Mas fotos

Shanty if ever there was one.

Christmas lunch in the batays (approx 400 kids were there). This pic captures just a section of one group of kids from one batay. Aye!

Doesn't my boy in the middle look chill. :) This is his own interprtation of hip hop style...respect!

Y Mas

Mi ultima dia viviendo con Yoseline, Carlito, Jean-Carlos, y Carla

I am quickly becoming a vegetarian again! Look, this meat sits out for a long time and i mean LONG. Ugg, no me gusta. Mira!

Shanty Town

Ahh...my buddies! Mijos dulce!

One of the few vehicles that drive into El Cacique. The "road" conditions are horrible and extremely dangerous.

A playhouse even in the slum ... Nice!

Notice the road... this is clearly not El Cacique or the Batay. This is Haina where the more fortunate live (I being one of them).

I absolutely LOVE this shot!!! My little guy in the foreground looks like an apparition who suddenly appeared. He is not, but he is a dear who had to be in the front! I usually have to sneak my camera out to get a natural shot because the moment they see the camera they all come running to it!

La Cucaracha

For your enjoyment:

So one day I was visiting with a woman whose son was killed by police in front of her house last September. She continues to experience depression, extreme anxiety, and loneliness. So, I (with Cisco, my translator) went to speak and pray with her. After a nice session, she thanked us and gave me pan de papo (a sweet desert-like bread) which i accepted. I happened to forget one of the golden rules of home-based services…don’t accept gifts, including food, from clients. This is good practice for several reasons; one being you don’t really know what is in the food you are receiving.

Well, I thanked her and headed to another home of twin brothers I have been working with. I offered them one of the cakes and they happily accepted. Once we arrived back at the Desayuno Program, I asked Cisco, Iesha, and another sweet girl there if they would like to share the second cake with me. All agreed. I tasted this same cake, from the same woman, the day prior after she gave it to the women taking the nursing class provided by Sociedad Lucas; I didn’t like it much but thought to give it another try.

We found a knife and Cisco began to cut it in 4 equal pieces as the girls anxiously awaited. When suddenly, Cisco gasped and quickly put his hand behind his back. He said, “Dios Mio, Melanie we ARE NOT eating this cake!” He had a look of horror on his face and I asked him, “what is wrong with you?!” He said he didn’t want to tell me but couldn’t stop himself from showing me… a HUGE (approx. 2 ½ inches long), STICKY (from the sticky treat), DEAD COCKROACH!!!! It was safely tucked away inside the sweet and sticky cake and died there. Oh Dios Mio… I still get the creeps just typing this!

Let this be a reminder to you all...ya just never know! :)

Merry Christmas!!!!

Feliz Navidad! Gloria! JOY TO THE WORLD!!! Oh that He abandoned His heavenly throne to become a simple infant born in a lowly manger. And that He knew the cup that would not pass from Him; He came even knowing His death on the cross would happen. What Love is This???? It is an incredible mystery! Grasias Christo!

May you all feel the blessed gift of His birth today, tomorrow, and all the days that follow. Much love mi familia,
Mjoy

The Library

Ahh... finally some forward movement on the start up of a small library in El Cacique! We presented the Book Drive to 4 churches yesterday (with one more to get to at their Tuesday service) and handed out the flyers I made. Each congregation's response was very positive. We will be picking books up on the next two fridays! Pray that the turn out will be more than we could have imagined! I believe it for i know Anything is possible with our Lord! We also had a really affordable bid to build shelves in the Desayuno program for the first stage of the library. I have a feeling it will grow quickly. We also have a meeting with a influential man in another community who has started a library which has grown quite well in the last few years. We hope to learn a lot from him about how to effectively start this project and how to keep it growing.

I will keep you updated. thank you all for the emails and prayers!!! I am so very blessed to have you all in my family! :)

Dios les bendiga,
mjoy

I am Tired

And again i will say...I am TIRED. I am approaching the last month of my trip and am feeling a bit home sick. I miss my own language! Spanish is coming easier and easier, yet to speak and the understand most things takes a ton of concentration and thought. I am sick of thinking so hard. I joked with some of my friends here that my level of intelligence has dropped considerably while in DR because i cannot use the "big words" and piece sentences together like a 7 year old would!!

