DR-Last one

What else we did

In addition to our scheduled activities, we spent a lot of time in the community visiting families. Right away I noticed the great number of children in the community and learned that many of the women did not have husbands, but "migrating" boyfriends (hence the number of kids). Despite this sad and dire context (many kids, no husband, no job), the kids truly find a way into your heart. From the very first day there, I met so many kids who would just come to hang out, hug us, want to take us to their homes, and just want to be around us. Their simple love and affection was another big blessing to me on the trip, reminding me of the childlike faith and generous hospitality that Jesus talks about. They were also the hardest to say "good-bye" to. Instead of saying a lot, here are some of their faces.



In one of the homes


Posing


My personal entourage

DR-Part 3

Our agenda
Even though we were in the DR for only a week, it seems that each day was packed with various activities. The majority of the week we spent working with the women's coop in the mornings and with a larger group of women from the community in the afternoon. The coop currently has about 15 members who meet several times a week to sow and make crafts---the goal is to find ideas for crafts/sown products that they could make with minimal input investment and sell to either local or international markets to serve as means of income generation. Last year they were successful in making Christmas ornaments that were then sold in the US.

The coop


The Christmas ornaments


In the afternoons we worked with about 40 women from the community doing crafts, sharing our testimonies, and just hanging out---the purpose of these meetings was for the coop leaders to screen potential members of several future coops (similarly to how the first coop got started). Each day we made several different crafts, and through that I got to know a lot of the women and their stories, and was amazed at their creativity.

On Thursday, we organized a banquet for the local staff of Mission Emanuel which number about 70. One of the American ladies very skillfully coordinated the decorations making the room look beautiful. The local staff were really touched by this event, and we had a great time decorating and serving food.

The banquet staff


On Friday morning, we went to a leprosarium--this was a very challenging experience. This place is run by Catholic nuns and is home to about 40 patients. People with this disease are still shunned in the Dominican society so many of the patients are not visited by any family members. Since leprosy is now a treatable condition, all the patients at the leprosarium are older and some have even been released after they finish their course of treatment. They loved visiting with us and listening to several songs that we performed for them.

DR-Part 2

The team
My team was made of lovely ladies most of whom were from several churches in North Carolina---I got to know each one of them through our devotions, fun bus rides, serving together, and just hanging out, and was so blessed by each one of them. Most of the ladies were older, but had tons of energy, good jokes, and even some crazy stunts. There were also 2 girls my age on the trip, so we ended up bonding and talking a lot.All these ladies were perhaps one of the bigger blessings of the trip---I was so humbled by their love for the Dominican people, their willingness to serve no matter how tired they were, and their ability to look beautiful and put-together in the midst of hot and humid climate (true Southern ladies). Btw, the color of the trip was Pink:).

The team in Club Bamboo


The youngsters


My roommie and her entourage

Dominican Republic

Finally, here is the recap of my already not-so-recent trip to the Dominican Republic. It was an eye-opening trip, and unfortunately the pictures cannot capture all the impressions from that week.

Purpose of the trip
The reason I decided to spend a week in the sunny DR (besides escaping the January DC cold) was to work with a group of Dominican women organized into a coop through a Christian development organization Mission Emanuel that works in 2 peri-urban communities near Santo Domingo. This organization aims to improve the lives in these communities by providing several good schools, a health clinic, and various income-generating sources such as a water-processing plant and the women's coop. The way most things get done are through various church teams that come from the US throughout the year to work in various capacities and projects. As a former development student, I was very impressed with how this organization functions, how wisely they approach any new ventures, and how much they have been able to achieve with so little. They even work with a Haitian community by supporting a Haitian school and supporting a local Haitian church---this is especially admirable because Haitian refugees are despised and looked down upon in the Dominican society; they constitute the poorest layer of the society and are not given any social services

The women


The children


The beautiful surroundings

Im officially a Marylander

Boston

Here are some pictures and a quick update from my now not-so-recent trip to Boston in October. I was staying in Cambridge for a week working with a collaborator at Harvard. While the week itself was mostly work and no real sightseeing, it was an amazing time because I really got to enjoy Cambridge, with all the little eateries, see some other parts of Boston and experience the T (Boston metro), and enjoy the beautiful foliage sights and fall in New England. The conclusion: Im in love with the area now. Besides, I also got to hang out with my Connecticut family, who threw a lovely surprise late B-day party for me, experience the Boston pumpkin festival, and visit the famous Salem, Massachussets (which in our joint opinion turned out to be a bit of a disappointment). Here are some pictures to recap the touristy things.

Boston Pumpkin Festival




Carving a Halloween Pumpkin for the 1st time




Fall in New England

General Impressions of Chile

All I can say about this vacation is that it was simply wonderful and relaxing! I really enjoyed Chile--it is an extremely beatiful country, with diverse landscapes, and developed infrastructure. The Chilean version of the Spanish language was a bit hard to understand, with tons of slang and double-meanings, but by the end of the trip, I was able to navigate the language better. Most of the people we encountered were very friendly, and this, in combination with delicious food and magnificent mountains, made it an unforgettable trip.