Who we are:
We are a Roman Catholic Faith Community composed of Dominican and Haitian residents. The parish is a patchwork of thirty small villages and towns, served by a Religious Sister from Colombia, two Sisters from the Dominican Republic; a seminarian from Puerto Rico; a priest from Nevada/New Hampshire; another seminarian from the Dominican Republic and two youth volunteers: one from Japan and the other from the U.S.A.
Where we gather:
We come together in chapels, schools, and homes. Most of our people work on coffee plantations, while others fish from small boats, close to shore.
September 2007:
Each day the Haitians who live in the mountains surrounding Paraiso are finding work since the coffee crop is ready to be picked. They earn about $2.00 per day, and this is considered a "good" time, since by the end of December the employment dries up and the same people who go out to the coffee farms today will find no work. By then, numerous families in Haiti will be waiting for the return of their sons or fathers who will cross the border and bring much needed cash to help their families and relatives.
One of our goals for the down period in employment (which lasts from January to June) is to dig at least one "experimental" well. The surrounding mountains have no wells and the limestone geology makes us wonder if we can find underground water. Our idea is to try an experimental dig in Charco Blanco. There is a spot where the ground slopes downward towards it, from all directions. Perhaps we will find underground water in that spot. If not, maybe we can build a well which has water at least in the rainy season. Anything will be an improvement over the present situation, which is limited to a few pvc tubes which collect the rain water off the school roof and channel it to a cement holding tank.
We choose Charco Blanco before other places for a number of reasons. One of them is the way the Dominicans and Haitians live together. During the last close call with a hurricane, the Dominicans opened up the church-built public school room that was reserved for the teacher. They let a young Haitian mother and her baby spend a couple of days there, safe from the howling winds; rain and partial destruction of their home. This was an act of empathy and loving concern which shows that the community has leaders who act to protect those who are most at risk, regardless of their nationality or the color of their skin.
