2008, the year of the conuco?

Consciousness of wealth:

On Christmas afternoon a group of children in La Canoa held a real baseball bat and ball for the first time in their lives. They had been used to making substitutes in order to play their favorite sport. They touched the bat the way an antiquities art collector will touch a priceless crown of gold, covered with huge diamonds and rubies. It resonated within them as an object that gave them extraordinary pleasure.

In the eyes of the beholder:

We discover that the appreciation of beauty requires a prior cultivation... a learning process. These very same children would not be impressed with a brand new professional soccer ball or a four hundred dollar Big Bertha golf club.

The beauty of saving a place for future generations:

The countryside in the Dominican Republic is undergoing a profound change. When the Old Testament speaks about the sacredness of caring for a farm or a range as a God given inheritance, the beauty of that awareness is lost to contemporary Dominicans. Today´s youth have yet to discover the wonder of cultivating a sacred trust.

Food wars:

Staple foods become profane ...things whose price is manipulated by wealthy government subsidies. Local farmers lose the energy to compete with the beans of powerful agribusiness. Little holdings pass into the hands of migrant workers who have no rights to the land. They work it as a "thing" ... rather than as a living trust for the benefit of a family that extends its reach into the future.


General Candalier:

For a few years, General Candalier fought against deforestation. He used strong methods to inflict pain on those who would chop down trees without planting more of them; paving the way for soil loss. But those policies did little to foster a spirituality of the land. Eventually his harsh policies won him many enemies who used political power to marginalize his efforts. From his experience we learn that force alone will not teach people to love the land and want to protect it for the future.

2008, the year of the conuco:

When the slaves fleeing Egypt arrived in the "Promised Land" they found all of the best properties occupied by walled city dwellers who lived close to rivers; so they moved up into the mountains and began the laborious process of transforming wild lands into "conuco" or self sufficient farms that soon became capable of feeding more than the immediate families. They went from wandering in the desert to marveling at the growth of food close to their homes. Today´s modern generation of Dominicans wander in a desert of materialism. May 2008 be the year when more people flee from this slavery and discover the simple beauty of food growing close to home.

Mayra in silence

The woman of silence:

Mayra lives beyond El Maniel, in the high plateau of Laguneta. It takes two hours from Paraíso to reach the farm where she cooks for a living. Not only is she in the precarious situation of being an undocumented immigrant from Haiti; she also responds each day to the challenge of not hearing anything... of living in perpetual silence.

Bringing forth fruit:

Because she spends much of the day alone, Mayra can focus in an uncomplicated way upon the basic needs of the people who let her live on the farm: preparing the food and washing dirty clothes. She thrives like the plants in an environment that does not strain her ability to communicate. The garden plants grow in an setting well suited to their needs. They grow effortlessly in all their glory... much like the lilies of the field that Jesus so admired!

Contrast:

Mayra´s adopted farm nestles in a habitat above the precipitous mountain flanks which fall steeply towards the ocean. The earth escapes the forced growth patterns of migratory extreme slope production. Imagine Mayra being yelled at by a group of twenty people, each clamoring for her to do this or that... when she has no way of hearing the commands. Such is a metaphor for the mountain slopes which are required to produce food, even as they lose topsoil to erosion. They are like a Mayra forced to do tasks that go beyond her abilities.

May the plants grow where they can:

In a few decades, the steep slopes will be left alone once again... as they have been for most of their millennial history. They will respond to the unrelenting demands of human beings until they have precious little nutrients left. The people will then move on and the slopes will bring forth an aggressive weed grass that knows how to fight for life. Long gone will be the delicate ornamental plants that used to grow freely beneath the canopy of shade trees.

The wisdom of Earth:

God gave us a round planet, with finite distances, when He could have placed us within a creation that extends in infinite directions. In this creative act, He placed us upon a path to learn the wisdom of restraint. We slowly and painfully learn that each bio region has a unique ability to nurture human families. When we reverence the God given requirements of this or that land, we enter a spirituality of stewardship. When we treat the land the way those around her are treating Mayra, we live in harmony.

Natural

The right place:

This home happens to be at a perfect altitude and has just the right amount of moisture to give flowers an ideal environment. Those who tend flowers and labor earnestly to produce a few blooms can only look on in amazement at what can happen naturally.

Above Riosito:

The home used to have children and many visitors. They now live in the town or in Santo Domingo. An occasional visitor comes to stay for the coffee harvest. Many environments exist for raising of children. This one appears blessed with stunning vistas, quiet nights, cool breezes and a responsive soil for crops. Yet the lure of city life draws people away. In the process, young Dominicans exchange a hoe or a pick for a life of sitting on a motorcycle, waiting for the occasional passenger. Which environment tends to produce responsive, alert young people?

First Century Nazareth:

God has his pick of any environment in any century. He can not be lured by what seems attractive to people in one age or another. There is no way to influence the choice that God makes for his son, except through the prayers of humble people who longed for the Messiah.
So God chooses Nazareth over every conceivable human environment. Why did he do that? What did he see in the tiny country place that we miss?

Nazareth, where the flowers of prophesy grow naturally:

Could it be that Nazareth offered the Son of God an environment where he could learn naturally the correct way of imaging God his father? Might Nazareth have been free from the kinds of distractions which might block or diffuse the insights of Mary and Joseph as they communicate with their son? Not every environment can produce wild flowers in profusion. It takes a special set of conditions; a convergence of blessings. Will humanity find the path that leads to cultivating the Nazareths of our modern world? Will we sense when a place and a time are particularly blessed for the bringing forth of wise children?

The stable of El Ingenio

Little Bethlehem manger:

People have stopped by to spend the night in this humble dwelling. The earthen floors and vine covered walls show how close to returning to nature the structure is. Was the manger that Joseph found much different from this?

The beginning of mystery incarnate:

The little baby who comes into our world also comes forth from it. The elements in his tiny hands did not come down from heaven but rather emerged from our mother Earth. But we believe there is so much more to this child than simple elements or even a blessed, living planet. More than any other day we are drawn to contemplate the closeness of this child to highest heaven and humblest earth.

God comes to Earth:

With our emerging consciousness about interplanetary space (let alone intergalactic space), the vastness of God the Almighty can leave us feeling impossibly tiny or even insignificant. In the knowledge of countless mega galaxies, each with over two trillion stars, the thought that the Creator of all this would send his Son to a tiny part of the whole... to just one blue dot in the vastness of space... seems incredibly arrogant -- one more tragic fruit of the boundless ego of human beings.

