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!

Father Doctor John

Unique journey:
Father Dr. John grew up on Long Island and after eighth grade joined the De Montford order. As a seminarian he had charge of the apothecary shop and gave medicines to students. After ordination as a priest he taught Biology, and Chemistry to seminarians. Then, in preparation for an assignment in Borneo Indonesia, he decided to study pharmacology at Fordham University. Within a short time he graduated as a pharmacologist and went on the missions with the ability to treat illnesses such as typhus and tuberculosis. In Borneo he ran into a patient who suffered from an abscessed tooth and in a short while began a side career as a dentist. (He's been doing dentistry for forty years.)
Years in Haiti:
After a long stay in Borneo, Father John was sent to Haiti. He operated a large, fifty bed hospital that specialized in care for tuberculosis patients. While there he made the mistake of being friends with personnel from the American Embassy. Since our Embassy was associated with "Baby Doc" and seen as against democratic change, Father John got branded as a CIA operative. The people who wanted vengeance against our American Embassy went after Father John and closed down his hospital.
What to do at fifty five?
At 55, Father John was out of a job. Since he loved medicine and care for the sick, he applied to study medicine at a university in San Pedro de Macoris. After three and a half years he graduated as an M.D. and began a new career. He heard about the PAP hospital here in Paraiso and came over to lend a hand. When he observed that the hospital had little impact upon the people in the mountains, he worked to set up a rural clinic in Leonardo, about an hour's drive from town.
What a way to retire!
Every day Father Dr. John gets up to receive patients in his clinic. They come from all of the mountains and even as far away as Barahona. People rave about his having blessed hands when he removes decayed teeth. They also can't forget how he charges only eighty pesos (less than three dollars) for each medical visit; and this includes all the medicine that the patient needs. The stories abound on how he saved folks over a hundred dollars in medications.
His spirit:
America is running out of priests like Father Dr. John. The seminaries are half empty, and the younger priests don't have the same drive to serve the poor as this remarkable man. However in groups like "Doctors without boarders", one can find laypeople who discover the same zest for service to the poor. In many ways, Father Dr. John is a happy, alive senior citizen. He could easily be resting in a priest's retirement home or doing part-time clergy work on the occasional weekend in the States. Instead, he lives right out in the middle of poor, rural people and provides excellent service day after day. In terms of humanitarian service, he is a marathon runner in the forward trenches.
Liturgy:
On Saturdays and Sunday mornings, you can find Fr. John celebrating Mass in our chapels. The Dominicans say he does not speak clear Spanish and that his sermons hammer at the cultural flaws in our area, such as the lack of marriages and children who grow up without a father in the home. But he has gained the deep respect which comes to a person whose deeds speak far more eloquently than his words.
His big cross:
Father Dr. John has painted the rims on the solar panels of his rural clinic, as well as his laptop, electronic keyboard and other household items a bright red and black in order to discourage the robbers. He contends with youthful robbers who have broken into the clinic four times. Besides painting the expensive items, he has an attitude: although the young person who is his next patient might be the one who robbed him last month or last night, he is a patient... and the doctor is in.

Coffee plantation owner

How to become a land owner:
Heriberto Cuevas came into this world as one of twelve children to his Dad who owned two hundred tareas of land. With so many possible inheritors, the Dad decided not to divide the land but waited for someone to come along and purchase it. Heriberto had no money but he did have a good mind and a sense for political connections. He joined the Partido Revolutionario and helped Joaquin Balaguer win an election. The President in turn gave him a new apartment in a building complex in Enriquillo. Heriberto then sold the apartment and gave the money to his Dad, thus becoming a land owner.
How to transform your land into a coffee plantation:
With the land came new choices. Either Heriberto would deforest it in order to plant beans, corn and peas; or else he would aim to condition it into being a productive coffee plantation. Because the land is near the Nizao river and because he learned about the dangers of deforestation, Heriberto decided to go for a coffee plantation. He went to a bank and obtained a significant loan to buy coffee plants and pay for workers to condition the land.
How to weather storms:
Because coffee comes into harvest precisely during the hurricane season, and because Paraiso is on the coast and easily subject to hurricane winds, coffee growers in the area develop their holdings at significant risk. Often Heriberto was short of cash and needed to sell his coffee at flowering time (when it is worth half the price as at harvest). He had to have cash in order to pay workers to clear vines and cut back the weeds so that the coffee bushes could develop their fruit. Besides hurricanes, he also confronted dry spells, when the coffee developed without much taste and could hardly be sold on the market.
Educating his children:
Unlike most of the other families in Villa Nizao, Heriberto managed to send four of his children to the national university in Santo Domingo. Along the way, he became the President of the local Association of farmers and learned how to develop petitions for different projects that would enhance the community.
An extraordinary leader:
Without Heriberto Cuevas, the playground and community center (in the background) would not be in existence. He has used his intelligence and leadership position to advocate for his community in countless ways. Among all the coffee plantation owners in the area, he is one of the very few who lives near his holdings and employs people from the surrounding homes. What a blessing, if his children follow in his footsteps!

