My Dominican Republic Mission Trip

I have decided to post my journal from my trip on my blog so that everyone can see what I did while I was down there. I have omitted the personal things that I wrote. I will post a page a day from my journal.

Day 5

I bought another pen… Today was a day filled with adventure. At 8:30 I lead a devotional for the whole team. It went very well and I did better than I expected. At 9:00 we split the 21 person team into three teams. One group went to the COTN mission house to organize things, the second group stayed at the hotel to put together and make gifts for the children. My group went to the vocational skill center.

At the skill center we broke into two teams and got to work. One team helped to build an erosion control retaining wall, and the other continued work on the computers. You can probably guess which team I was on…

I figured out what we still needed to buy, and I set out to the city to buy the supplies we needed. Adam, Angel (pronounced AN-hel), and I went to the tech store and bought 9 UPS’s which cost about 1330 pesos each (about $46 USD) A very good deal. Nice 17 inch CRT monitors cost about $135 USD. Very good computer equipment prices down here.

So after purchasing extension cords, zip ties, and UPS’s; we went back, and set everything up. The trip to get the supplies should have only taken 30 minutes; and in the United States it would have, but here everything is on Dominican time. Very slow….

We went back to the hotel and ate lunch, and then went back to the skill center. I configured some things on the computers, and taught lessons to Angel (An-hel) and his assistant. We taught them most of what they need to know to keep the Lab running.

The best part about the afternoon was being able to ride a concho. A concho is a cross bread between a dirt bike, a moped and your friendly DR taxi driver. Also known as the favorite Dominican mode of transportation. Almost everyone has one around here, and they use them for everything…and I mean everything…carrying mattresses, carrying a family of five when the bike is only designed for two (the baby of five months sits on the handle bars). My concho ride was intresting. There are always many close calls when you drive or ride anywhere in Barahona. We hit a dong on the way up and nearly broadsided a truck on the way down from the skill center (My arm touched the truck).

We rode conchos to Don Bosco, a village near the edge of Barahona. This was my first time into the villages here. The rest of the team had already been to all of the villages that COTN works with, but I have not because I have been working on the computers. It was amazing to see the poverty, but at the same time see God’s love for these people. Naturally I got that guilty feeling when I see how generous they were with what little they had. It was really fun to play and interact with the children. Even though there is a language barrier, I am still able to communicate and have fun with them.

While in Don Bosco we did a quincenero. Bascially, a quincenaro is a coming of age celebration for all the girls who turn 15. The all get a special dress to wear, and we allow them to put make-up on (A first for many of them). It is a very emotional experience for the girls and their fathers.

After the three hour quincenaro, we went back to the hotel, had dinner, and played water polo in the pool. We ended up swimming for 2 hours because if felt so good to cool off. After we swam we met as a team and debriefed. Tomorrow is Sunday, so it will be a break for us since it is not customary to work on Sunday. Fun Fun…right now it is 1 Am and I am writing this now because I am being kept up by very loud music outside in the courtyard. It is so loud that my bed shakes constantly, and when I open the deck door, I have to yell at my roommate, who is standing right next to me, just to talk to him. I will try and sleep now, goodnight.

Day 4

I am writing in pencil today because I gave all my pens away to the kids.* (*Online journal may vary from hard copy) Pens here are very prized and it is a huge previlage to own a pen. I just looked at the date, and I realize that we are already halfway through the year!! Wow, already…and now on to the important stuff.

Today I got up at 7:00 AM and to a long needed shower. It was the most awesome shower I have ever had. At 8 we were going to leave for the skill center, but we soon found that we had no transportation to get up there. We waited for awhile, and got some money exchanged while we waited. Soon we all got on the bus and traveled to what they call the mission house (COTN headquarters). The computer team boarded this huge flatbed truck while the rest of the team went into the villages. Five of us (Corey, Adam, Kevin, Alex and I) Went and picked up all the computers that we bought from the Issaquah School District. On the way up to the skill center I stood up on the back of the truck the whole way, just for fun. I had to dodge low hanging electrical wires and tree branches. It was a fun adrenaline rush!

The road was very bumpy on the way up. We finally got to the skill center and it was a lot different than what I expected. We unloaded the computers from the well packed suitcases and began to set up the computers. We set up about 15 computers, but today we were only able to configure one of them. This was because we only had one UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) and surge protector. Around here, the power goes out a lot (pretty much every day), and it surges all the time. The computers would be destroyed if we don’t protect them from surging power. So tomorrow we are going to but 9 more UPS’s and get all the computers set up and running.

After we set the computers up we went back for a very late lunch/almost dinner, and then went straight back to the skill center. Today was the building dedication. It has been 4 years since they started construction of the center. This was a very big deal, and I am glad I was here to witness it. The mayor of the city was here, and a lot of other important officials.

I am excited for tomorrow because the director of the skill center, Angel, speaks very good English and is very excited to learn from us. He is a VERY cool guy! Tonight I took a break and swam in the pool after a very yummy dinner. Tomorrow morning I am doing a devotional for the team so I am going to plan it now on the next page in this journal. Goodnight!