Dominican Republic, Part 4 – Jarabacoa

Jarabacoa is the second largest municipality in La Vega Province, Dominican Republic.  But more than that, it is a city alive with friendly people.  Our friends, Samuel and Kendra, make their home there with their 3 sons Landon, Nathan and Anderson.  These photos are snippets of our time in this wonderful town.

 

The Luna's introduced us to a drink Christopher dubbed, "my new favorite drink," MERENGUE!

 

The Luna's neighbor was lighting something akin to a rocket. I'm not sure what it was, but it was loud like a gunshot and something shot out of that can.

Samuel

The Luna's dog, Lexie, being held by Christopher

Samuel, like Alan, has been riding his bike to keep fit.

 

This image and the next are of the Luna boy's school. Such beautiful grounds!

Samuel and his sons took us on a little hike to see a very beautiful waterfall.

 

The water was very brown from all of the rain.

 

One afternoon, Alan and I spent about 30 minutes just walking through the town of Jarabacoa, hoping to see the vibe of the area. About 20 minutes into the walk, we found a lively part of town filled with people just doing their thing. I love this woman just standing there in her element. She has so much character etched into her face.

I had taken a photo of this caffe when all of a sudden this woman saw me and began to wave. She made me laugh.

This little boy was just playing in this little area, kicking an empty coke bottle. What a sweet face.

 

This was one of my final images as we left Jarabacoa and headed out to Santiago.

Dominican Republic, Part 3 – Santiago

One afternoon we had the opportunity to take a walking tour through a very poor part of Santiago.  Victoria runs an after school program for children in this area.  Children only attend school for 1/2 day in one of three time slots (morning, afternoon or evening), so they provide care for the children when they aren’t in school.  Many parents work more than one job and still make very little money.

I really loved the children’s faces.  I am honored to share some faces with you below.  I used my very limited Spanish to say “photo,” “linda or lindo,” and “gracias.” Momentary connections made sweet with smiles and waves.

There was a little girl there who was born without the muscles that hold in her stomach.  She only had a thin layer of skin.  She has had a couple of surgeries, but the family cannot afford the one surgery per year that she needs to repair her belly.  Most families shared a small shack and likely only one bed or bunkbed.  We met a young boy had a scar on his face because a young girl sliced him with a razor.  Victoria told us of a family whose dad was abusive.  He gave two of his kids rat poisoning and then tried to kill himself.  A sibling ran to get Victoria for help.  After being taken to the hospital, the two young children survived and the dad died.  The mom moved the family out of the area to begin again.  She is very protective now.  There was another young girl there, about age 10, who had to miss school that day to stay home and care for her younger siblings while the parents worked.  There were 13 children in the family.  The girl was young, but her face showed the signs of an old soul.  What a sweetheart.  Victoria and Pedro are true blessings as they meet the real needs of real people.

This is Victoria with her daughter and grand-daughter...3 generations of beautiful women.

They teach the children crafts as a life skill.

The little girl who needs stomach surgery.

Young girls around the world know how to strike a pose. )

I have a thing for hanging laundry.

On the far right: Victoria, Alan and Chris with a group of kids.

This is one of my favorite images from the trip.

I had to give this little guy a privacy patch.

Dominican Republic, Part 2 – La Cienaga

Our first outing in the Dominican Republic was on Sunday morning, November 21.  We drove about one hour up into the hills to a small town called La Cienaga.  It was raining and each time we made a major turn the road took a turn for the worse.  We started on asphalt and by the time we got to La Cienaga we were driving on a muddy, bumpy road.  What a beautiful drive!  The Lunas had planned for us to attend church at Iglesia Christiana Victoria De La Cienaga.  It was a wonderful small community at the base of the highest peak in the DR.

This post is longer than usual.  It was such a different culture, that I was visually over stimulated.  I could have easily taken 4 times as many photos as I did.  These are a few from our Sunday morning in La Cienaga.  Enjoy!

This is Pastor Pedro. He truly had a pastor's heart, warm and personable.

