Creativity now

Seeing what others don't see:
We look at a used plastic oil container and see junk. These boys see a potential toy. Why is it that we missed the toy, waiting to be brought forth?
Cultivating creativity:
Would these boys show the same interest in discarded plastic if they lived in an environment where they were surrounded with ready-made toys? Does the will to play, in the absence of prefabricated choices, count as the prime stimulus to the creative act?
Dead soccer ball:
Today we watched a group of children and one adult kick around a soccer ball that had no air in it. They played on a rocky road, with weeds on both sides. How come they did not complain at the outset and refuse to become engaged in playing with a ball that has no bounce to it?
Economic creativity:
One of the perverse obstacles to long term development of Paraiso is the lack of jobs for youth. And yet the community has the means and intelligence to create a host of new jobs! All it would take is for the local people to shift awareness away from products that must come into the area from Santo Domingo...to products that local entrepreneurs can create.
Fruit wine, instead of Barcelo rum:
The Paraiso countryside is excellent for producing oranges, grapefruit and lemons. The soil has wonderful drainage properties and thus the roots do not suffer from rot or diseases that thrive in soil with stagnant water. You would think that the people have long ago become accustomed to drinking fruit wine instead of importing products such as Bermudez or Barcelo rum or Presidente beer into the area. But the reality is the opposite.
Hardwood walls instead of Koury cement bricks:
In decades past, the Paraiso area benefited from projects to plant hardwood trees with certification for cutting, once they matured. Given that the Dominican Republic finds itself in an area with a long history of earthquakes, one would assume that people prefer to purchase the local wood products instead of cement bricks with questionable resiliency in the face of geological stresses. However the local production of hardwood does not develop, since people prefer to import the Koury bricks.
Prejudice against creating local jobs:
From creating toy racing cars to creating jobs for life: a transition which this part of the Dominican Republic urgently needs. But a major obstacle in the way of that development is the local distaste toward things or materials made in the valley. It is not that people deliberately choose to disfavor local products...but rather that a process of indoctrination is at work. For example, people are brainwashed into judging that Presidente beer is inherently better than a local sangria, when in fact, both are simply acquired tastes.
Looking ahead:
The capacity for creativity is there. (One only has to notice how the boys can become engaged in playing with material that others would immediately pitch into the waste bin.) The Spirit of the Lord of creativity is alive. May people become aware of the brainwashing!

Coffee children

Yes:

The children in our parish schools, as well as the immigrant children who have no access to education, do manual labor. When the children in El Ingenio respond to the question: "What do you do outside of school?" they respond with the following: pick coffee, pick guandules or pigeon peas, get water, get firewood, pick avocados, etc. They work to help their families.

Child labor:

Some organizations find ways to inflame the indignation of folks by decrying child labor. But when you talk with these children and note their reactions to working in the same plantation as their moms and dads, you'd have a hard time finding troubled looks or signs of "forced labor".

Coffee as a blessing:

This crop is labor intensive and thus provides opportunity for work in the mountains. If all the land owners had a crop like avocados growing on their properties, they could eliminate lots of "bateyes" or the residents where numerous Haitian families live together. If the land owners planted only trees for exportation, the number of Haitian families would drop to almost nothing.

Different kinds of coffee:

Coffee growers from as far away as the Cibao (200 miles away) want their coffee to be labeled as "from Barahona" because of the distinctive flavor which is found in the traditional coffee from this region. The traditional coffee plant is low producing but long lasting. It requires less care than hybrids which "out perform" the traditional in terms of quantity. The traditional bushes grow taller than the "advanced" types and have deeper roots. They show stronger resistance to the bugs and diseases. Some coffee farmers want to plant the "caturia" variety in order to have a larger harvest, but most understand that they will benefit in the long run by keeping the traditional variety alive.

Working children:

On most small ranches in Nevada, the children learn to work at an early age. So it is with the Haitian immigrants in the mountains. What would you rather see: children working, or children begging on the streets of a large city like Santo Domingo? The coffee work can be compared with cutting sugar cane. The latter requires long hours in the sun, whereas coffee in this region grows under shade trees. Sugarcane cutting covers one with stingers plus an outrageous number of biting ants. Coffee picking can be done without these hardships. A coffee picker works at his or her own pace. Immigrant parents have not been spotted driving their children to over work or meet repressive quotas. The kids play as they work and work as they play. Yes, school attendance can suffer in the month of October, since people face the pressure of picking the ripe coffee beans before the rains and drying them out as best as they can, using any available road or concrete open space. Without coffee, many of the immigrant children would be either stuck in Haiti or living in a more difficult environment, such as the heavily chemical dependant agriculture projects in Constansa.

