Here is a little bit of what I have been up to; few days after I came back from the states Iwent to a 2day long training on Bio-Sand water filters sponsored by Rotary International and USAID. It was all in Spanish and I was the only American there, quite a welcome back into the country. Now I am a certified water filter “specialist”, so I am now in the process of developing a project with 3 of the community leaders in my community and choosing the 40 lucky families that will be receiving a 120lb water filter, lol. These filters are quite incredible, though, they filter out pretty much everything; Cholera, Diarrhea, Amoebas among many other water born illnesses, and they last for decades (if maintained well). What does this mean for the people in my community? They will never have to purchase water again. That may not seem like a big deal for many of us, but think about a family of 4-5. People buy water in 5 gallon jugs, many go through 1-2 a day, each one costs 30-35 pesos, so your looking at anywhere up to 500 pesos a week, 2000 pesos a month 24,000 pesos a year or 650 dollars. That’s a lot of money for a family who has an income of around 5000 pesos a month. Not to mention, it will allow families who couldn’t afford to buy clean water the opportunity to drinkas much as they want for free! Unfortunately, a lot of people drink from the tap here, which as many of you may know from my earliest blog posts is the worst thing possible. ☺
We just recently celebrated July 4th here aswell. A couple of us went up to Puerto Plata to the beach for the day ( gracias a my Aunt andUncle, haha), then the next day we bought a little disposable grill and grilled up some bratwurst, hamburgers and watched the Sandlot! It was a very nice andrelaxing holiday. Interesting story, on the way back from Puerto Plata we came upon a motorcycle accident, a motorcycle had run into a car or vice versa. Unfortunately, the man on the bike died, probably instantly. We saw a few people pick up his body and set it into the back of a random truck that happened to be passing through, and sent him to the hospital. After this there remained a group of people looking in the tall grass where the man had been thrown off his bike. I heard some people talking and then saw someone pick up the mans severed arm by the finger and carry it to the rode, get on his motorcycle (no helmet) and head after the truck on the way to the hospital. It was so crazy! I had never seen anything like that before, a dead body or a severed arm, I mean bone, flesh, blood, it was shocking, didn’t seem real. So, that was a great way to end a day at the beach, ha.
Then on the 6th of July I headed off to Camp Superman with 2 kids from my engineer club. It was a 5-day camp way way way up in the mountains above Santiago in a community
called Los Bueyes. 45 boys ages 1
1-15 attended
and about 15 volunteers. We played all kinds of games and talked about all kinds of topics. It was similar to a summer camp in the US, but absolutely in the middle of nowhere, off the grid. It took us 2 hours to climb the mountain in 5 trucks packed with kids and bags, and then we arrived to this little campsite by a river. It was an incredible 5 days. I was given the opportunity to see God work in the lives of these little kids. We split up into 5 teams, myself and 2 other volunteers headed up the green team, and we were able to see these kids mature in a span of 5 days. We had kids that came in rowdy and obnoxious, making fun of the other kids, saying bad words and by the last day they were helping those same kids, arriving quietly to all events, obeying all the rules and saying please and thank you at every meal. I was so proud of our team. There was this kid named Nilson (no, not nelson) and he was pretty heavy set, not very athletic, which was a shame because we played sports all day everyday. Anyways, by the 3rd day he ended up cracking under all the pressure from his teammates constantly making fun of him. He realized he wasn’t very athletic, but he never gave up trying. It all came down on him at once and he just starting crying. One of the volunteers sat with him and tried to cheer him up while myself and another volunteer tried to calmly explain the terrible thing they had done to one of their friends, while we wanted to drown them in the river, ha. Well, by the end of the day all the kids had apologized to him, and one kid named Frailey, who had been a terrible, rude, inconsiderate, leading the charge against Nilson ended up staying behind in the last activity so that he could run with Nilson and help him across the finish line! That’s all we as volunteers could talk about for the rest of the camp. It was such an incredible thing to witness; a kid who we thought had no hope of changing (Frailey) helping out a kid whom he had mocked mercilessly ( Nilson). Man, it was one of those moments when you can see Gods hand.
