Aparta-Hotel Lomar Puerto Plata

... the next six months.  The
comforts of home with the people I love, will surely see me through. That I
know for sure-
I hope you have all enjoyed the blog.  I have loved sharing some thoughts,
albeit probably a bit superficial at times, as feelings are often difficult to
retrieve-

Thank you for following my journey.  
Please look for more pictures in the days to come.

Love,

Lani

< !--EndFragment-->

Hi everyone,
Just when I thought I had seen what living in destitution represented, I walked into a neighborhood this morning that redefined the word "poor" for me.  It seems that this redefinition is a consistent happening here.
This community lives in squalor, not only in ramshackle "buildings" but in filth.  In fact, their homes are literally built upon a dump. So, you ...

... aren't spoiled by anybody,
Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep,
Who live and move, but have no being.
We pray for children who want to be carried,
And for those who must,
For those we never give up on
And for those who don't get a second chance.
For those we smother,
And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.
 -----by Marian Wright Edelman 

Hola Todos-
Have you ever thought of how fortunate you are, just because you were born in a certain geographic location?  We went to a Haitian Batey today.  The Bateys in the DR are kind of like a no-man's land, not recognized by the DR, or by Haiti.  Consequently, the people who live in them are literally without a country.  These people live very poorly, and are rarely allowed out of ...

Hi Everyone!
Very busy Monday.  We started out doing home visits with the International Child Care Center.  My group saw two children.  One child was so neurologically unstable, that he really wasn't a great candidate for "therapy" per se.  He is being raised by his grandmother/father, who told us that he has at least nine seizures a day.  In fact, while we were assessing him, he had two.  Not a pleasant sight, and as you can ...

... Ascension to shop at some of the fair trade stores run by her volunteers, as well as some of the inhabitants of the village. Yesterday and today are our free days, so we've been spending a lot of time at the beach. Yesterday we took a monorail-type-thing to the top of Mt. Isabella before going to the beach. We then watched the movie "In the Time of the Butterflies" back at Crossroads. Today we attended a Christian church service (in ...

... with it's smaller sister island Isla Monito are a nature reserve and are 'off limits' to tourists in general but for some obscure reason, is open to passing yachties. The island is only inhabited by park rangers and students (environmental/geologists...) who mostly camp. Although we hadn't checked in yet with the authorities we were allowed to roam the beaches and use the bar-b-cue facilities (all 4 boats accepted the offer and had a nice evening on the beach). The ...

... awkward about going in and not buying anything. In this situation, I try to find their supply of Mamba's, because the percentage of time during the day I don't want Mamba's is 0%. Well, either Jeff has a distaste for Mamba's or just likes frivilous gambling. Jeff: How do we get to the airport? Clerk: Get on I-94 heading into Minneapolis, you'll see signs for it. Jeff: Ok. Give me $50 worth of scratch-offs. We get back on the road and use the lights from ...

... br>
We walked on a dirt road that resembled a roller-coaster for a least a hour. I had to keep motivating myself. My body was tired form all the climbing and walking, but once we arrived at the river, it was worth the soon to come aches and pains. It was a picture out of a magazine. To the right, was a waterfall that seemed to be four floors high and directly in front was a shimmering green water hole. I was terrified at first to climb ...

... We were told, during orientation, not to drink too many pina colodas or other fruit beverages as we might get stomach cramps and become ill. The pina colodas were delicious and hard to stay away from in the beginning but after a day of diarrhea you quickly change your mind. The resort had one main buffet restaurant, one specialty restaurant and a snack bar. There was always allot of food, nicely presented but after the first couple ...