Bonzek Family Visit!

Last week Caroline's family came to visit and we had a wonderful time! We spent the first few days showing them around Jarabacoa (rafting, going to waterfalls, walking around El Callejon, and eating lots of good meals). Then the rest of the week we went to Puerto Plata and spent our time at a beach resort. It was so great to be able share our life with them, and also to relax and have fun. And now we get to see them again (and everyone else) when we come to the States next week. We will be in Newport News for a few days and then are heading up to Vermont for Ryan's brother's wedding. So let us know if you'll be in the area! Here are some pictures from the week...


Emily and Ryan walking around the rocks at the Upper Jimenoa falls

All of us at the Jamaca de Dios restaurant on the top of a mountain.


Eating dinner with Paula and her family in El Callejon.


Mom and Em getting ready to go snorkeling.


We celebrated my dad's birthday at the beach and we got to embarrass with a big sombrero, the Feliz Cumpleanos song, and cake.

Dajabon

We're winding down our summer here and it's been a great one. This past outreach I had 2 students. Aaron was a Korean businessman who is a senior manager with Chrysler, and Tasha just graduated high school. About as opposite as you can get as students go but we had a blast.

On the last day of the outreach we took a trip to Dajabon. Background necessary for this story:

• Dajabaon is a Dominican town on the border with Haiti.
• There is a Haitian market there every Monday and Friday. It works like this: Haitians receive donations and aid (like shoes, clothes, hats, shampoo, anything Michael Jackson) from the states and then carry it over the border to Dajabon. They can get a better price there than in Haiti and since they get the stuff for free they can sell it for almost nothing and make a good profit.
• A possible business opportunity for members of MiBanco La Victoria is to buy stuff dirt cheap in Dajabon and sell it in Jarabacoa.
• There is very intense racial tension between Dominicans and Haitians that is as older than either of the countries.
• Cock-a-doodle-do is kee-kirri-kee in Spanish. Dominicans think cock-a-doodle-do is ridiculous and terribly inaccurate.
  

The Story:

Aaron, Tasha, Me, Miriam, Nate, Sarah, Milagros, Paula, Ramona, Ani, Mercedes, LeoKadia, Claudio, 2 other Dominican men, and a Rooster packed into a tiny gua gua (mini 15 passenger van) and set off for Dajabon at 4:00 AM. I was hoping to sleep most of the way there but starting at 5:45 there was no sleep. "Kee-kirri-kee", "Kee-kirri-kee" sung the rooster, every minute for the next 2 hours. I never knew how loud a rooster's crow was until I heard it up close and personal. Non-stop. For 2 hours.

After a grueling half-paved 4 hour trip we arrived at the market. It was as crazy and chaotic as I thought it would be, however, it turns out the chaos was for a different reason. Earlier that morning a Haitian had killed a Dominican. He was immediately apprehended and the scene was cleared but we arrived amidst the racial aftermath. There were people fleeing from the center of the market because mobs of angry Dominicans, armed with bats, clubs, and chairs, searched through the market chasing away any Haitian in sight:



So, we didn't know what to do. We didn't want to leave after 4 hours in a Gua Gua, but all the cheap stuff-selling Haitian women were fleeing for their lives. We decided to "go in pursuit" as the Holloway family used to say, meaning you inexplicably follow the criminal to try and see some action ( I remember when I was 6 and this led to me seeing a guy get chased under his car by some firearm brandishing cops at a gas station). So we did a few strolls around the leftover market until we encountered the angry mob again. This time they seemed to be moving a little faster than the first, and we quickly discovered that was because they were being chased by the Dominican army toting M16s:



Eventually things began to calm down and a few brave Haitian women began selling again:



It never filled back out all the way to what it is on a normal day but we were still able to hunt for some bargains. It was a crazy day and a great experience for me and my students. Here are a couple more group shots:


MiBanco La Victoria and my students at the central park in Dajabon


Me, Aaron, Tasha, Nate at the Dajabon market

Cabinets and Boys

Well, here we are in mid-July already. We've been here 9 months and have only 2 more summer outreaches left. Caroline's family will be here in less than a month, and we will be back in the States for a short trip at the end of August. Hence, we have a lot going on and a lot to look forward to.

The past 2 weeks we had teams here from New York, California, and Nebraska. I (Caroline) had 3 girls at my site. We had a great 2 weeks, and on the last day, we gave them the project to paint the cabinets in the Social Work site. It was a great activity for them, because not only did it make the site much more aesthetically pleasing, but they also were able to make a visible and tangible change to the community that will be around for several years. Fortunately for us, all 3 of the students have artistic talents that they used writing encouraging words and making designs.

Before


After

I was also able to sneak into one of the boys' Microfinance club meetings. Everything with the club has been going great so far. The mothers are commenting that they've never seen their sons work so hard. The community is slowly but surely becoming cleaner. None of them have cashed in their Ryan dollars yet (though most of them have saved enough to buy a ball). They are trying to hold out for the bicycle. But most importantly, the boys finally have a positive Christian male role model to look up to. Enjoy some of these pictures I took...

Some of the boys writing down the Bible verse for the week...John 3:16


Francis and Nickaury. Francis is the oldest of the group so Ryan selected him to be his assistant.


Mikael is known in the community as one who does not like to work. But amazingly enough, he's the one who is the most excited and is working the hardest out of anyone in the group! We're so excited to see what is to come of this new ministry.

Ryan Dollars

In our last newsletter I said that I was starting a new site with the boys in El Callejon. It's a microfinance site with the boys that got it's start about 13 years ago when I was 11. My dad wouldn't give me money to go to the pool, instead he gave me cucumbers to sell and buy my own way in. I hated it, a lot, and the last doorstep I darkened was when I unknowingly knocked on the door of an older girl from my school. I'm still haunted by the memory of imagining her laughing at me later with her friends.

Here's the overview:

I'm amassing various prizes (basketball, baseball glove, bat, soccer ball, bicycle, whatever people will send) that the boys can buy with Ryan Dollars. They earn Ryan Dollars in 3 ways:

1. Weekly meetings: They get $20 Ryan Dollars for being on time for the meeting and $100 for memorizing a Bible verse
2. Community Improvement Projects: They get anywhere from $250-$400 Ryan Dollars each week if they complete the project I give them. Some projects are: fill 1 bag with trash from the street, clean murals on the wall by their house, or cut the grass where they play.
   
3. Microbusinesses: I pay $10 Ryan Dollars for every peso they earn through the microbusinesses I set up. Right now the only business is washing Motorcycles but we're working on 2 or 3 others.

I'm very excited about how everything has gone so far. Adults in the community have come to me and said they thought they'd never see the day with all the boys working so hard. The purpose is not just to keep them busy, though that is important. The purpose is to teach them about how to work, how to handle money, save, and to connect with them and teach the Gospel. It's gotten off to a great start on all fronts.

I still need tons of prizes so if any of you would like to send balls of any type, hats, baseball cards, etc...we could really use them. Also, the biggest prize of all is a bicycle. I know there's a significant shipping cost associated with shipping a small bike (for 8-12 y/o) but it would still cost way less than a bike here. If your interested in any of these let me know!

I'll leave with with the $10, $50, and $100 Ryan Dollars.