garner
garner
Dominican Republic 2010
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mber Garner is a 2010 Belmont University graduate who earned a degree in journalism. She is passionate about serving people and ready to see what God has in store for her on the island of Hispaniola. Read More About Amber →

No Hay Mas Mangos

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There are no more mangos.  When I first got here in September I was overwhelmed with the amount of available mangos. At the entrance to our neighborhood there is a stand where people sell mangos, flowers and avocados all the time.  It’s now November and they aren’t selling mangos anymore. There are avocados, flowers and papiya which isn’t as good. Mango is like sweet, orange marshmallows. That’s how it tastes to me. Now there are none.

I will be leaving in less than a month. In so many ways I have learned about myself and have changed, yet I feel a lot the same. I was looking at pictures on facebook from other mission experiences I’ve had.  Those experiences were brilliant. Each trip I’ve been on has brought its own experiences and lessons.  The same is true for here, but I feel like I’ve lived here. I have a home in the Dominican Republic and a family. The kids here know me. They have learned from me and I have learned from them. They have improved my Spanish and I have improved their English. The little girls were making pictures and writing stories underneath. So many of them wrote, “We love you Amber, don’t ever leave!” I nearly cried! This has been one of the most fulfilling experiences of my life. I hope in some I have left an imprint on them too!

If you didn’t know we were supposed to have a Hurricane hit us today. It’s been rainy, but nothing major. Hurrican Tomas has shifted and will now hit most of Haiti if anything. Really, how much more can Haiti take? So I had English class today and so many kids came. Kids that were in my class came and others that just wanted to hang out at the club out of the rain.  We had a great class and played some English/Spanish games. Oh, if Paulo Boero my old Spanish professor, could see me now! Afterwards it started to rain pretty hard so we decided we would take everyone home in the truck. It’s like a seven passenger vehicle, so we were going to see what we could do. We also had lots of the little kids with us and they can squeeze. After all was said and done there were diecesiete, 17, kids in the car! This sounds dangerous, but really it’s how the Dominican’s roll. As many people in a car as you can possibly fit. So we drove to Agua Negra/Playa Oeste and all sang Waka Waka as loud as we could. When we dropped them off everyone jumped out and gave hugs and kisses. It was a crazy wonderful car ride.

These are some of the things I’ll take home with me, maybe I’ll try to come back next mango season!

HALLOWEENIE!

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Since I am in a Spanish speaking country you may think that everyone celebrateded the Dia de los Muertes yesterday, well they didn’t, just Mexico. No one really celebrates Halloween here. At the club we had a big party for the kids though. We did face painting and had a ton of candy and snacks. We also did a haunted house which was so funny. It was a great day for them and us! Later that night we had a sleep over/lock in with all the girls. So great! They had never really done anything like that before. We danced, painted nails, watched movies, ate junk food and let them stay up way too late. While we were dancing one of the girls Patricia looked at me and yelled AHhhhhh, La Gringa puedes bailar! The white woman can dance! It was great sleeping on the floor with them and getting to bond, one of my favorite nights here for sure!

My computer is still broken and I’m waiting to hear back on what they could recover and how much longer, My hard drive crashed, in case you are just tuning in. Also, I had a show down with a large roach that decided to come in our house. I, like the warrior I am stared it in the face, and jumped on the couch. Seriously, the biggest bug I have ever seen. So, after a twenty minute show down of me trying to hit it with the broom and running away, Chulo the dog tried to bite it and got it on its back. So I hit it with the broom, pushed it into a mac and cheese box, hit it with a shoe and threw it away! Life is good! Lots of pics to come!

Glory Strength

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Sometimes you think you can’t do things, and then you do.  Liz, the executive director,  recently went on a tour of the United States and the field director Melissa came here to hang out with me. There were two days difference between their comings and goings and my Dominican family helped take care or me. Ernistina is the director of the club, her sister Marlenis a teacher, and they have adopted me into their family.  Marlenis hung out with me for a couple days in between Liz and Melissa and the water went out.  I may have explained this before, but sometimes when the electricity goes out so does the water. When the electricity kicks back on usually all you have to do is prime the pump and water is restored. On day 1 of the drought I didn’t know how to prime the pump so I had to wait for an instructional email. I don’t know if you’ve ever been without water for any period of time but it makes doing anything difficult. When I got the email the next day I was so excited. I was at the club hanging out with the kids and everything was going great. Until I tripped over my computer chord.  We were listening to music with some of the older girls and I got up to go check on the other class. I tripped over my chord and my computer fell a foot to the ground. It landed on it’s side and I picked it up and everything seemed fine. We left for siesta time and I turned my computer off. When we got back I went to turn it on and it wasn’t working. I tried to do all these repair menu things and nothing worked. Then I lost it. No water, no computer, no one else to handle these problems. Also, you may or may not know, I don’t speak great Spanish or drive here which makes everything that much harder. Taking motos everywhere is fun and a little stressful at the same time. I got home and tried to prime the pump, but it didn’t work because the water tank was too low. I tried a few times and not even a trickle from the faucet. This is when I sat on the couch to evaluate my life. At this point you may be thinking, “Am, what’s the problem. These are fixable things, no big deal.” Here, like I said it’s harder, it seems like a big deal. My computer is my life line and I’m a hot sweaty mess; no water, no shower.  Anyway, back on the couch assesing the situation.  I was sitting here breathing and thinking and something a great friend said to me when I was in Jamaica came to mind. He was talking about glory strength. When you feel like, “That’s it, I have nothing left to give.” You find it. Inside yourself, the little bit left that God has given you to do what He has planned to get done. So, I’m thinking about that and how earlier in the day I had been telling my boyfriend about the water and he was telling me how many people in the country, or the world dodn’t have water, ever. I didn’t want to hear it at the time, but as I sat gathering my glory strength that was what I thought about. He was right. In Haiti people share wells. If you upset the person that owns the well or can’t pay the fee, you don’t have water. At the barrios we work in they use the dirty ocean port water or again share a well. Everyday is a struggle for water.  So, I got up and talked to my Dominican family and they called the water people for me. They were at the house the next day by noon, I primed the pump and water was restored for 400 pesos. Easy. I called, they came, filled the tank and done. In the barrios there is no tank to fill. We are blessed beyond belief.

