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MaineGirl

The Way Life Should Be...
Jun 23, 2002
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amity.beane.org
AS some of you know my husband and I went to POP for four weeks. We got home last night, tan and fitting snug into our jeans. First thing today I went to Shopper's for limes, avocados, mangos, pineapples and lechosa...even though it's not the same at least my kitchen looks comforting!
We spent most of our time in Plaza Isabel, behind Harrison's, with the Rivera family. They put us up and up with us the whole time. They treated us like royalty. Honestly the next time I have guests in my home I will try and act more like Altagracia Rivera. We never wanted for anything and if we even hinted at something we liked or enjoyed she made every effort to accomodate us.
On the other hand, most of the time we were sheltered from actual Dominican life. After two weeks of hopping into Dib's van with the AC blasting and having door to door service between the comforts of his home and our work site, we were beginning to wonder if we would ever get a chance to get out. Finally one Wednesday night we skipped out of the church service and walked through the neighborhood until we ended up in front of a bakery. We ended up visiting the bakery before every church service thereafter, sharing donuts and a coke.
I did put on weight and needed a new pair of pants. So Jason and I hopped on a motoconcho one day and went to Casa Nelson and bought jeans. Tortorous experience, around 2 30 in the afternoon, huffing and puffing and sweating my through to the right pair of pants, no AC in a cramped dressing room. Other quirk: did I really jump four sizes in two weeks? Or is the Dominican sizing not equal?
Even though we were officially on a church mission and staying with Christians, we did manage a discreet Presidente here and there, all things in moderation, you know. It wasn't all that I thought it would be after DR1 hype, but enjoyable.
We went often to Sosua. My favorite day was when I went out snorkeling with Ariel and Hayden, the Rivera's two sons. We explored all over the coral and rock piles. It was effortless to be in the water. I could have stayed out for hours. Coming in close second to the beach experience was swimming at that beach around midnight the night before we left with our new group of friends. On the way home from swimming we passed by the burning cane fields which lit up the sky.
We did go to Luperon for a night. We took Javilla tours to Imperon and from there a gua-gua. We stayed with a friend's mother. She served us onions and sausage and yuca, all cooked with tremendous love. We bathed with buckets of water and ate dinner in the semi-darkness, waiting for the lights to return. A far cry from Plaza Isabel and all the amenities in the Rivera home! It was a needed experience for us. The next day our guide, Lala, took us all over Luperon. An otherwise short tour was lengthened considerably by her frequent stops to say hello to people she had not seen in a while. We went to the docks, the two cemetaries, the ball field, the town square, and the three gift shops.
The best part of Luperon was meeting a girl named Damalbi, who is deaf. She is seven years old. She didn't know any sign language, but did write and draw a lot on paper. She was as smart as a whip! We taught her as much sign language as we could cram into our brief time with her. She dragged me up and down the street pointing at things so I could teach her their signs. Her mother was overjoyed at the basic things we taught her so she could communicate better with her daughter. Damalbi was really special. We feel that meeting her and spending time with her made the whole trip.
In short: great food, great beaches, great people. Lousy mosquitos. The conditon of things caused us to pray, hard. I took many, many pictures. And now you must excuse me, it is time for me to have a cup of coffee and dream my north coast dreams.
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
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What a great post!

I really enjoyed seeing our land thru your eyes. A bit different

The case of the deaf girl interest me a bit since we have an excellent school here in Santiago. And there used to be some missionaries here teaching sign language to children. I wonder what happened to them?

Any way you can get into contact with the girl's family?

I have soome wonderful friends from Luperon-the Morrobel family, and I am sure we could do something to help this little lady...Wanna try it?

Four weeks and not one phone call? I am abashed :(

HB
 

MaineGirl

The Way Life Should Be...
Jun 23, 2002
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0
amity.beane.org
HB,
We have the address and local contacts for Damalbi and her mom.
We have the idea of raising funds for her through our church. There are a few options as to what the money can go to. My husband (also deaf) has a great audiologist whose non-profit provides scholarships for kids to get hearing aids, etc. So one idea is to have her and her mom fly up to VA next summer for a month and get the much needed audiogram, to see the extent of her loss and then go from there. Apparently Dani (her mom) took her to see a visiting Puerto Rican doctor four years ago, was charged over 200 dollars, and was unable to pay for that so never went back to see her results.
Puerto Plata also has a deaf school. I would be interested in learning more about the school in Santiago. There's various degrees of deaf institutions. Jason was mainstreamed early because of his parent's intense dissatisfaction with the quality of education at his deaf school. He, like Damalbi, is extremely smart. After a few years of numbers, letters, and basic sign, he was bored to death. If she can function with hearing aids in her small school in Luperon, that might be better.
Any other ideas out there for Damalbi? I get my slides back today and will soon have a website up in her honor.

Pib and Hillbilly, next time we would love to hook up with you guys!!!
 

Tom F.

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
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Nice Trip

I enjoyed reading your post. Maybe the Predidente wasn't bien fria. I find that the most effective means of giving is probably done by missionaries. They are more likely to meet the people who will benefit from their work and spend extended vacations actually doing some of it. Their ability to raise money for individuals or individual projects is impressive.