We have had a few meetings regarding the start up of the library. It feels so slow moving, but i know anything worth while is never easy. Can i get an Amen?! I am just praying that I can be here to see it start to build. I will have to wait and see. Dios sabe. (God Knows)

Yesterday (Saturday) 30 or so staff and volunteers took the trip out to the Batays again for the annual "End of the Year" fiesta with the children of 6 Batays that Sociedad Lucas serves. We sang songs, had a group of teenagers from a local church in Haina perform some skits, fed all the kids lunch (approx 400 of them), and then handed out goody bags. It was a great day but extremely long!

I moved into Silvia and Samuel's home last Tuesday and everything has been great. I feel a little spoiled as i have my own "apartment" upstairs which includes a fridge, a tv (with American cable), a balcony that overlooks a very busy neighborhood basketball court and a view of the ocean in the distance, and my very own bathroom with a functioning shower head and warm water (but only when there is electricity). Here, people say "Hay Luz!!!!" (There is light) when the electricity is working. It is not uncommon to hear shouts of joy along with it (usually mine). ;) It is not normal for me to watch a lot of TV; and that remains, however i have it on quite a bit just to hear English! Ahh.

Much work left to do before I leave. I am beginning to believe God has more planned for me in the DR. I'm just not sure what that is at this point. But, i am confident that He will reveal to me what i must know when He decides it is best. Living by faith is exciting to say the least. Most days i awake with joyful uncertainty; anxious to see what He will reveal. Grasias Christo!

Dios les bendiga,
mjoy

"We cannot do great things only small things with great love." Mother Teresa

Some shots of the Batay near the Haitian Border

This is poverty.

Meet the Mayor... and his wife

Ok... i really am not that tall! Everyone here is just short... really I am only 5'9!

This is all of us after our long meeting which went great!

Here he is talking with Silvia in the Desayuno Program. See the food set out behind them? For many of the kids, this is the only meal they eat each day.

Funny, the kids were OUT OF CONTROL on this morning... Isn't that how it always goes?!

Back to work

Buena~
Again, i just have a minute but wanted to give a quick update and ask for prayer. First, i have to say God has been SO GOOD... i fell ill for about 36 hours and was beginning to feel completely overwhelmed with the work, the poverty, the death....ect. I prayed, and He released me of both the depressive and anxious thoughts as well as the intense headache and slight fever i was experiencing! Thank You Lord!

Amazingly, the mayor of Haina (the city in which El Cacique is located) has learned of the census we conducted and has requested a meeting with Dr. Silvia and I. He has never shown interest in this part of his city! He will visit the Desayuno program tomorrow morning and will meet with us and Samuel after. I told Silvia i would hold my tounge as best as possible... and she invited me to say whatever my heart, mind, and experience led me! I wonder if she really knows what that means... I hold him and other politicians responsible for many of the problems in this community! I am excited to meet with him and hopefully build an alliance with the local government to address the great needs in this community.

I will let you all know asap.
:Love to you all

Las Galeras Part two

This is on the wall of a local cafe/shop. I want to translate but can't now... my time is running out!

Not a pretty pic of me but wanted to PROVE i was here! I don't have too many pics of me. I prefer to take the photos!

Las Galeras

Quick note

Greetings!
I wanted to clarify something. The mini trips i take are on my own dime! I want everyone who donated money to my mission trip to know all the money is going toward my expences here and NOTHING more. Just wanted to clarify.

I have alot of work to do in the next few weeks and am having a difficult time relaxing in this beautiful place because i can't stop thinking about it! However God is good and knows. I believe He will make me strong enough to do the work He has called me to do!

My love goes out to all of you, my family and friends!

