
May 29, 2006
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One of my interests is in making better cook stoves for rural families. Cooking smoke causes four million deaths around the world every year, mostly women and kids.

There is an NGO called Friends of The Dominican Republic that help build stoves for about $60 that use half as much wood and vents the smoke out of the living space.

Friends of the Dominican Republic > Home
 
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robbiee

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Dec 27, 2014
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www.dominicanfun.net
in that area , close to Haiti almost all live like that.... especially from Ellas Pina to Restauracion etc....
And there are 100s of 1000's people who live in similiar conditions in other parts of the country...near San Jose de Ocoa, Barahona,
Monte Cristi...everywhere...which you probably all already know, unless you stay here in some tourist ghetto and
not go outside....
where is Pichardo ?
 

dv8

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Sep 27, 2006
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even dominicans forget about this side of DR, judging by the comments in DL.