We believe:

But we do believe that the little baby in Mary's arms is God born among us. In quantum physics we learn the astounding fact of the unbreakable link between the smallest subatomic particles and the largest structures in the Universe. Everything is related... so the baby is inseparable from the Universe. The Creator sustains all living as well as inanimate things in this Universe as well as any other parallel universes. This ultimate mystery wants to be known as a baby who looks into Joseph's eyes and likes to be held in his arms.

Is that snow on those reeds?

The baby does not see Christmas lights nor fancy decorations. Perhaps he sees something like the glow of sugar cane as it reflects the sunlight. Few people would expect to find sugar cane growing on the top of a mountain. We presume that it must grow only on the big plantations close to sea level. Yet there are the reeds bending in the wind at three thousand feet. The ultimate surprise is God blessing us with the sweetness in the eyes of a little baby who finds pure delight in the gaze of his mother Mary.

Father John's Angel

Father John's roof:

When tropical storm Noel battered our area, the parish clinic in Leonardo became a miserable place to live in, due to the many little holes in the roof. There are three levels of zinc roofing that can be purchased in the D.R.: numbers 34, 29 and 26. The thinnest material is number 34... the material on Father John's roof.

Accident:

We make plans and other things happen. Father John decided to come down out of the mountains as soon as the road reopened. He planned to offer his services in the Barahona area, where temporary shelters had been set up to deal with the families with submerged homes. But he made one trip to the airport to see if he could find zinc material to fix the clinic roof. Upon leaving the airport facilities, he had an accident and ended up being one of the few patients who had to be driven by ambulance from Barahona all the way to Santo Domingo. At the time, the local doctors thought he might have a blood clot on the brain.

Recovery:

Father John spent all of November with a nephew, south of Miami. His broken ribs began to heal and he regained enough strength to desire a fast return to the clinic. But his eyesight took longer than anticipated to recover. Still he pressed his on with the desire to return and be of service.

All lawyers are greedy and self interested?

Father John has never worked without his partner. He's there now... an angel hidden from view.

When he and his brother Mike finished high school, they each took a different direction in life. Mike entered law school and moved on to become a very successful lawyer. Along the way he developed a strong commitment to his brother's ministry. Father John could never have accomplished all the service to the poor that marks his life...had it not been for the financial support of his "wealthy" brother.

Mike to the rescue:

No sooner did Mike receive news that his brother had an accident, then he dropped all scheduling and flew down to Santo Domingo. He took charge of getting Father John up to Miami and in to see various specialists. He paid for a new vehicle for Father John and for new roofing materials for the clinic. In the picture you can see Alejandro unloading the new zinc.

Sunday:

Father John rode up to the clinic yesterday. He entered the newly roofed building and began the process of reactivating his work to serve the sick. You can still see the big gash on the left side of his head. The scabs have not healed and he is back looking to help people. Lots of people in the U.S.A. support different charitable causes. Mike has the unusual path of donating to a cause that is very efficient and self sacrificing...with practically no bureaucratic costs: his brother's ministry to the sick. Together they make a remarkably solid team that has blessed countless poor people.

Survivors

Will the real survivors please stand up?

With the audience appreciated Survivor series of TV programs, one might get the idea that the real survivors are the people who win the prizes to stick it out the longest in this or that hostile environment. What about the people in the above pictures?

Homesteaders in our tradition:

We Americans have the memory of homesteaders who crossed the vast plains and learned to "make do" with the raw materials close at hand. When there were no trees, they built earthen homes. Both the environment and the historical moment combined to reinforce the idea that people had to fend for themselves without chronic dependence upon the government.

Who is asking for a handout?

Many Haitian families who live in the Paraíso mountain communities sustained damage to the homes where they live. In contrast to the local population that clamors for government or Church assistance as a first response, the "morenos" (as they are called) initial response to disaster is to fix things as best they can. From experience they know that they can not count on the government since they have no legal rights nor political clout. As a result, survival skills keep pace with the changing generations.

Do they need help?

The hardship honed self-reliance of the immigrant survivors remains a potent value and free hand-outs would do little to reach everyone. Perhaps the last thing the immigrants need is to lose their self-reliance and survival skills. The valuable help that the Church can offer them is through the parish schools. In this setting their children receive a chance to learn Spanish together with reading and writing. These schools provide a much needed cultural bridge between the local Dominicans and the newcomers. For this reason we must rely upon Dominican teachers, even as we struggle to find ways to encourage them to be consistent with their work days.

The value of a thatched roof:

When compared with a zinc roof, the natural roof has a very low carbon footprint, is cooler in the hot sun and keeps more warmth in the house during cold nights. The drawbacks concern durability issues. You would be surprised to see thatched roofs that withstood the fury of Noel, while corroded zinc roofs flew off in pieces. God bless the people who know how to resolve their own needs and who remain alert to share survival skills with their children. They would have a big laugh watching our "Survivor" TV shows, knowing that the challenges depicted are pure entertainment and that the "experts" have funny looking, awkward skills, like the easterner who becomes a summer vacation cowboy.

Simple pleasures

We have a band:

One of the blessings which came from the Spanish way of colonizing is the love of music and municipal bands. So on a Sunday evening it comes as no surprise to hear the band playing classical music. The director, pictured above, plays the saxophone.

Music for culture:

Just as the mountains need trees to anchor the soil, a culture needs simple pleasures to anchor its core values and approach to life. The Dominican Republic suffers from intense storms of cultural erosion, as cable TV, video games, and a host of imported feasts, foods and beverages. You might be surprised to find children of wealthy families who know more about Disney world than they know about the rivers and mountains of their own country.

The band plays:

Listening to the band and observing who is playing, one gets a sense that the love of music transcends the barriers of age and place of birth. The youth move into music that required real artistry to create. They learn to distinguish between well crafted music and stuff that is simply thrown together for rapid consumption.

El Factor compared to Paraíso:

The two municipalities of El Factor and Paraíso share much in common: they both have municipal bands and generate local musicians. The Church in El Factor lives in a golden moment when choirs vie with each other to create Church music and play in the liturgies. Each Advent they get together to hear one an other's music and choose which new hymns they will learn for Christmas. But the Church in Paraíso has hidden musicians... Haitian immigrants who develop their skills in the mountains, serving remote communities that have few contacts with the townsfolk.

A new music:

During the 1980's the "new music" sang about injustice, oppression and the evil of government sponsored torture. The youth groups in Church also found their voices to sing for structural changes and more freedom. Today the Dominican Republic lives a transition moment, when the old protest songs are no longer sung, and a new kind of awareness has yet to develop. Father Jerry Hernandez, when he served here in Paraíso, struck a discordant note when he observed during a Sunday homily that "nobody feels pain for their town". The comment upset many churchgoers, but it struck a nerve. Can a new music awaken the sensibilities that lie dormant? Thomas Berry thinks we need to sing the song of the Universe and how it unfolds to this day. He believes we need a new cosmology to develop our capacity for awe and reverence.