Mjoy

One Saturday Night

Albertina
A friend of mine, Albertina, took me took a concert last Saturday night. I was excited to do something social, something other than work, something involving music, something with a person who speaks English well. WOW, so much to be excited about…I should have known… First, the weather was, for the first time, cool and rain clouds loomed. This, by itself, is not a problem for me. Actually, I enjoyed it UNTIL it began to rain hard and I learned the concert was in an outside stadium with no cover in sight! I was wearing my usual tank top, skirt, sandal outfit minus a jacket, an umbrella, and mosquito repellant. I must add that the concert had 4 acts (of course all in Spanish) and Albertina did not translate a word. It rained for 2 hours of a show I couldn’t understand when finally I said I had to go (after I began to sneeze like crazy and shake from the wetness that was me). Aly laughed and told me she had been ready to leave for a while but didn’t want to tell me in case I was enjoying myself. It was clear to me then that she had not looked at me for at least an hour as I covered myself with the chair that sat next to me! We walked to her car to discover that another car blocked our exit. Honestly, out of hundreds of cars, ours was the only one blocked! I wanted to go home, yes, but was happy enough to be in shelter from the storm and thought it just fine to sleep there until a way was made for us to leave. Aly thought different and walked back to the stadium to ask security to assist. I said “go with God” and fell asleep in the dry car…my hair and clothes beginning to dry. I expected her to arrive back at the car alone. To my surprise mixed with a bit of fear, I awoke to men knocking on the windows asking if I was okay. I told them I was fine and then they (5 security guards) picked up the car blocking ours and carried it away to rest behind another car (poor people)! I couldn’t believe my sleepy eyes! WHAT JUST HAPPENED? Aly told me as we were driving out of the parking lot that she tried many tactics but only one had the security running… An AMERICAN woman needed help. I was glad to get out of there, but not sure I like the reason we were able to leave! I told her she had one free pass to use my citizenship as a way to get something she otherwise wouldn’t get! :)

Snapshot of life in Poverty: Carmencita bonita

Carmencita:
I first met her during my time interviewing people in El Cacique for the survey/census. She was very thin, didn’t make eye contact with close face to face contact, and couldn’t hold her head up on her own for more than a few seconds; she was 9 months old. She is in advanced stages of malnutrition. She is the youngest of four children to a 25 year old mother and a 54 year old father who are both unemployed. Her parents owned a small colmado (tiny neighborhood food store) before she was born. Her father was shot in the head during a robbery which caused him to lose one eye and left him to suffer seizures, headaches, and impaired mobility. Her family struggles to find food to feed each person.
It was two weeks ago when I first met her. That first day, Dr. Silvia had her and her mother taken to the clinic and then the hospital for rehydration, food, and tests. The hospital sent her home. The Luke Society clinic sent her home with medicine and food. Less than 5 days later, her parents stopped giving her the medicine and took her to a local witch doctor. This person apparently told her mother to stop breast feeding her because the “sickness” would infect the mother. Carmencita was dying.
For three or four days, her mother took her to the Desayuno program for us to feed her, see her, and encourage her mom. On Friday, November 21st, I (with Francisco) went to visit her. She was given some small corn cakes and mashed potatoes to eat. She wouldn’t eat the cakes and pushed away any thing (food or fingers) that touched her face. She showed facial expression finally, but only that of pain. Her mom said that she was teething and ate the cake herself. Oh God, this whole family is starving, I thought. How can a mother take food and give only to one when 3 other children and she are hungry? We told her it was necessary that she give the potatoes and fruit juice to Carmencita only; to build her strength. She agreed. Later that day, Dr. Silvia told us that we were to take Carmencita into our care from the morning, when her mother took her to the Desayuno program, until I left El Cacique in the afternoon so to monitor her eating and sleeping. I thought of this task on Friday night and Saturday. It could prove to be difficult to care for Carmencita and attend to my other tasks; but truthfully, I couldn’t help but be a bit happy to have this baby in my arms for most of the day.
On Sunday morning, I received a call from Francisco. He told me Carmencita had died at midnight. She was buried at 4 in the afternoon the same day. My heart broke. Dios Sabe, is all I can say…God knows.

NO time!

Okay so i only have a few more minutes before I lose the internet. Quick update. I arrived in Las Galeras on the Samana Peninsula on Thursday early afternoon for my Thanksgiving vacation. It is incredible here! I will post some pictures later, i hope. I am staying at an all-inclusive resort again. I know...it sounds a bit over the top for a missionary. But WAIT...i'll explain! It is very affordable and as the title states...it includes everything. Well, except for free internet. I was a bit bummed about that part. But, it is lovely and calm and beautiful. The calm part might change now that it is the weekend. But no matter. I have taken 2 long naps, wrote in my journal, took a long walk along the beach, went to town to buy calling cards for my cell phone and some Coke light (it is a challenge to find here), laid out at the beach and even swam for a while (i know... surprize surprize). I am using sun block like it grows on trees and REPELLENT as if my life depended on it. Sad to say the repellent hasn't stopped those horrible mosquitos from eating me alive! My poor legs look as if i have leporsy. Oh well! Dios Sabe. Got to go before the authorities come and confiscate mi computer!

Feliz Dia de Grasias!

