Sunday Service Times
Sunday School: 9:30am
(Fall, Winter and Spring)
Worship Service: 10:30am
Fellowship Meal: 12:00pm
(First Sunday of the Month)
Upcoming Events
- Youth Fundraiser, Chili Cook-off(Event)(2 days)
- Church Life Meeting - after meal(Event)(2 days)
- Sermon Construction Group @ Becks(Event)(4 days)
- Pullen Park Picnic(Event)(16 days)
- Pre-Budget Meeting, Stewardship Commission @ RMC(Event)(23 days)
Janelle Bitikofer - Janelle's Dominican Life
Janellehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11864928264352251649noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125
Updated: 1 hour 12 min ago
Sugar Cane, A Visit,and Some Easter Eggs (Month 9.5)
In this region of the Dominican Republic, and here in my little town of Montellano (population reported at 10,000) and in the surrounding smaller communities we've had 90% un-employment for the past 7+ years since the main employer, the local Montellano Sugar Cane Refinery, shut down, with no employer to replace it. Since then, with a lack of other employment opportunities in the area, communities full of fathers who are cane-cutters, cane-factory workers, truck drivers, etc, have struggled to feed their children. Some young adults who are now married, were in middle school when the sugar cane refinery closed. They've grown up, finished school (if their unemployed family could afford to buy their books and uniforms) and even gotten married and had childen of their own, without any hope of jobs, watching their fathers, uncles, and friends try to eak out a living with part time labor, for most of these young adults' lives. This is one big reason why HHI (www.hhidr.org) the organization that I work for chose this region. The lack of proper health care for poor families here has been a serious problem for years.
But now...there is more hope. It started as a trickle, a rumor, the same rumor that has been circulating (without a shred of truth) for 7 years or more; the rumor that "someone" was buying the sugar cane refinery and would re-open it and provide jobs. Now, it turns out that an American Company has purchased the plant and intends to make Rum (which is made using sugar cane.) They plan to provide hundreds of jobs, and to build a health clinic which will likely collaborate with HHI in some of the health work we have been doing here. So, our little town's situation is changing a bit, and with it, HHI's work will change and adapt. We're excited to see what will happen! The sugar cane refinery is pictured above in it's current rusted, abandoned and boarded up state. We look forward to watching it come to life again... Thank God for Sugar Cane!
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The adults -- who had never seen such a game before -- had a great time hiding the eggs, and the children ran full-speed to go find them. I've never seen such a rough and tumble, full contact, Easter Egg hunt in my life! : ) Once each child had secured an egg, they all immediately ate them and moved on to a happy game of Dominoes, the Dominican national table game. It was a wonderful afternoon!
This Easter season my friend Karin Shank came to visit me. I was delighted to have my first visitor from the U.S. since I moved here to work with HHI last June, 2011! I took the week off from work and we went to the beach, I showed Karin the local places of interest, and we visited my friends and co-workers in several of HHI's partner-communities. We introduced the American Easter tradition of dying and hiding eggs to the extended family of one of my co-workers, Dania, a Community Health worker in Pancho Mateo. It was great fun. We started with 3 colors but most of the eggs ended up being green or blue - and so did most of our fingers.
The adults -- who had never seen such a game before -- had a great time hiding the eggs, and the children ran full-speed to go find them. I've never seen such a rough and tumble, full contact, Easter Egg hunt in my life! : ) Once each child had secured an egg, they all immediately ate them and moved on to a happy game of Dominoes, the Dominican national table game. It was a wonderful afternoon!We tried to go to a candle-light catholic Easter service outside in the center of town with this same family the next night, but unfortunately it was cancelled on account of rain.
Also this week Karin and I went to HHI's farthest away community Arroyo de Leche. We visited two of my community health worker friends/co-workers of mine who live up there and learned more about Dominican Easter foods! We had to get off the motorcycle and hike up the one hill because the severe rains the week before had washed out too much of the dirt, making the road impassible. Below are photos of our time in Arroyo de Leche.
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Here's Karin and I in the garden. I love all of Corina's plants and try to visit her garden and her household of kids every month!