Coming to attention: As the band swings into the national anthem, the children in the park stop what they are doing and come to attention. Some of them hold their right hands over their hearts. They know how to respect the hymn that represents their country. Do we have a hymn for the Earth; for the rivers; for the soil and the trees? Can we live in attention?

Death and Life

River of life:

The Nizaito River begins in the mountains of Polo, above 3000 feet. From there it plummets to Platon, which lies only a few hundred feet above sea level. As it falls, it flushes out the rocks from the valley floor, vastly expanding its river bed during Noel. For those of us raised in the United States, it is hard to imagine how a river could uncover so many rocks in such a short period of time. The Nizaito still flows with the storm waters as you can see in the above image. Water from this little river flows into a canal that irrigates thousands of acres on the plains surrounding Oviedo. Thus it brings life to land that would otherwise remain locked in a perpetual cycle of dryness interrupted by the rare tropical downpour.

Emerson:

He spent the morning and afternoon drinking clerén. Towards evening he announced that he would cross the river and wander back to the batey and his belongings. People told him he was in no condition to cross the river; that he should wait until the stupor had passed. That Sunday night he went into the waters and they carried him away from human existence as we know it.

The confluence:

Two vectors met: a raging river and a mind intoxicated by cheap alcohol. Take one of those elements away, and tragedy is averted. How will it go with Emerson in the Final Judgment? Will the Creator confront him with all the lost opportunities; the talents squandered; the grand design of his life and how he was meant to share in the unfolding of creation?

Plunging into the river of our time:

Will the dynamics of our Final Judgment be any different from those that bring Emerson into the awareness of God's truth? A growing chorus of voices alert us to the dangers involved in plunging recklessly into a river of carbon dioxide and other gases which can overwhelm the precious diversity of life as we know it on our planet. Is our voracious appetite for carbon based goods and services that much different from the alcohol which reduced Emerson's mind to a foggy stupor? How do you envision the Final Judgment?

Little Christmas

Lanza Arriba:

It takes some driving in order to get to Lanza Arriba. You have two choices from Paraíso: either you drive back to Barahona and around to Cabral so that you can take the road out of Cabral that heads up to Polo ... or else you can drive to Enriquillo and take a right turn onto the dirt and sometimes pavement road to Polo. Either way, you need to reach Polo. Once there, you take a turn to the East and travel along a rough road that has just been cleared of rocky obstructions since the Noel flood.

What happened in Lanza Arriba:

The heavy rains and winds of Noel damaged the coffee crop together with the corn, yucca, beans and other crops that the people plant for food. Coffee beans fell to the ground and there was a frenzy to recover as many as possible. The corn and beans were another story. They might provide food for animals, since the biomass is still usable.

The meaning:

Since the Haitian immigrants do most of the hard work involved in picking coffee, and since they depend upon the food crops for sustenance when there is no coffee work... the loss of both sources of income or food security spells hard times ahead.

Little Christmas:

In the pictures, the children of Lanza Arriba are presenting the gifts that arrived from Spain: springtime green scarfs together with T shirts. The scarfs will certainly be well received since we are entering the cool period. Temperatures in Lanza Arriba will drop to the 40's between now and the end of March. It is no fun to lie awake at night and not being able to sleep because of the cold. You can be sure that those green scarfs will be wrapped around the children's heads in an effort to bring comfort. "I was cold and you warmed me up," might be words which the donors hear at the Last Judgment.

Bother and blessing:

When Sister Beania (pronounced: bay a knee ah) received the message from the acaldia of a town in Spain... that a shipment of clothes was on its way from Spain... this meant a big problem for her. She had to make numerous trips to Santo Domingo and visit Customs offices in order to clear the shipment which arrived by air. Few people will give her thanks for the trouble she endured in order to free the supplies. But the comfort which the scarfs and the T shirts will bring to the children is a true blessing. The parents took it as a sign that they are not forgotten.

What would Jesus buy?

He encouraged a wealthy young man to purchase blessings for the poor by sharing his wealth with them. Did he ever make tables or beds for the poor and then settle for a price well below the actual cost? For every child who will request and then receive a brand new X Box or other Digital video game for Christmas... how beautiful it would be if that very same child could have the experience of giving out to poor children simple things like green scarfs and prune T shirts... Then he or she could compare the levels of joy that flow from the two experiences.

the strength of children

On the way up to Charco Blanco

Allen, our new Peace Corps Volunteer (from NYC and descendant of Chinese parents) and I began walking up to Charco Blanco. The road has not seen a bulldozer after Noel and we found three places where even motorcycles can not pass: the results of landslides and deep gullies opened by the heavy rains.

At Cafe de las Mujeres

Once we reached Cafe de las Mujeres we saw huge amapola de sombra trees blown over by the freak high winds that left pockets devastated while other areas remained largely untouched. To enter the wilderness of broken trees, fallen branches and little coffee bushes splintered and flattened under the weight of the wrecked canopy... we experienced the devastation. A group of youths chopped at the branches in silence, they wielded their machetes in an effort to free the coffee bushes from the wreckage. Before, the canopy offered shelter and when it fell to pieces, the very trees that offered protection became the ones that ruined the slender coffee branches.

Along come the children

At this low point in our journey, along came the children pictured above. Notice the two empty containers in the older boy's arms. He will give the smaller gallon tank to his youngest sister who stands to his left. They fill up the containers and start back to their home, each child carrying one or two gallons. The little girl weighs how much? Would you say fifty pounds? And yet she is able to carry a full gallon container over half a mile, across the broken tree trunks, along a path and then up the mountain road to her home.

No complaining

The children moved along in harmony. None of them complained about the chore of carrying the water such a long distance. They did what was expected... as simple as that. In the group, the youngest child learned what needed to be done and she followed the example. We witnessed a school of developing physical strength.

Strong people needed

With increasing rains and tropical storms on the horizon for an indefinite future, the island of Hispaniola will be in dire need of strong children, young people and adults. They will face challenges and adversity which can scarcely be imagined at this point.

Thanksgiving for the strength of children

In a world of increasing imbalances between the forces of wind, air and sea, let us give thanks to God for the strength in children. He brings them forth and creates environments where they learn to carry heavy loads and give one another the encouragement needed to reach home with a joyful spirit.

Turning swords into plowshares

A bright idea:

A Dominican from New York comes down to Paraiso on vacation. He gets the idea of starting a new tourist business. After all: look at the stream coming out of the mountain and traveling a short distance into the sea. Why not buy the land, put in some pipes to channel the water as well as a few natural looking swimming pools and then start attracting customers? So our investor went to the campesino owner; paid him an insignificant amount... and started developing.