So, we come up on the 4th day of camp, we had just gotten back from a 2 hour hike to a magnificent waterfall. All the kids are settling in and getting ready for the afternoon when I see a group of kids huddled around one of my kids Starlin. Apparently, he had fallen while running a hurt his wrist. We checked with the volunteers from the Red Cross who were with us and they confirmed that it was dislocated…great. So, we had to take him to the hospital to get it fixed but it had been raining and no vehicles could make it to the campsite. We walked with him about 1 mile up a very steep, muddy hill to get to a level dirt road where there were cars. We took this mans 1970-something jeep about minutes to the nearest town to a free clinic. He told us we needed an x-ray and it may be fractures as well. So we get in the car and drive 30 minutes to get an X-ray from a technician with an “I Love Canada” t-shirt and a hat that said “Cowgirl”…perfect, why is this guy wearing a hat in the first place, lol. Anyways, we got the x-ray for 450 pesos drove back to the free clinic where I almost threw up watching the doctor reset the kids arm by breaking it again, then they but on a cast that went up to his armpit with a sling. The whole time i'm thinking that this kids mom is going to kill me. I take her son to a camp and he comes back with a broken arm, perfect. We leave the blood stained clinic and head back to the camp, oh but first we have to pick up the dinner for tonight. We stop by this random dudes house, walk into his garage where he is roasting 3 whole pigs, it was pretty cool. I got to try some meat while it was still on the spit. I helped break apart both the pigs and stuff them in black trash bags. Then we got back on the road, stopped by a store to pick up ice and 25 gallons of pure water for the camp. Lets recap: In this 2-seater truck we have the driver, Starlin with a broken arm in the front. Myself and the Red Cross volunteer are in the back with two 50-pound pigs 25 gallons of water and 6 bags of ice. Not to mention this truck is as old as time and looks like it could give at any possible second. Ok, all caught up. At this point it is pouring rain, and we still have to cross a river to get to the camp, and all the roads are muddy and slippery, obviously not paved. We are fishtailing while the driver continues to look back at me and say how much he likes driving in this weather, I’m just nodding my head while thinking about all of my loved ones and praying harder than ever, haha. Then the Red Cross guy starts trying to show me picture on his camera about his job, and I’m just like, hey guy I’m pretty sure we aren’t making in through this and the last thing I DO NOT want on my mind is a picture of you receiving an award at some ceremony for the deaf. Eventually, we did make it back to the entrance of the camp, still one mile to go by foot, this time downhill in the rain, I’m almost breaking this kids good arm with my hulk-like grip from my abnormally tiny hands for a man (thanks mom). We arrived at the site where all the kids were waiting for him and they began chanting Starlin, Starlin, Starlin and he just got the biggest smile on his face. It was nice for him. The first thing he said was, “ I didn’t even cry once!” He was a trooper through all of this, I think I probably thought about crying more times than him. Now it is a cool story, and all the kids signed his cast. Unfortunately, it had been pouring there as well and all the tents flooded (just cant escape it, lol). All the kids stuff is now soaking wet, sheets, towels, clothes, shoes, everything. So, there is only one area for shelter at this camp, as you will see on the photos, and it’s no bigger than a studio apartment. So, we moved all the kids’ stuff into this area, threw down a tarp and wrapped another one around the outside so no rain could enter. All 45 kids slept huddled together in this area. Guess who volunteered to sleep with them…..me! I had been sleeping terribly the whole time because I had been lying at this weird downward angle and blood would keep rushing to my head and I would wake up dizzy and numb, lol. In this gazebo thing, it was very level and smooth, still dirt, though. Another volunteer offered to take the bullet as well, unfortunately he happens to be 6’5” and took up all the rest of the free area on the tarp. I ended up sleeping on wet dirt wrapped in a single sheet like a burrito, did not fall asleep once, but I do remember having nightmares…very strange…maybe my nightmare and my reality somehow fused into one mega realtimare. Anyways, we woke up the next morning, packed up and left. Now I’m back in my site recuperating from the weekend. Starlins mom was actually very understanding about his arm. She said it could have happened anywhere and to not worry about it, which was a huge relief!
So, now I’m back to working on the water filters, and I may have to attend a medical mission in the next week because 6 people dropped out last minute. I may go there this weekend. I also have a meeting with the owner of an empty plot of land next to my house to have him donate a piece of it to our community garden project. My buddy Josiel is also meeting with the “vice-mayor” of Santiago to see if she would donate to our cause and he is also going to the nearby University of Agriculture to see if they would donate plants and stuff. A lot of stuff happening. Hitting the ground running. My small business class is finishing up soon as well.
Well, that’s about all for now. Love and miss you guys a lot. Hablamos!
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