Happy Thanksgiving Mi Familia!!
I am thankful for so many things I am incapable of numbering them. Thank You Jesus! His sacrifice on Calvary means I have life and it is the culmination of my gratitude. Truly, everything else is extra sweetness of life; evidence of His grace given to me.
I am grateful for this awesome opportunity He has given me to use my skills, gifts, and abilities to provide help to those less fortunate than myself. What an indescribable experience this has been… and I have yet to meet the end of my time in this lovely country! I live each day in breathless uncertainty, not knowing what God will do next. I LOVE living this way! I know I am in His hands… what better place is there to be?

I hope you all had a lovely day with your friends and family! We all have so much to be thankful for, don't we?

Love to you all and Dios les Bendiga

Cena de Dia de Grasias continued

Here are all the adults (JOsefina and her husband. she is a school psychologist at a local school and heads the Desayuno program in the morning), Francisco and his wife Claudia (he is my translator), then Nena (a volunteer at the clinic), me, Joselin, Dr. Maria (she works at the clinic but is also a community health nurse who teaches a nursing class in El Cacique and she helped me with administering the census), then Samuel and Silvia. I introduced another tradition (of my family) to them. We went around the table and shared what we were thankful for. There were some tears... it was lovely!

This is Iesha (Francisco & Claudia's daughter) she LOVED the apple pie! Most everyone did and i must say i was impressed with myself (i know that is bad)because i had never baked apple pie before. To be honest, I have never cooked Thanksgiving dinner by myself before and IN A FORIEGN country and in someone else's kitchen! I hope you all are impressed!

Fellowship! This is Claudia and Abuela (Silvia's mother who lives with them) I LOVE this woman!

And here is Francisco doing what he loves... singing and talking! This prove to be a challenge when he is supposed to be translating for me! :) Sad to say I couldn't give him the night off...i couldnt understand everything!

Cena de Dia de Grasias

Here's the layout..yum! The huge salad was the only dish i didn't make! Aye so much work! The next pic is Samuel doing the honors of carving the turkey.
Everyone (excet for a few picky kids) liked everything!

Here is Joselin (with whom i live), me (of course), Dr. Silvia and her husband Samuel.

Comment Issues

Buenas~
Some of you have emailed me saying you cant leave comments on this site. I am sorry to say i am technologically challenged and have not a clue how to assist you! So sorry. If you'd like you can email me (i love reading them while so far away from home) at melzyj@yahoo.com and comment away!

Hope you all are well and are loving the life that was given. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and take at least a moment on Thursday to voice your thanks for all the gifts you have been blessed with!

I am cooking Thanksgiving dinner at Dr Silvia and Samuel's house for 24 of my family members here. Yes, i am crazy. AND thankful for the opportunity to cook and to share a great evening with friends/family.

Love to you,
mjoy

All in a day's work

My schedule is full! I have 20 kids and families (and more are coming) in El Cacique that i am counseling. I am developing a referral system for a school located near the Clinic in Santo Domingo to enable them to refer students to me for counseling. I will be at the clinic two afternoons per week and at El Caciq the rest of the week. I am also starting a group for the teenagers in the community and will do trainings for school staff on how to identify "red flags" in kids who may have mental health issues.

Also, the census/survey went very well. It provided very interesting information to the Luke Society as far as what the people view as their strengths and weaknesses. We have invited 12 people who are considered leaders in the community to a meeting on Monday to discuss the findings of the census. I am hoping and praying for everyone to agree that a community forum would be the best next step in encouraging positive change here.

I also continue to feel passionate about starting a library here. My AWESOME family has decided to donate some of their money to help begin the building of the library (not construction of a location)! I hope to organize a book drive in Haina (where the barrio is located) and in SAnto Domingo...near La Clinica. This is a novel concept here so it has taken some effort to explain how a book drive works. It is my prayer that i can have shelving and the beggining of a card catalog system as well as some books in place before i leave the country.

Please continue to pray for these beautiful people, for the Luke Society, and for my efforts here but mostly please pray that God's will be done and that everything will bring Him honor and glory.

Dios les Bediga,

"We can do no great thing but can do small things with great love." Mother Teresa

Randoms

Introducing Bernie, a two month old CRAZY, weird puppy. He thinks he is a cat and a big one at that! He is the new addtion to the Martinez family who already has two other dogs, a cat, and 7 hampsters.

I know i shouldn't have favorites...but these 3 rank up there with the best of them! Mabel, Omiley, and Wanda.

The girls

Entrance to Pasquel's farm.