How easy to fool the "dumb" campesinos:

Our New York savvy entrepreneur gets off to a fast start. He puts in some walls and two eighteen inch PVC tubes to bring the water down to various pools. All the while he thinks how easy it was to buy the land when the old campesino needed an operation and had no cash. His friends all see him as a modern wonder... but then came hurricane George... and in a matter of less than twenty four hours, the fantastic, quick money project got buried under tons of rock and sand.

God likes to turn swords into plowshares:

The sharp thinking investor ends up creating a haven for the people of Ojeda. When hurricanes or tropical storms like Noel attack their island, they know that fresh water is less than a mile away. All they have to do is walk down the coastal road and turn right into the finca where beautiful pools of clean water bubble to the surface. God gets blamed for hurricanes and house wrecking storms... why not give Him the credit for taking a development project down a path that no one expected? Ojeda might be forgotten by the central government planners and be last in line for aqueduct repairs...but God has provided the people with a beautiful park to wash, bathe and find water to carry home.

Dominico-haitian education

The struggle:

These children live in La Canoa. They have progressed beyond the limits of the local Catholic school and so each day they climb down the mountain in order to attend classes in Los Patos. They leave their homes at around 7 AM and begin the climb back to the paraje at 12 noon. Johnny La Fleu has a different schedule. He descends at noon and begins the long trip back up at 6 PM. With tropical storm Noel, the country road has more rocks and crevasses which need to be avoided. Think of the dedication in these young people, together with the strong motivation not to end up like their parents: totally dependent upon the graces of Dominican land owners and limited to a life of precarious subsistence.

A disaster fueled by ignorance:

In the first picture, study the slope which a person in desperation decided to burn and then attempt to plant: the ground falls away at an angle close to 80 %. People do not ruin the side of a mountain nor waste the precious top soil because they are evil. The pattern of soil abuse arises from a vacuum of knowledge. As long as the children keep studying, their chances of repeating the same mistake grow smaller and smaller.

A leadership crisis:

We need these children to become the future leaders in the mountains. They will develop skills in writing and reading which the vast majority of immigrants lack. They will acquire a much better grasp of what erosion is and how it destroys the long term carrying capacity of the land. But the lack of employment will push these children towards Santo Domingo or other cities that offer a better chance to make a living... thus, the gap in rural talent.

What can be done now?

Small businesses have room to grow in the Paraiso area. For example, the production of bread and spaghetti, juice and spirits can respond to local market needs. Imagine a world in which large corporations like Hershey, Pepsi, Heinz, and others take little steps to share "backward" food production technology with remote areas.

These children inspire.

Watching these young people struggle simply to find a space for education...one can not help but be impressed. Whereas other children in our world have every convenience, these kids push on with very little. When families bring forth such dedicated children, will real solutions to serious problems by beyond our reach?

Manuelito

Maricela:

The young woman could not sleep in the unrelenting rain and harsh winds. Her second pregnancy had only days to go and memories of the first one provoked a deep fear. Maricela's first effort to bring life into the world ended with a still born child. What would happen with this child in her womb? Manuel, her partner, could sense the fear and he had worries of his own: as a Haitian immigrant, dependent upon the good will of the coffee landowner, a new baby might become an unwelcome guest... and what if they get sick?

El Platón:

As he worried, the community of El Platón suffered the ravages of tropical storm Noel. Little did Manuel know that the main country road into Paraíso would be completely destroyed by the time he really needed transportation. El Platón has the unfortunate geographical position of being at the confluence of the Nizaito river's dual channels. Water rushes almost 4,000 feet down steep mountain sides and the river's power moves thousands of rocks.

Four in the morning:

Maricela's labor pains begin in the darkness, after four days of deluge. Manuel doesn't know what to do. His mind is a blank and he experiences a dreadful helplessness. But thanks be to God the neighbors step in. They reach a decision: at first light they will help Maricela to get out of the mountains. But at 6 AM she has no energy to move. The pain in her young body locks her up and she is afraid to walk. The people decide to make a stretcher with a long branch and a bed sheet. They will carry her for six hours until they reach Villa Nizao.

News:

At One PM two young people pound on our rectory door. They demand that the parish help we drop whatever we are doing and help rescue a young woman who is going to give birth at any minute. Soon the three of us are driving the double cabin Toyota truck out of town. We reach the muddy part of the road to Villa Nizao and barely get through. On the way back it will be extremely difficult to climb in the thick mud. Before reaching the village, here come the people carrying Maricela. For the first time I see that the lady's partner is Manuel, our catechist in El Platón. The villagers helping the young woman onto the back seat include four or five Dominican residents, which brings great comfort, since they show support for someone who is not their nationality but is a Child of God.

Mud pushers:

Five men climb on to the back of the truck and when we hit the bad part of the road and get stuck, they jump over the sides and push the truck so we can get out of the mud. It's a miracle that we reach the main road. We drive into Paraíso looking for a doctor but can find none. The group decides that the best choice is to head for Barahona. As we move along, the Dominican lady keeps trying to maintain a conversation with Maricela. She believes that a woman in labor should never sleep because as she says "it turns the pains cold". We finally arrive at the hospital at 5 PM.

Blessed birth:

Doctor Delgado and others assist Maricela and within twenty minutes after arriving at the regional hospital, she gives birth to her little son. We give the doctor a lift back to Paraíso. He tells us that he has four children; that his family lives in Oviedo; that he has taught all of his children how to inject patients. People routinely come to his home and even his nine year old daughter can inject them. He identifies himself as an Evangelical Christian and we admire his deep faith. He assures us that Maricela and the baby are fine.

The next day:

Manuel comes by the next morning, asking if he can call the hospital to find out how his partner and the baby spent the night. A Haitian woman, neighbor of theirs stayed with them in the hospital. We can not get through to the hospital and he leaves the rectory. At ten AM he returns with the totally unexpected: Maricela and the baby. Can you believe it? She gave birth less than twenty hours ago and now she is walking around with her son! They needed a ride out to the end of the road... where the heavy mud begins ... and so off we go. By eleven AM they begin the long walk back to El Platón. With few resources, they believe that the best choice before them was to return to their community as quickly as possible. Thanks be to God the sun shone brightly. Can you place yourself by the truck, watching the couple; another injured Haitian and the woman friends starting out on that long walk? Can you imagine wondering how Maricela could be so strong, and what kind of a mission lies before Manuelito who in less than twenty hours after coming into the world is being carried off, into the wilderness.