The Orphanage

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First thing first, the video of the Citadel is taking forever to upload! I am going to try to let it finish over night tonight!

Ok, now that you kind of have a an idea of what Haiti is like let me give you a picture of the orphanage.  It is down a street that is well paved and lined with cement walls, which adds to the post-war feeling. Behind the wall is another gate further protecting the kids. The house is big and there is plenty of room for the kids. There are about 18 kids total; a baby girl and baby boy and the rest under the age of 10.  Four of the kids get to go to first grade. One of the house moms walks them to protect them from moto-concho drivers and to make sure they arrive. Father Andre the Priest who started and runs the orphanage says they get so excited to go to school or to go to mass outside the walls of the orphanage. There isn’t a park or civic center or anything for the kids to do outside the walls so leaving for any reason is a big treat.

In the courtyard of the house is a play set with swings and a slide for  the kids to play on all day. There are two bedrooms with bunk beds one room for girls and one for boys. A house mother sleeps in the room with them at night so if they need anything there is someone there. I know this for a fact because I was very concerned my first night there and Father Andre assured me there were taken care of in the night. There’s a kitchen that goes unused because the mothers cook outside over a fire.  Let me just say while we are on the subject that it is very hard to introduce change to the people on the island of Hispaniola. There is a stove and oven and they cook outside. There is a washer and dryer and they still wash by hand. Part of it has to do with power outages that happen often but as a rule change is not a welcome guest. The house also has an upstairs for visitors with a kitchen, two bathrooms and bedrooms, chapel and meeting room. The kids aren’t allowed up there to give people a break from endless swing pushing and games of ring around the rosie.

Every other day the litte kids have preschool. The day starts with morning prayers and then breakfast.  After breakfast it is time to learn reading, math and all other kinds of wonderful pre-k things! Snack at 10, more school, then done at lunch at 12. They then get to play for the rest of the day. There are house mothers working all day cooking and doing laundry. There is also a care taker and his assistants. They all love the kids and help to watch them, but there is so much work to do don’t always have time to play. This is why having volunteers come to play with them is so great. We get to hug on and play with adorable little kids the whole time! It is wonderful and yet a little overwhelming, which makes the upstairs room great for a quick break.

You can’t adopt Father Andre’s kids. He has a great plan for the future of these children. Right now there is only the house, but eventually there will be a school and more children. They will help to give back to Haiti and grow the economy and be good members of society. This is an  amazing idea becuase if there is one thing I learned it’s that Haiti has to help Haiti.

Father Andre is Haitian himself.  This all started when he was a young boy going into middle school and his parents didn’t have enough money to send him to school.  He wrote a letter to the Canadian nuns to find out if there was a way he could still go to school. They all had a meeting and the nuns paid for him to go to school. While in school he asked if he could become a priest, he didn’t know because he had never seen a black priest. They started him as an alter boy and when he was 15 told the priest he was ready to be ordained because he knew all of the prayers. He finished school, went to seminary, undergrad in Canada in Psychology and masters degree at Ball state. When he finished he came back to Haiti and opened the orphanage.

So there you are next stop Citadel!

Citadel!

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My Citadel Adventure The Citadel is a fort on the top of a mountain in Haiti! King Cristof led the slaves in revolt against France. He built his palace at the base of the mountain and the Citadel at the top. It took 17 years to build and 20,000 people died. Here is my video...I will explain more later!

Gua Guas, Tap Taps, and Motos

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Well, you may or may not know that I went to Haiti last week. It was quite an adventure to say the very least.  Traveling there is unlike any travel experience I have ever had.  The trip starts with a Gua Gua out of Puerto Plata. A Gua Gua is a small 20 passenger bus. They pack them as full as sub-humanely possible and you ride shoulder to shoulder with a stranger for an hour. We then had two more Gua Guas and a Tap Tap when we got into Haiti. A Tap Tap is the same thing in Haiti OR it can be a small pick up truck with a camper shell and two benches in the back. We were fortunate not to have to ride in the back of a truck. Crossing the border wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but then again we got really lucky. You only have to pay if you are a Gringo. Luckily, as we were walking across two huge trucks went across at the same time and we managed to get through without paying. There are no real border restrictions. Haitians and Dominicans can come and go across the border whenever they want. If the border is closed and you need to get across you need only to swim across the river underneath. If you don’t want to swim you can get in a wheel barrow and be pushed across by a Haitian or one will pick you up on their shoulders and carry you across.

