We knew it was going to be a very long day. What we didn’t anticipate is the emotional drain we were about to experience.
4:30am came early, especially seeing how we didn’t get to bed until around midnight. If it hadn’t been for the aroma of the excellent Dominican coffee dripping away I’d maybe have just chucked it all. But didn’t. We got up, fed the cats and dogs, showered and drank as much coffee as we could.
We left home in darkness and drove down the mountain (the Cordillera Central range) to the Autopista Duarte, the main N/S road in the country. An hour later we were at Alida’s brother’s house in Santiago. They’d had less sleep than we had.
This will be the day’s route. Orange is where we live to Santiago, purple is Santiago to Haiti:
The mission crew was Alida, mi esposa, Raphael, Alida’s brother and a local pastor, George, Alida’s cousin and an FBI agent from California and Director of the DREAM Project, Home, George’s esposa, Argellia, Karin, their spunky 8th grader who envisioned the DREAM Project as a 7th grader, Daniel, their young son, Robyn, Karin’s Korean school pal, Dr. Enriquillo Vargas (Santiago, familiar/oncologist, radio show host) and Christian Bueno, Santiago community leader volunteer.
This is George:
I learned I didn’t understand today’s work. I thought it was for engineer planning. Nope. That was done the trip before by George/Alida/Raphael’s *other* cousin, Peter Olivo (Hope For Children International ) by his foundation; the groups work together. This was to install some water equipment, deliver a bunch of beds and build some playground equipment. The big truck, full of stuff, was already headed to Haiti. And it seems over 1000lbs of food-mainly powdered milk, 400lbs of canned meat, 300lbs. of pancake mix, syrup, and a bunch of other foods were still held up in Dominican Customs….waiting for the signature of a Jefe on vacation…for a month. These guys don’t pay bribes.
We left Santiago around 6:30 as the day began to brighten, Alida, me, Robin, Karin and Daniel in my car, the others in the Drs. car. We drove north to Navarette then northwest toward Monte Cristi, then on to cross the border in Dajabon. I’d not been in this part of the country before but I’d heard it became much dryer…and it did. Cactus and dust were common, but the landscape was still green.
Dominicans call this area the “frontier” as the population gets sparse and the weather less hospitable.
As we got 20km from the border, we stopped near a military checkpoint to pee and drink something. They look for illegal Haitians.
Raphael and I sharing some soda:
4:30am came early, especially seeing how we didn’t get to bed until around midnight. If it hadn’t been for the aroma of the excellent Dominican coffee dripping away I’d maybe have just chucked it all. But didn’t. We got up, fed the cats and dogs, showered and drank as much coffee as we could.
We left home in darkness and drove down the mountain (the Cordillera Central range) to the Autopista Duarte, the main N/S road in the country. An hour later we were at Alida’s brother’s house in Santiago. They’d had less sleep than we had.
This will be the day’s route. Orange is where we live to Santiago, purple is Santiago to Haiti:
The mission crew was Alida, mi esposa, Raphael, Alida’s brother and a local pastor, George, Alida’s cousin and an FBI agent from California and Director of the DREAM Project, Home, George’s esposa, Argellia, Karin, their spunky 8th grader who envisioned the DREAM Project as a 7th grader, Daniel, their young son, Robyn, Karin’s Korean school pal, Dr. Enriquillo Vargas (Santiago, familiar/oncologist, radio show host) and Christian Bueno, Santiago community leader volunteer.
This is George:
I learned I didn’t understand today’s work. I thought it was for engineer planning. Nope. That was done the trip before by George/Alida/Raphael’s *other* cousin, Peter Olivo (Hope For Children International ) by his foundation; the groups work together. This was to install some water equipment, deliver a bunch of beds and build some playground equipment. The big truck, full of stuff, was already headed to Haiti. And it seems over 1000lbs of food-mainly powdered milk, 400lbs of canned meat, 300lbs. of pancake mix, syrup, and a bunch of other foods were still held up in Dominican Customs….waiting for the signature of a Jefe on vacation…for a month. These guys don’t pay bribes.
We left Santiago around 6:30 as the day began to brighten, Alida, me, Robin, Karin and Daniel in my car, the others in the Drs. car. We drove north to Navarette then northwest toward Monte Cristi, then on to cross the border in Dajabon. I’d not been in this part of the country before but I’d heard it became much dryer…and it did. Cactus and dust were common, but the landscape was still green.
Dominicans call this area the “frontier” as the population gets sparse and the weather less hospitable.
As we got 20km from the border, we stopped near a military checkpoint to pee and drink something. They look for illegal Haitians.
Raphael and I sharing some soda:
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