Impact Noel

Cancer:

When we reflect upon a natural disaster such as Noel, we tend to focus upon the TV scenes. Here in Paraíso we had no electricity and could not follow the effects of the storm in the usual way. Instead, people of the town went over to the river and contemplated the rushing waters. Rio Nizaito usually has less than one thousandth of the flow you see. The children and youth watched in fascination as the powerful waters surged towards the ocean. Few people realized that we witnessed the destruction of Hispaniola's future...her topsoil. In effect, we contemplated a growing cancer: erosion.

Soil runoff:

This week a UN sponsored gathering of the world's climate scientists will put the finishing touches on a document which attempts to predict the impact of global warming. They will state that places subject to flooding will experience more flooding. This spells a long term forecast of agricultural decline on the island of Hispaniola.

What can be done:

Presently the Church devotes precious little human resources to the question of soil conservation. You can find the occasional priest or sister who speaks out concerning the danger of deforestation. Bishop Jose Grullion of San Juan de la Maguana has sent his seminarians into the mountains to reforest a large tract of land which the diocese owns. Miguel Angel of the local foundation has begun to monitor the soil loss with the participation of community organizations. But in spite of these efforts, the erosion cancer grows.

A creative response urgently needed:

A common element which limits all the strategies to reforest the mountains on Hispaniola is the culture of professional urban comfort. When people study beyond high school, they expect to develop a lifestyle in the towns and cities. This leaves the countryside with an acute shortage of highly trained people who live with the immigrants and local farming families. In our area, only Father John lived in the mountains, and now that he suffered an accident, his clinic lies abandoned.

Instead of roads...

In the aftermath of Noel, the local governments will spend vital resources trying to reopen roads and bridges. This helps the movement of people and resources, but has no positive impact upon the erosion cancer. Instead, it creates the environment where erosion of the topsoil can continue. If resources were instead dedicated to establish "monasteries" of modern life in the mountains, they could serve as magnets to attract professional people as well as anchors of long term education towards soil conservation practices.

From the "Dark Ages":

During the so-called Dark Ages of European history, the peoples experienced cultural erosion in the clashes with barbarian armies. However the monasteries served to keep the spirit of curiosity and learning alive. They developed water systems and schools of writing. They kept libraries functioning to benefit humanity. Could something similar be created in response to the long term threat of devastating erosion?

Advanced High School drinks

International competition?

"The first world is always better at everything," might be a mind-set which we carry around like an inoculation that we received in childhood. It quickly becomes an old story and we learn nothing new. So it can be refreshing to come upon a scene where a third world high school implements an idea that deserves mention.

Enriquillo:

Travel down the coast from Paraiso towards the Haitian border and you arrive at Enriquillo. The town receives its name from a Taino Indian chief who managed to keep the Spanish conquistadors at bay. He used the local terrain and mountain scouts together with different sounds from an ocean shell to signal his freedom fighters regarding the movement of colonial troops. The jagged rocks that cover many mountainsides in this area created havoc for soldiers on horseback and Enriquillo chose such places to engage in punitive attacks. He became a legendary hero for the local people because he alone managed to withstand the colonial invasion.

Enriquillo high school:

In honor of Enriquillo, the department of education chose the town of Enriquillo for its regional office. Other towns such as Pedernales and Paraiso are bigger, but they don't have the prestigious historical name. Thus Enriquillo high school is a regional center and houses the text books for all the schools in the area.

How to offer quality beverages:

Ana Maria has the beverage concession in the Enriquillo High School. Every morning she arrives with big jugs of freshly made fruit juice. In the picture you can see the choices: orange, tamarind (dark colored), lemon (clear looking), and passion fruit (bright orange color). She uses local water purified with chlorine for the juice and ice cubes. If you'd rather purchase a fruit, she offers the seasonal best. Economics influences the choices: Coke and Pepsi cost too much for the meager student budgets, whereas the area produces all of the fruit which she needs to process. A cup of cool fruit juice costs about thirty cents, whereas the same amount of Coke costs three times as much.

Enhancing the local economy:

When the students purchase cups of fruit juice they do a little moving of the local economy. They help the growers to earn a living, together with Ana Maria's family. In addition, the amount of sugar which they consume per cup is a far healthier load than that which brand name beverages carry.

A "Presidente" Mass?

You put the altar where?

Some Catholics have participated in outdoor Masses. Usually a liturgy team, in the absence of a little chapel, will find a place that is conducive to prayer. Picture yourself in San Rafael with a panoramic view of the ocean and towering green mountains, that entrances people from all over the country. Where would you place the altar?

On a learning curve:

San Rafael celebrates its "fiesta patronal" during nine days that lead up to the feast of the archangel Rafael. This year we find something unusual: a group of youth who want to have a Mass to begin the celebration. In years past, the youth either had no organization or leaders with different priorities.

This looks like a good place...

With all the innocence of a young person with her own notions of where a Mass can be celebrated, the youth leader placed the altar right beside a booth for selling Presidente beer. In choosing this place she demonstrated a view which sadly represents a majority in San Rafael... there is no conflict between the booths which increase the demand for beer and rum, and a celebration with origins in the Catholic tradition.

Beer and rum compared with fishing:

There are mechanisms in place which limit the growth of the Paraiso fishermen and their catch. They restrict themselves to the local market and the size of their refrigeration units puts a condition on the quantity of fish they can store. The unstable electricity supply translates into justifiable fear among the population, reluctant to purchase large quantities of fish at bulk prices. So we find no avaricious fishermen competing to increase their market by any and all means. Instead, we find business people who fish for the day.

Compare this reality to the alarming growth of the rum and beer industry. They have managed to wipe out of the local producers of spirits: all "mom and pop" businesses. In earlier decades people knew how to make a sugar cane drink with a low alcohol content, plus different kinds of wine from rice, lemons and other fruits. Now they have been shoved out of the market. In their place, powerful establishments compete in a war for expanding markets. They barge into any little town and "offer" to set up the fiesta patronal. They bring in entertainment and huge speaker systems. That's the "come on" in a racket which guarantees a sure supply of drunk people with empty bottle strewn by the roadsides and Styrofoam cups littering the hills.

Mass with the ocean view:

With so much God-given beauty around, we easily moved the table and chairs to a location overlooking the coastal mountain range as it meets the sea. The fishers of men for life in the spirit of Christ meet on an uneven playing field with the fishers of men for Barcelo and Presidente industries. They have the loud music, expensive drinks and the flashy vendors. In two weeks they will be gone, leaving a sour taste in the minds and hearts of the community. Will they continue to make inroads into the lives of humble people? Just one Presidente beer costs what a man can make working a whole day picking coffee! They youth who participated in the little ocean Mass have begun to reflect upon the meaning of their patronal feast. Their awareness is like a tiny voice in the midst of a thunderstorm of blatant commercialism.