Haitian health promoters

Philippe:
Just six years ago, the young man pictured above made a big decision that to this day has positive consequences. He left a teacher preparation program in Haiti and immigrated to El Maniel in the high country above Paraiso. He arrived knowing Creole much better than the majority of folks and soon became involved in community leadership positions. His ability to read quickly and his interest in the Church led him to become the local catechist.
Doctor Alfredo Nombela:
When Doctor Alfredo met Philippe, the young man knew next to nothing about medicine. That was soon to change. Alfredo decided to coach both Philippe and Yela (the young woman pictured above who lives on Chene mountain) towards becoming very competent health promoters. Every Saturday he would arrive on motorcycle and drive up to the communities where these young people live. He taught them how to take vital signs, how to give injections, how to detect infectious diseases and how to run many diagnostic field tests.
Sustained coaching:
Lots of people in the third world become public health promoters. Extremely few receive the kind of on-site education and consistent shepherding that Philippe and Yela received. They attended workshops and performed numerous patient interventions in the presence of Doctor Alfredo. They became like his children in the field.
Profound blessing:
Often enough, rural people who receive a special education take advantage of this input to move out of the mountains and down into cities or the capital. They remove vital expertize from the communities where they served. This represents a serious "brain drain" for the rural communities and often results in a setback to previous levels of infections and diseases. Both Philippe and Yela have nurtured the communities where they live, setting down roots which add stability to the services which Doctor Alfredo provided.
Crisis:
The program which allowed Doctor Alfredo to coach two rural Haitian health promoters has run out of funding. It will terminate at the end of this month. Among all the interventions which seek to be of concrete service to the "poorest of the poor" in our area, this project ranks among the most beneficial. It combines quality on-site education and follow-up of intelligent, capable young people. They speak and read the required languages; are motivated to serve others; and have a proven track record of responsible service. We hope to find ways to keep their program alive!

Flower challenge

A challenge to the reader:
The flowers to the left in this picture are extremely prolific at above 2,000 feet in our area. Can you identify them? And even better, can you find a good use for them, such as in soap or shampoo or any other product?
Use what you've got:
One theory of modern globalization affirms that each country and sub region needs to find out what it is good at; and then capitalize on that strength. The global market, we are told, requires this kind of specialization. Thus we hear that Paraiso needs to develop echo-tourism, since the ocean and verdant mountains offer breathtaking scenery, unequaled in many other parts of the Caribbean.
Flower wonders:
No one needs to plant this flower. It grows almost anywhere in the highlands and there are varieties of it that form thick clumps on the road to Cachote. How great it would be to find a good use for it. The same is true for the "campana" bush, pictured beside the flower:

Campana delights:

People say they plant it for shade, although they all know jokes about folks who ate the honey from bees that fed on the "campana". It's a psychedelic honey. But is there some kind of positive use that this flower can offer? With so many of them growing in the higher elevations, it is a shame that the local population has no way to develop a benefit from the bush. What about a mildly euphoric toothpaste?

Diethylene glyco or toothpaste:

Today the NYT ran an article on toothpaste, poisoned with diethylene glycol. Governments throughout the world have denounced the Chinese manufacturers for deliberately placing people at risk of poisoning. Tonight you can go to Chene and purchase all the tubes of this toothpaste that you want. They are on sale in the large grocery store at the top of the mountain road, within sight of "campana" bushes. One wonders if unscrupulous importers have taken advantage of the first world expulsion of this product and gathered up a stockpile... in order to sell it to poor Haitian immigrants or Dominican campesinos in the mountains. The packaging is in English and the second ingredient is precisely the one that has caused numerous deaths when it is included in children's cough syrup.

Devious assumptions:

The manufacturer probably thinks that as long as the ingredients and instructions are in English, people will presume that they are safe. Also, they think that the proclamation of "Diethylene Glycol" (as if it were a positive attribute worthy of advertising) right on the outside of the cardboard packaging, will fool everyone since the campesinos will believe that it is a powerful, "modern" ingredient meant to enhance the toothpaste. Now that we've found the contaminated product in one store, we will check the toothpaste on sale here in Paraiso.

Poison watch?

How weird: people are solemnly warned by public health officials and teachers concerning the dangers of drinking "campana" tea... even as a poisonous product is openly driven into the community and distributed under the charade of being "good for your health"!