The children of El Ingenio

Climbing up to school:
It is 1 PM and the teacher has just walked past your home. Your job now is to get the children ready for school, even though this is the hottest time of the day. Fortunately for you, the children want to study and it is no trouble getting them to change clothes and grab their backpacks.
One classroom with a view:
The children arrive in groups, with most of them coming up the steep, rocky road pictured above. They range in age from six to sixteen. Almost all of them are of Haitian descent. Before class they speak Creole and the teacher has to call their attention back to Spanish. But what a classroom! It has no walls and plenty of fresh air comes in under the zinc roof. The view is a fantastic panorama of the entire valley of the Nizao river watershed.
A challenge to the teachers:
Instead of having the teachers (in the majority) settle into giving classes at 2 PM to the children and then at 4 PM to the adults, we want teachers to serve the children with four hours of classes, between 8 AM and 12 PM. The kids are hearty and used to rough treatment, but short-changing their education with only two hours in the hottest time of the day (so that the professor can immediately switch into the adult education class and collect another check) is a situation that requires reform.
History of mission creep:
When the parochial schools began, the teachers first hired were high school students or recent graduates with little background but a willingness to be in the mountains with the children. Some lived in the mountains; others would leave their homes on Monday and not return until Friday. They'd teach in the morning and then plant beans or tend other crops in the afternoon. With time, they opted for the ocean front towns and continued their education in Barahona. Thus began a process of distancing themselves from the families in the countryside. As the sponsor program lost children (who either moved away or became in-eligible for the program) the parish schools became more reliant upon fewer sponsored children and thus the salaries of the teachers froze... together with their stamina and motivation.
Tough choices:
The children in this picture have wonderful intellects and a zest for learning. They deserve a good chance at developing their minds. To this end the program will go in one of two directions: either back to less educated teachers, motivated to put in four hours of teaching per day, or push the present teachers (who have grown accustomed to giving the children only about 6 hours of classes per week) out of their comfort zone.
Incentives:
At present the mature teachers have scant reason to advocate change in the system. They know that the primary responsibility for education in their country rests with the government, but they do not press their political leaders for change. When we present to them the stark need for changes that aim to benefit the children, will they adapt or leave the program to less educated people who will either live in the rural communities or climb the mountains or ride up on motorcycles in the morning, rather than during the noonday heat? Within the next month, we will have a showdown. One thing is for sure, we can not augment the salaries of the teachers without controls which show us that they are giving the children four hours a day.

Wanda

In the hospital:

Wanda was two years old and never enjoyed good health. Now her Mom and Grandma hovered over her hospital bed, sick with worry for the child. As her condition grew worse, they could barely stand to be in the room with her, helpless to bring her some comfort.

In death:

She died at 8 PM on Sunday evening. When the pediatrician on call at the Barahona regional hospital came in the room to speak with Wanda's relatives, she could not speak Creole and the Haitian immigrants could hardly communicate in Spanish. The first thought of the family was to take the child out of the hospital and back to Paraiso for burial. The doctor communicated that this was impossible. The Haitians interpreted this to mean that they would never get the child back for burial. They fled the hospital.

The next day:

On Monday morning, after Mass, the family came to the parish rectory desperate for help. By this time they believed that the hospital personnel had thrown the child out into a dump. The inability to communicate plus the anxiety over this tragic death had multiplied their fears.

Back to the hospital:

We all drove down to Barahona and eventually located the hospital staff. It turns out that the doctor was only advising the poor family that it was against the law for a family to carry a dead person by means of public transportation. The doctor signed the official paperwork to release Wanda's body from the morgue.

Searching for a casket:

We spent the better part of two hours searching for a casket. The family had been so convinced that Wanda's remains were lost forever that they had not considered the possibility of being able to bring her back to Paraiso. During the search for a casket, the memory of Brother Chris in Las Matas de Farfan came back to us. He ran a woodworking shop and always had caskets on hand for emergencies.

Wanda of the mountains above Paraiso:

It took God 13.7 billion years of careful transforming of the universe in order to bring forth Wanda. We who have been blinded by the super-abundance of life on our most blessed planet, perhaps have no idea how precious human life is in our home galaxy. When our descendants venture beyond our solar system and experience countless barren or semi barren worlds, will they begin to appreciate the miracle of each human life? The pediatrician guessed that Wanda suffered from heart ailments which complicated her ability to deal with scarlet fever. We believe in a God who cherishes her life and embraces her beyond the grave.

Cristiana Sanó

The story of Cristiana:
A young woman grows up in Haiti, but she is unable to have children. Her parents die and other relatives move on with their lives and the young woman becomes an elderly lady in her early 70's. She often has to beg for food, since she has no husband or children to help her out. One day some individuals invite her to sell her meager belongings and join them on a trip to the Dominican Republic, in search of a better life. She then sells her tiny home, furnishings and sets out on the journey.
Worst day of her life:
Cristiana is tired of walking up and down mountain trails. She is thirsty and hungry. If that were not enough, the individuals who coaxed her to sell her things and share the money with them... now abandon her on the road. She is left alone in a foreign country where she does not know the language, nor has any friends waiting to receive her.
How they found her:
The people of Lanza Arriba awoke one day to find this elderly lady half-dead and wandering along on the main road of the village. The Haitian women notified Anita, who is the leader among the Haitians. She takes the lady to her home and gives her food and then discovers her story. By this time the individuals who abandoned her are long gone down the road and there is no way of knowing who they are, nor to report them to any authorities.
Liturgy:
When the priest arrives in Lanza Arriba for the afternoon liturgy, he finds the people united under a thatched roof and singing hymns. The first thing that the people want to do is tell Father about Cristiana, and in the process asking if he can help them with her. It turns out that the local Dominican plantation owners do not want her living on their property, because she is too old to work and has no money.
The poorest of the poor:
All of the Haitians in Lanza Arriba are poor by Dominican standards. But among them there are degrees of poverty, and at the bottom of the list is Cristiana. Single people in the "developed" world find ways to be self-reliant; yet the lot of an impoverished, single elderly woman without children and living in a foreign land without long established friends...this is a reality we can hardly begin to comprehend.
How beautiful:
What a blessing it is to come upon a community whose first thought is not for themselves; for something that they need, but rather for a complete stranger whom they wake up to find in their midst! God sent her to be among them... and they did not turn away nor hide their faces from her.