Sun boat

The boat:

Five boats rest beside each other on the beachfront of Paraiso. The fishermen leave them about twenty feet beyond high tide. This morning, only one of the boats will be carried down to the ocean.

The motor:

A young man carries the motor from the road down to the seashore, managing it on his back. His friend carries a cooler plus the gasoline. Today they will fish with a small casting rod.

Safety:

The fishermen of Paraiso have yet to lose one of their members at sea. Perhaps this is due to the attitude that pervades the group: they are in no hurry to catch fish and even if they caught a huge amount, they do not have the storage capacity to keep the fish fresh. Problems with limited electrical service and small size cold storage units contribute to a reluctance to go after "bigger and better."

The coast:

Between Barahona and Pedernales there is no deep water port for large scale fishing boats. One does not witness industrial scale boats trolling off the coast in the deep waters. All in all, the environment seems to be one that leaves plenty of fish for the fishermen of tomorrow. Did Peter and his relatives have a similar "laid-back" attitude towards fishing? Was the Sea of Galilee over-crowded with small craft that fought for an ever dwindling catch? If they had been consumed with beating everyone out to the biggest and longest run of catches, would they have stopped to listen to a man from Nazareth... and discover his real identity?

Contemplative fishermen:

The geographical and economic limitations placed upon the Paraiso fishermen appear to enhance a contemplative rather than a voracious spirituality towards fishing. In an age when "small" is considered pejorative in the context of business, the Paraiso fishing methods speak about the long term wisdom of taking it easy; fishing one little boat at a time.

The last drop

The assumption:

A few years ago, the Church organized a special project to build a cement water cistern in La Vibora. Because the community is over three thousand feet above the valley floor and because there are no rivers or wells in La Vibora, the construction team assumed that the residents would care for this new source of water with persistent zeal. After all, who would want to spend time walking down the mountain to visit an overcrowded spring, waiting hours for one's turn in the midst of a never ending throng of people and animals... when the possibility of clean water in the community exited?

The Reality:

When a hurricane passed off the coast of Paraiso two months ago, the gathering pavilion with a zinc roof blew down. Since the roof had been the only structure connected to the water cistern, this meant that no new rainfall would enter the catchment, except that which might fall directly into hatch, if it were left open. In the picture you can observe a tiny hole that has been gouged into the bottom of the cistern floor. The plastic jug is used to gather the little bit of water that presently falls through the hatch.

Analysis:

In hindsight, it proves far easier to capture resources and build the cistern, than it is to coach a community into preserving the cistern, once it comes into service. Just why this is so varies from place to place. The United States funded thousands of water wells in the Dominican Republic during the United Nations decade of clean water: the 1980's. You can visit some of these wells and discover that the local community has maintained the well and knows how to repair it. But you can visit other sites and find that the wells are abandoned.

Leadership flight:

One reason for the discrepancy is change in leadership. Say a community has an outstanding leader who learns how to maintain a well or cistern. He motivates the group to keep the system functioning. When it breaks down, he is the first to sacrifice time and energy to go into town and get repair parts. His capability means that the energy of the rest of the group will be put to good use if he calls them to give up a working day to fix the system. But if that person becomes incapacitated or moves away from the community, a leadership vacuum comes into existence. The people who once depended upon him to solve problems and organize the work parties, now find that in his absence, the other members have little confidence in one another.

Dealing with the physical problem rather than the community dynamics:

For people who live in the town but attempt to intervene in rural areas, the temptation exists to solve the physical or material problems rather than address the community issues which create blockage to a local resolution. If left on its own, the system evolves into an addiction. People make their livelihood fixing wells or cisterns for other folks, because they would rather pay an exorbitant price than go through a process of community building to reduce inner tensions and create confidence to solve problems on their own.

The great unknown:

You can drive up to La Vibora and visit with the people. You can listen to stories and participate in their liturgies. You might even go around and interview each and every adult to try and ascertain just why they have not pooled resources to fix the pavilion... but in the end, the answer will remain illusive -- so long as you are not poor and do not live in the community. One of the most insightful songs after Vatican II has the following lyrics (translated from Spanish): "When the poor man believes in the poor man... that is when we can sing: liberty!" For as much as we would like to alleviate suffering and misery, in the end the long lasting results have little to do with us and everything to do with the poor learning how to believe in one another.

Tin cans are the rage!

The sequence, main event:

Girl goes to Santo Domingo. She sees many things but one day her attention is arrested by a peculiar sight: a girl like herself walking around on tin cans. She observes that the girl is having fun and in a micro-second decides that yes, it is fun.

Second step:

The girl from Ojeda then concludes in a flash: "I can do that too! I can make my own pair of can stilts!" While the creation process is getting under way, the local environment is very positive. Other kids laugh and want to try walking on tin cans. It looks intriguing and no body is saying that the play is below their dignity or social class.

Home with the energy to share the experience:

When Nancy returns to Ojeda she remembers how to make the new toy and goes about doing it. The other kids watch and learn. Soon there are five and upwards of six children walking around, experiencing a new kind of motion.

Raw play:

Just as a digital camera has the ability to take raw images which have not been compressed or touched up by a computer program to look "just so", these children are experiencing "raw" play. Their game has no coach, play book or sports industry to sell, manage and promote the "new and improved" tin can stilts. When children delight in the simplest of toys and create their own play moment, are they somehow in tune with the Spirit of God?

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me":

Jesus once transferred a child's game to a real life situation: "we sang a joyful song but you would not dance; we played a dirge but you would not cry." He observed how people lost the joy of childhood and replaced it with an artificial, managed kind of war game, which led up to a catastrophic engagement with the Roman legions. His first words to Nathaniel were the playful: "I saw you under the fig tree." And when the Spirit of God confronted Saul on his way to Damascus, the self-righteous Pharisee ended up learning how to "walk on tin cans"... to be considered a fool for being so enthralled about a former prisoner who met his death on a cross.

Baptisms in La Vibora

Celebrating under a plastic blue tarp:

The tin roof structure that the community of La Vibora build with Father Antonio's help is still out of service since the strong winds blew it over as the hurricane passed by. The Haitian immigrants have no land and thus have no place to go and get tree trunks to replace those that broke with the high winds. So there we were, Alejandro and I, celebrating the baptisms with the people, under a makeshift roof.

Writing names:

Alejandro spent over two hours just writing the names of the children, parents and godparents. This will be the very first time that the children are recorded is an offocial document. Most of them came into the world with the help of "comadrones" or women in the campos who act as midwives. Their names will be in our books and with the baptism certificate, the parents hope it will be easier to declare the childen so that they can have a government issued birth certificate.