Cooking HABICHUELAS CON DULCE at Mercedes' House.
This special Easter dessert that everyone eats here during Easter week is made from sweetened brown bean juice with cookies floating in it. Karin and I went up the mountain (4o minutes on a motorcycle) to learn how to make it from my friend and co-worker, HHI community Health Worker Mercedes, in her home in the Campo.
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This Purple seeded fruit is Cacao fruit, which when dried and ground into powder makes cocoa to make chocolate! This, and bananas, and other fruits and flowers grow in my friend and co-worker Corina's garden high on the mountain in Arroyo de Leche. Corina's the woman in the white clothes with the tall plant. : )
Here's Karin and I in the garden. I love all of Corina's plants and try to visit her garden and her household of kids every month!
Categories: Janelle Bitikofer - Janelle's Dominican Life
Quakes, Whales, and Shriners - (Month 7.5)
Mid-February has arrived, and our “cool” refreshing 70 degree rainy weather here on the North Coast of the D.R. has turned back into sweaty mid-80s with too much humidity and lots of sun. Some bigger-than- usual things are happening here in addition to my normal work of monitoring patients and supervising and collaborating with the Community Health Workers. So I’m going to highlight those things this month.
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A Medical Service Team of Doctors from the U.S. joined our team in the D.R. for a week in January, 2012.
1.) DOCTORS IN THE HOUSE
In January we had one of our 3 annual Medical Service Trips in which Doctors
and Medical Students from the U.S. came to spend a week treating more than 400 of our HHI patients in 4 local communities. It was a busy, exhausting, but great week.
2.) INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL EMERGENCY:
One unusual thing that’s happened this winter is that I have a 19 year old patient (slash-baseball lover) named Jansel who will be coming to the U.S., (Boston), to receive life-saving leg surgery at Shriners Hospital in March. Though my job is usually to link HHI’s patients and clients to doctors in the Dominican Republic, we’ve consulted with a number of Surgeon’s here and found that the treatment he requires to save his leg from amputation and likely even to save
his life, is not available here. So, after weeks of phone calls, emails, and months of accompanying Jansel on doctors’ visits, Jansel (and hopefully his mom) will be traveling to Boston for several
months of free medical sugery and treatment at Shriners Hospital. Huge thanks to Shriners for their wonderful generosity! I hope everyone will support them the next time you see them in a parade! Though the medical care will be free, HHI still needs to raise funds for the family’s plane travel back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., as well as providing housing, food, and winter clothes for Jansel (who is hilarious; has never seen the
inside of an airplane, nor snow, and who certainly isn’t prepared for cold weather clothes :)) whilehe is in treatment. For more info. onJansel and how you can donate money,
clothes, Spanish sports books, or other items to help him while he is in the U.S., check out HHI’s newsletter which will be posted this coming week. http://hhidr.org/newsletter/
4.) INTERESTED IN WATER?
If anyone’s interested in coming to the D.R., HHI as looking for a summer intern!
The link for more info and the application are here. Come visit me for the summer!
Watching the Christian Surfers International Surf Competition in Cabarete (100 surfers competed) with local missionary and expat friends... And a photo I snapped of a whale jumping in Samana.
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Boat Trip - Watching the Humpbacked whales in Samana. They travel here from all over the world, each year, to the warm waters of the Atlantic, to give birth.
______________________________________________________________
A Medical Service Team of Doctors from the U.S. joined our team in the D.R. for a week in January, 2012.
_________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________
1.) DOCTORS IN THE HOUSE
In January we had one of our 3 annual Medical Service Trips in which Doctors
and Medical Students from the U.S. came to spend a week treating more than 400 of our HHI patients in 4 local communities. It was a busy, exhausting, but great week.