At this point you might be asking “Amber, why don’t more Haitians just cross the border into the Dominican Republic?” Well, I’ll tell you. Dominicans don’t like Haitians. Haiti has invaded the Dominican Republic twice. One time they occupied for 25 years and closed all the schools and opened all the prisons. Dominicans have been let’s say upset at Haitians ever since. Haitians that do live in the DR are poor. They live in Agua Negra and Playa Westa. They also form their own sort of towns in the abandoned sugar cane fields. 

When you cross the border in DaJambon the first thing you see is a big muddy feild filled with motos.  They swarm you and pull you to get on their bike.  James, Dove’s Haiti Director, decides which ones we take and tells them where we need to go and before you know it you’re off.  Roads in Haiti are the most trecherous. For every 5ft. of cement there is 10ft. of pot holes. It is terrible to drive on. I wanted to look around, but was afraid that at any moment I would fall off  if I didn’t pay attention.  There were people everywhere, most just getting out of church. From there we got on our last Tap Tap and made it into Cap Haitian.

Cap Haitian wasn’t hit by the earthquake. Port Au Prince  was the city destroyed by the quake,  Cap Haitian just felt the tremors. However, it is very much a city distressed. There are people everywhere. Many buildings are made in the French two story style; think  New Orleans French Quarter. The buildings, however, are made of cement and if people live in them they live upstairs. Often there are no doors or windows, it’s almost as if they are squarters. Below are usually stores. You can’t tell what stores are what because they aren’t usually marked. If they are marked it might be an old sign. Many people sell things on tables or out of wheel barrows on the side walk. A quick fact about the side walk. The roads are lined be ditches full of trash and sewage. The sidewalks are are all along these ditches and one misstep will land you in a pool of disease.  Not to mention there is trash everywhere. There is no public sewage or trash program.

This is my first glance of Haiti. We will call this part one.

Agua Negra

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As I sit here getting ready to tell you all about Agua Negra I realize it has been quite awhile since I have written or updated at all. This in mind I will give a brief sparknotes version of the last week of my life.

Last week I had the classic what am I doing here melt down. Liz and I had a great talk and the next day I finally got to see where the kids live; Agua Negra.  I discovered my real love of teaching English as well. Sunday we left Haiti where we stayed for a few days and now I am back to my regularly scheduled programming.

So, back to Agua Negra.  Agua Negra translated in Black Water as pretty much anyone could translate. Most of our families live there or in Playa Westa (West Beach) which is a mirror bario.  The streets are dirt. There are newly paved elevated side walks that help to keep down the mud slide that occurs when it rains. There is no sewage system so often the streets are a mixture of dirt and sewage, the sidewalks help to keep everyone out of the mess.  However, the sidewalks are far from perfect and often end in some areas where they are needed the most. They were also not built for the people. Agua Negra is a port city. Trade ships are always coming to port in Agua Negra, there was also once an active cruise ship presence. Puerto Plata is a tourist city in many respects and the country would love to again attract cruise ships to this area. Agua Negra, being the first thing you see, needs all the help it can get.

The houses are no bigger than most average American bedrooms. Cement floors and walls that are poorly constructed are typical and when built too close to the coast have been swept away. Roofs are tin panels hammered or held down by rocks or rope. When the water does rise families can only open their doors and let the water run through in an attempt to save their home. If it does get swept away hopefully you have family you can room with because there is no government program or housing you can enter into. Most families have 5 to 15 living in one of these homes. Inside the house the rooms may be sectioned by cement walls or cardboard, maybe wood panels.

There is no real electricity in Agua Negra. The bario is next to a port and power plant where everyone splices power from. This forces the rest of the city to experience random power outages. The power plant will shut down power to the city in order to save money since so many people have electricity but dont pay for it.

I have never seen a beach like that of Agua Negra. Trash as far as you can see. Floating in the water, covering the beach; trash is everywhere. It is a very overwhelming sight. The water is black from pollution from ships, sewage and trash. You can see where it changes color in the ocean.  There are other mission organizations working there.

Pastor Jacob has a church for Haitian kids living in the Dominican. Dominicans do not like Haitians. Haiti invaded the DR twice and once occupied for 25 years. During the occupation Haiti closed the schools and opened the prisons. There have been bad feeling ever since. Haitian kids are teased for looking different and most have a very hard time getting jobs. In Agua Negra there are still not necessarily considered Dominican, but neighbors help neighbors regardless.  What Pastor Jacob does is teach the Haitian kids Spanish so that they can transfer into a regular school. 

I know there are probably so many thing I am leaving out. The families I met there were sweet wonderful people. There are for sure problems in the families, but there is always hope. Comment me questions and I’ll try to cover what I missed!