One camera for all:

Notice the blue sheet to the far right in the picture. That is a a backdrop for taking pictures of the baptized children and family. The fotographer came up on his motorcycle from Los Blancos and will have the film developed in Barahona. The diocese legal department gave him the camera as a help to document people.

A funny moment:

One of the men having his picture taken whipped out a cell phone and pretended to be receiving a call during the picture moment. Perhaps he consideres the cell phone to be a status symbol and in effect very few Haitian immigrants have one. Whether or not it works is another thing.

A multitude:

Perhaps the picture can give you a sense of the large numbers of immigrants living in La Vibora. If you look at Google Earth and place Paraiso to the left of the ocean, La Vibora is located in the mountains above Paraiso. It takes an hour and a half to reach the community. Compared to other areas in the parish, La Vibora has less land dedicated to coffee production and more land given to farming crops like squash.

A sad fact:

The "alhibe" or cement water cistern is completely empty in La Vibora. This means that the dry season will require the women and children to travel much farther to get water for the household. When a person has to travel on level ground to get water, it is a chore. But when the children have to go down a mountain and then carry the water up the steep inclines... this goes beyond the definition of a chore and comes closer to the idea of a crushing burden.

Rocks for Santo Domingo

The youth come out to work:

The parents and grandparents of the youth in Ojeda often worry about their sons who have no studies to pursue and no jobs to keep them occupied. They easily get into trouble with drugs and alcohol or ride a motorcycle into accidents. But today the youth will be important and a vital component to the family's ability to earn a living.

The "patana" rolls into Ojeda:

The rocks have all been loaded into strong plastic bags. When the long flat bed trailer arrives, the driver blows the horn a few times. People rouse the youths out of a siesta. They know what to do, as the drill has repeated itself more than a dozen times. First it was with the black stones, then with the stones that had a flat surface. Now the flat bed will take away the rounded stones.

Hard, punishing work:

No matter if it is Saturday afternoon and the sun still casts hot rays upon the beach, the youth move down to the bags and begin carrying them up to the flat bed "patana". Over and over they repeat the trip. Sometimes they dare to take two fifty pound bags on their shoulders. The children watch and cheer them on. Without the strong shoulders to transport the bags up to the truck, all the work of the children and mothers would be in vain.

Loading up an entire flat bed:

Slowly the back portion of the flat bed begins to settle under the weight of the stones. Then the group shifts to the front, in an effort to balance the load. It will take six hours before the last of the bags lands on the trailer deck and then finds its place on top of the last column. Almost all the tires at the back of the bed are bald and who knows how far the driver will get before he has to stop and deal with a blowout.

No time to celebrate:

As the driver pulls away on the long trip to Santo Domingo, the youth return home for a meal. Tonight they have little energy to party or hang out on the street. Nobody will give them thanks for a job well done, nor will the families chip in to give them a special treat. But you don't hear the youth complaining. A hidden communication in the eyes and in the way the youth walk back to their homes, comes down to a tired awareness that they have done their part to help the family.

Celebrations out of sync:

As a country seeks to create uniformity concerning days off and the why of celebrations, the little triumphs of communities such as Ojeda go unnoticed. It might not seem like a great achievement (loading a huge "patana" with heavy bags of rocks); yet few groups of youth have the chance to work together for the good of their families. Most of the time they only get acclaim for sports events or noteworthy achievements in school. The day that the adults in Ojeda discover the unique dynamic that links their strong sons to the good of their families; the day that they decide to celebrate that achievement... will be a new kind of "Day of the Lord" in Ojeda.

Simple Fishing

Six o'clock in the morning:

Manuel goes to sea with a black inner tube from a pick up truck and a small net. The ocean is relatively calm and he might stay in the water until the heat becomes too uncomfortable. He fishes for a living with just those two possessions.

Making due with what you have:

The number of people on this island of Hispaniola who have a similar dearth of gadgets is staggering. You can enter people's homes and find one table for the whole family. There are elderly women who cook their meals out of the side of a pot that has a hole in the middle of it. Men who have farmed for a lifetime can be found with one machete, file, pick and shovel which they can call their own.

Give us this day our daily bread:

We all pray these words and they have more or less meaning for us at different stages of our lives. We come close to having nothing when we lose our health or a loved one... but the experience of day in and day out depending upon the daily bread... is something we can observe in others and yet fail to taste it as they do.

The gospel of simple living:

Manuel is not a preacher. He feels no need to go around and tell people how they should live and what they ought to avoid, but to contemplate him in the morning... alone on the sea with just a tire tube and a net... is to witness a sermon in waves and motion. Enduring happiness and gadget multiplication do not correlate as the fish swim by and the net invites the curious ones for a closer look.

Clinic Taxi

A cascade of the ill seeking medical help:

One person comes up and asks if we can drive his wife up to the clinic to see Dr. John. Once the community hears about the upcoming trip, the mothers with babies with fevers want to come along. Then Fr. John hears about Miss Jean who has a huge growth on the right side of her face. He suspects that the problem comes from decayed teeth that have never been removed. Thus do people come together in search of medical help.

The ride up to Leonardo and the clinic:

When Toyota made a double cabin truck have low four, perhaps they foresaw the road up to Leonardo. With the rains, the clay and rock road becomes a bumpy and slippery mess. With so many passengers at the back of the truck and within, it is a small miracle that the tires don't go flat or the motor quit. But the truck kept chugging up the steep inclines at the pace of a person walking.

Going after the lost teeth:

After attending to more than thirty four children and adults, Fr. John saved the best for last. He sat Miss Jean in the dentist chair and began to inject the Novocaine to deaden the pain. Lots of other people would tell the lady: take these antibiotics and come back when the swelling has gone down. Fr. John will give her plenty of antibiotics, but he knows how difficult it is for this lady to make a return trip, and so he goes after the teeth that have made a wicked infection in her mouth. How happy we all were that this kind elderly priest could remove the decayed teeth without too much trouble. The Novocaine took well and the patient did not struggle in the chair.

Gone for eight hours without food:

All of the people on the truck went up the mountain and back down to their homes, over eight hours away from food ... and who knows how many had something to eat before we left. But at the end of the day they were very happy with the attention offered and received. Fr. John is known as "Dr. Pills", because he gives copious amounts of medication to his patients and their families. The big blessing on the way back down the mountain? We had no rain to fall on the little children suffering from colds and the flu. Tell us about a more blessed Monday!

