Marco Polo Club Puerto Plata

... gives me the fortitude to be a good mother and role model for my
daughter.  Someday I'll share stories about these people, and I hope that
by doing so, my daughter will grow up to be sensitive and caring, and
hopefully, will have the same opportunity to offer her time and expertise to
those less fortunate than her.
I'm certain that I will be staying home for a while.  Only two semesters left
until graduation, so I have a long haul ...

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 ...

... I am now clean.  Thought I would never say that :)  And, maybe more importantly, it seems like a very selfish, and unimportant thing to say-  The people in the Campos live without hot showers and soap, amongst many other things, yet are some of the happiest people I have ever had the opportunity to know.
How do you define poverty?  This experience makes me look at my definition through a different lens-
Miss you all-
Love,
Lani

... city, but several families do. I like that Santiago is Nashville size...its hip but tranquil at the same time. Also surprising, the amount of American influence....they have most US cable channels dubbed or subtitled in Spanish....their general word for cereal is Los Corn Flakes...and clothes with US labels are really popular.

... to talk with and mull thing over. We are staying in a average size city at Hotel Castillo. The building itself is about 150 years old but not one of those classic beauties, it really is small living but it's quite upstairs and safe. Downstairs there is a bar where there is a constant flow of regulars consisting of expats, mostly men, who have married Dominicans and sit around smoking and drinking and don't always have the best things to say to women ...

... to swim with sharks instead! I should preface this entry by stating that I do recognize that it is inherently and generally wrong to capture animals from the wild to keep them in captivity. Even though the enclosure at Ocean World in the DR is apparently the largest man-made dolphin enclosure in the world, it is still, of course, a far cry from the vast entity of the world's oceans that they would normally have to call their home. While it is not right, nor ...

... door. In the unpleasant category, I have many uninvited guests in the form of critters and vermin who were comfortably settled in my house and don't seem to be inclined to move out. There is the frog who lives in my bathroom, the giant palm-sized spider (thankfully not hairy) who hangs out in my closet, the fire ants who live in the couch, and the rats who scamper along the rafters at night. I put out a ...