2.) INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL EMERGENCY:
One unusual thing that’s happened this winter is that I have a 19 year old patient (slash-baseball lover) named Jansel who will be coming to the U.S., (Boston), to receive life-saving leg surgery at Shriners Hospital in March. Though my job is usually to link HHI’s patients and clients to doctors in the Dominican Republic, we’ve consulted with a number of Surgeon’s here and found that the treatment he requires to save his leg from amputation and likely even to save
his life, is not available here. So, after weeks of phone calls, emails, and months of accompanying Jansel on doctors’ visits, Jansel (and hopefully his mom) will be traveling to Boston for several
months of free medical sugery and treatment at Shriners Hospital. Huge thanks to Shriners for their wonderful generosity! I hope everyone will support them the next time you see them in a parade! Though the medical care will be free, HHI still needs to raise funds for the family’s plane travel back and forth between the Dominican Republic and the U.S., as well as providing housing, food, and winter clothes for Jansel (who is hilarious; has never seen the
inside of an airplane, nor snow, and who certainly isn’t prepared for cold weather clothes :)) whilehe is in treatment. For more info. onJansel and how you can donate money,
clothes, Spanish sports books, or other items to help him while he is in the U.S., check out HHI’s newsletter which will be posted this coming week. http://hhidr.org/newsletter/
______________________________________________________________
3.) EARTHQUAKE!
In January our little town here experienced 4 or 5 small earthquakes, one of which (a 5.4) woke me straight out of my sleep one night. We all decided we were “Shaking but we weren’t Quaking” (in fear :)) and we’ve been pleased to note no more quakes in the past few weeks. Word on the street is that little quakes sometimes are just correcting problems in the fault-lines so that big quakes don’t happen in the future. It’s amazing how a little thing like a baby earthquake can bring neighbors together, though. I had some great conversations with strangers after the quakes, and that was great!
In January our little town here experienced 4 or 5 small earthquakes, one of which (a 5.4) woke me straight out of my sleep one night. We all decided we were “Shaking but we weren’t Quaking” (in fear :)) and we’ve been pleased to note no more quakes in the past few weeks. Word on the street is that little quakes sometimes are just correcting problems in the fault-lines so that big quakes don’t happen in the future. It’s amazing how a little thing like a baby earthquake can bring neighbors together, though. I had some great conversations with strangers after the quakes, and that was great!
4.) INTERESTED IN WATER?
If anyone’s interested in coming to the D.R., HHI as looking for a summer intern!
The link for more info and the application are here. Come visit me for the summer!
Here’s a synopsis:
The 2012 HHI Public Health Internship Program aims to improve water, sanitation and
hygiene (WASH) conditions in HHI partner communities by facilitating a community-driven
latrine project along with clean water and hygiene education and promotion. The internship provides a valuable opportunity for up to 2 students or professionals to develop and lead a community WASH project in the challenging yet rewarding setting of the Dominican Republic.
5.) SURF AND WHALES
In the midst of quite a number of medical
emergencies that I and my co-workers have been dealing with here among HHI’s several
hundred patients, I’ve been able to sneak a few weekends here and there for short
weekend trips, to experience more of the D.R.’s beautiful coastline as
well. Here are some photos of those great experiences this winter.
The 2012 HHI Public Health Internship Program aims to improve water, sanitation and
hygiene (WASH) conditions in HHI partner communities by facilitating a community-driven
latrine project along with clean water and hygiene education and promotion. The internship provides a valuable opportunity for up to 2 students or professionals to develop and lead a community WASH project in the challenging yet rewarding setting of the Dominican Republic.
5.) SURF AND WHALES
In the midst of quite a number of medical
emergencies that I and my co-workers have been dealing with here among HHI’s several
hundred patients, I’ve been able to sneak a few weekends here and there for short
weekend trips, to experience more of the D.R.’s beautiful coastline as
well. Here are some photos of those great experiences this winter.
___________________________________________________________
Watching the Christian Surfers International Surf Competition in Cabarete (100 surfers competed) with local missionary and expat friends... And a photo I snapped of a whale jumping in Samana.
______________________________________________________________Boat Trip - Watching the Humpbacked whales in Samana. They travel here from all over the world, each year, to the warm waters of the Atlantic, to give birth..
This was the first trip I’ve been on with a private rented car, instead of public transportation, since I arrive in June! :) It was awesome!
Categories: Janelle Bitikofer - Janelle's Dominican Life