The priest who lifts weights in his 70's:

At the end of the day, when everyone has gone home and his clinic is extremely quiet, Fr. John turns on the news and lifts weights from his other dental chair that serves as a recliner. He does this exercise to keep his muscles toned for the job of pulling teeth. May the Lord raise up thousands to take his place in the world, one day.

Drums in Platón

Rhythm and dance at twelve noon:

When the Dominico-Haitians gather in El Platón late Sunday morning, you might expect them to have no energy for lively music and dance. After all, most of the churchgoers have arrived on an empty stomach and will eat only one meal that day. On top of that, these are "oppressed" people who often suffer from policies dictated by both their own government back in Haiti and their newly adopted country. They ought to be sad and have long faces, right? Well if you could hear those men playing the drums...

A Eucharistic Celebration:

Catholics are accustomed to a strange use of words in a normal Sunday Liturgy. We refer to it as a "celebration" when nobody seems to be really celebrating; when people enter with long, sad faces and leave pretty much as they entered. Witness, by contrast, the enthusiasm with which these men play the "palos" or drums as we might call them. Even the most stolid, rigid person would have trouble not moving to the rhythm of those drum beats!

Life as celebration:

The psalms tell us that all of creation rejoices and praises God. We hear the psalmist asking the trees, mountains and water creatures to praise the Lord. The way these men play the drums when Manuel, the local catechist gives them the nod, comes as close as a people can get to finding the rhythm into praise. The beat conveys a liveliness and zest that other instruments and even whole choirs would find it hard to equal. Do we carry this sound deep in our genes? Why is it so appealing -- a global language of movement and praise!

Drums as a spirituality of resilience:

In the Mass, the priest invites the People of God to "lift up your hearts". He conveys this invitation by lifting up his hands. But when a Liturgy of Praise and Thanksgiving is enhanced by the "palos", that invitation to lift up hearts gets magnified and transformed into a rhythm. The music of these hand made, simple wooden instruments becomes sacred music. What a gift the Lord has given to people who do not have the luxury of attending Mass in impressive Cathedrals or master works of Church architecture! Others might conclude that when it comes to honoring God, the poor immigrants in El Platón have practically nothing to offer. But they know how to give the Lord lifted hearts that resound in music, rhythm and lively song. Is this a case of the "last" ending up being first?

Gathering rocks

What would you do?

...If you lived in Ojeda and had practically no income, since you don't own land and live too far away from the coffee plantations to make it worth your while to pick coffee, and even if you could get up there to pick the beans, the Haitian workers would out compete you! What would you do for income to put food on the table?

How about a rock party?

One day a home builder stops by your community and goes out to examine the rocks on the beach. He finds quite a few that are clean white; with relatively flat sides. Eduardo sees him examining the rocks and goes out to inquire. The man invites him to gather the clean white rocks into piles and then put them into bags. If Eduardo will do this, the man promises to pay fifteen pesos (fifty cents) per bag. They both agree to the measuring unit: empty five gallon paint buckets... and so a business got launched!

Teamwork:

Each afternoon, when the sun's rays don't blind people from distinguishing between really clean rocks and so-so rocks, Eduardo and his neighbors walk down from their homes to the beach, along with their grandchildren. Everyone joins in the task of gathering rocks; each according to his or her ability. As the darkness descends, the parents and grandparents begin to load the strong plastic bags and tie them off. Each bag weighs between forty to fifty pounds. They then carry the bags up to the side of the highway that runs along the coast, between Barahona and Pedernales.

Work is play/play is work:

Ordinarily, the adults would be ashamed to be seen doing this sort of lowest level menial labor. People have their dignity to uphold and when one stoops to picking up rocks, it is like broadcasting that the person is practically destitute. Who wants to reveal that kind of message to the community at large? How many people in the "developed" countries would rather jump out of a window than have their poverty known by their peers? But enter the children...and an embarrassing job becomes a fun exercise. Even teenagers are able to gather under the umbrella of fun making that the children deploy. Imagine how different this scene would be, without the laughing "little people"!

Who is really poor?

By choosing to work, rather than beg or sit around complaining, the adults in Ojeda who go down to the beach every afternoon have found a way to keep the worst of poverty at bay: poverty of spirit. When one observes the parents, grandparents and children all sharing in a common survival task, one senses a richness of spirit. These are not defeated people, even though life has not dealt them a royal flush or even two of a kind.

Coffee everywhere

Street coffee?

As the coffee harvest comes in, every available open space that has a solid floor is used to help dry the beans. This is the second step in the process that brings coffee to your local supermarket. The first step is to remove the pulp from each coffee fruit. Since Paraiso has cloudy, rainy weather in the month of October, it behoves the coffee owners to take advantage of even the few hours between light rains.

Big setback:

The worst economic setback that Paraiso ever suffered came in the breakup of the coffee co-operative. Huge equipment dried the beans in a modern process that left no room for this inefficient system of opening coffee sacks and spreading out the beans on the road, then coming along every few minutes to turn them over. The project went under due to corrupt management and funds that never were recovered. The large manufacturing plant sits down near the ocean, close to the high school. The frame gathers rust and the roof has giant gashes in it.

Association aversion:

When Father Antonio came along to Paraiso, he encountered the aftermath of the coffee debacle. Wherever he went, the small land owners refused to go back into forming associations. Most had lost considerable funds with the collapse of the large co-operative, and they saw no good reasons for coming together once again.

Prime motivation:

Regardless, Father Antonio kept visiting groups and calling the men back into associations. His motivation had little to do with increasing the purchasing power of the individual plantation owners. Rather, he experienced growing alarm over the ravaging of the River Nizao and other critical watersheds in the area. He knew that slash and burn techniques on these steep mountain sides would quickly lead to degradation of the soils and capacity for long term growth in the region.

Little victories:

Deforestation still remains the biggest threat to the long term economic well being of Paraiso and the surrounding towns. But the associations which Father Antonio re-activated had played a part in raising awareness of the dangers to the rivers. They banded together to stop a powerful family from exploiting a natural resource that would have contaminated the drinking water for Paraiso.

Dangerous dependency:

Outside experts who tour the area coincide with observing that Paraiso depends far too much on a good price for its coffee. They recommend that the region diversify into other products such as avocados and citrus fruit. But the coffee truly has an excellent taste and a fresh cup grown, toasted and brewed in the highlands would convert any Starbucks fanatic. Honest, it is amazing how there is no coffee tasting tourist industry coming here. If people will travel to New Hampshire to see the maple leaves, why not travel to Paraiso to taste the freshly picked and roasted coffee? The especially good coffee is called "La escoba". It is not a romantic name, since it means "the broom". This refers to the ungainly shape of the bush. But God blessed the fruit of this ugly bush with fantastic aroma and savory taste!