El Maniél, Paraíso

El Maniél:

Above Los Blancos is a high plateau at 2,750 feet. The area is perfect for coffee and there are five large plantations which take up the majority of land. The people here shown at Mass live on those coffee farms.

First Holy Communion:

The ten children are celebrating their first Confession and First Holy Communion. Here are their names: Akilina, Anita, Nadeya, Alisia, Kerben, Yrde, Enso, Yancales, Teice, Cristela, and Jeremis. Their lives contain extraordinary elements.

No TV:

Imagine a group of children who by the time they reach 16 years of age have seldom watched television. Their experience of life does not include commercials, violent movies, or incesant messages that proclaim "You need to be entertained by us". At night they see one another by candle light and if they listen to anything other than human voices and the sounds of frogs and birds, it is the occasional radio program in the homes of people who can afford batteries.

Dancing at the offertory:

Imagine further that these children have no inhibitions about dancing at the offertory of a Mass; that they have no expectations of gifts or presents to mark the occasion of their First Holy Communion; that they will be looking forward to dancing into the little parish school building, carrying the offerings of yame, yautia, platanos (all are vegetables) and oranges... rather than having their pictures taken by lots of relatives.

Such is life:

By modern standards, such a life for children would be considered a severely deprived existence, and yet the children reflect happiness and contentment with life. Perhaps they come into our awareness to challenge us when we fall back upon acquired tastes, mistaking them for essential goods...when in fact they simply represent privileges or luxuries.

The dance:

To witness children dancing to the sound of drums and strong voices within the context of the sacred is a mind-expanding experience. We of European descent tend to isolate dancing from the holy... as if they belong in separate worlds. We don't realize our bias against the dance, even when we read that King David danced before the Ark of the Covenant. These children have a different image of God. Their God loves dance and invites them to celebrate His love with rhythm, music and movement. And their dance is totally natural! It is not the result of a project or a liturgy plan; or a liturgy convention where the "experts" seek to instruct the un-initiated into the finer points of "advanced" worship.

CODHA

Who are these people?
These are the men and women of the Dominico-Haitian committee who meet every month in the human rights building in San Rafael, Paraiso. They come from local towns and remote villages in the area and work in the coffee plantations and other jobs.
What concerns them?
Most of this particular gathering focused upon the lack of documents for their children. The CODH leaders stressed the importance of using their proper names on any birth certificate, instead of attempting to translate their Haitian last name to one that is more acceptable in the Dominican Republic. Also the people listened to the leaders emphasizing the need for each man and woman to have an official document from Haiti, which they need to carry around on their person.
Horror stories:
Haitians have migrated to Santo Domingo and worked on construction sites. Some have fallen from great heights and died at the workplace. When the other workers and emergency rescue people search their persons for identification, they find nothing. Thus these men end up being buried without anyone knowing who they were or being able to notify family members. In the above group, about 20% have no official identification from any source. They walk around without any established method to "prove" who they are.
Official robbery:
When these people struggle to have an official identification, the biggest obstacle they have faced is from their very own country's government. Tinapue said in the meeting, and he had some proof to substantiate his claim, that almost 11 thousand Haitians applied for passports in the Dominican Republic but their own Haitian representatives, consuls, took their money and then never gave them passports.
Sacrifice:
When we in the USA have meetings we often have refreshments after only one hour of work, or even before we start meetings. These people left their homes without having anything to eat and stayed in their seats for the entire four and a half hours -- and they had no break for a piece of bread or even a glass of sugar water! Perhaps Codha can set records for the organization with the most members and the smallest budget for food: zero.
Venting:
Towards the end of the meeting, one man stood up to share his story. He is the president of an association of Haitian workers in Platón. The day before, he had received three little pigs from Fundeprocunipa (the tongue tying name for the local parish animated NGO) as part of the project to develop alternate sources of income in the Rio Nizao watershed. No sooner did he take possession of the pigs, then a group of local Dominican men came by and openly stole the pigs, saying that they are for Dominicans and not for Haitians. The Association President immediately went back into town to get the NGO director and together with the police they retrieved the pigs. But the bad feelings in the community will not be resolved by the police and this story points to the uneasy relationship between the two groups.