Here is Pastor Xiomara. She is Pedro's wife. I'm not sure if she actually has the title of Pastor, but she shared in the speaking equally with her husband. She is a loving and capable leader.

My 12-year-old son, Chris, captured this photo while Sean, Alan and I sang a simple hymn. He didn't get the focus right, but I like this photo anyway.

Alan shared from Psalm 23. Samuel translated line by line. It was really fun to hear a sermon in 2 languages. The small congregation was mostly children, so Alan kept the sermon short, sweet and to the point.

After church, one of the women began to make lunch for us (more on her later). We took a walk through town and up to the trailhead while we waited. It was quite overcast and rainy, but still beautiful.

I've never seen so many street dogs in my life. Not just in La Cienage, but on our entire trip. Everywhere we went, there were dogs just wandering around. They all had the same mangy look and just a touch of sadness in their eyes.

Bryan keeping dry as we made our way up the trail.

One of my goals was to capture someone carrying stuff on their head. As we were sitting on the porch, waiting for lunch, these guys wandered by and I whipped out my camera as fast as I could.

 

This is Kendra Luna (left) and Ramona. Ramona became a Christian a few years ago through a woman in Youth with a Mission. She told stories of physical healing for her sister and herself. She shared of her changed character and of her growing peace. She owns this little store in town that serves the people. She made us a delicious lunch of rice and meat. Really yummy!

This little kitten was so adorable. One of the guys called to the kitten, "Mishu, mishu" and it came over. "They don't respond to "kitty" here, but they do respond to mishu." We gave her a few grains of rice.

This is a pile of chayote. I lost count of how many piles of this vegetable we saw on the way up the hill. It grows from a vine and, apparently, it was harvest time. Our friend, Kendra, said that it doesn't have much taste. You can add butter and salt and it's like mashed potatoes. You can also add some brown sugar and cinnamon to it, bake it like a pie and it tastes like apples. The slang for it is "poor man's potatoes."

This is the hut where they boil the chickens to make them easier to pluck. It makes me very glad for Costco.

This is Lydia. She offered to make us some coffee. Coffee bean trees grow right there in their yards. I'm not a coffee drinker, but I tried it. It was very good...wonderful flavor...no aftertaste. I'm sure it rivals any gourmet brand we have here in the US.

This is the lovely table setting that Lydia displayed. It kind of reminds me of a Rembrandt still life...Dominican style.

We then moved on to this lovely woman's prep kitchen, where she showed us how the beans were prepared.

Here is the coffee bean on the tree (right outside Lydia's home).

This is the bean in its raw form.

These beans were in the process of being dried.

Once they had been dried and roasted, they were ground by hand.

See that beautiful, dark goodness in the bottom of the bowl? Fresh ground coffee.

Sweet little girl who stood by and watched.

A beauty shot as we departed. There is another woman hiding behind her. You can see her leg in the bottom right corner...shy I guess. They were all very hospitable and proud of their coffee process. It was an honor to be with them.

As we left, Samuel let the boys ride on top of the jeep for about a mile. It was pouring rain, but they didn't care. As I'll share in future posts, there are not many rules of the road in the DR. Every time you drive, you have a chance to say, "YIKES!" No boys were harmed in this process.

As we drove back down the hill, I kept my camera ready just in case. I saw a boy in the window of a small house. By the time I lifted my camera to my eye, he was gone. It was not until later, when viewing this photo that I saw that he was actually peeking out at us. I cropped it down so as to see his one eye. Cute!

I shot this through the front window of the van. I absolutely love this lady...such character.

Here's me doing what I love.

This is the Luna's son, Nathan, he wanted to pick this fruit to eat right then and there.

Well, if you made it this far – congratulations!  There are more posts and more stories coming!

Dominican Republic, Part 1

My family traveled to the Dominican Republic over Thanksgiving Break. Our trip began at 11:00pm on November 20, when we arrived at LAX for a red-eye (1:00am) departure.