Our brother and sister (Mercyleaguers) and there sojourn to Hispaniola!
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Greetings,
We have arrived in Puerto Plata and have been overwhelmed by the hospitality of the community here, especially those involved with Mercy League. Upon our arrival yesterday afternoon, Alex picked Christina and me up from the Caribe Tours station and drove us a short distance to his home. Despite our lack of Spanish and his limited English, we enjoyed our conversations and after a short wait were treated to a delicious lunch prepared by his wife Elizabeth and her sister in law. After lunch we had a spectacular hike along the cable car route where you could see how expansive Puerto Plata is, and saw children in colorful uniforms playing baseball in a field build into the mountain side. In the evening Pastor Aury, Simon and Patricia joined us at Alex´s house.Once the evening air made it more tolerable, Christina and I helped Alex´s brother in law paint his bathroom a bright green. It´s been incredible to see how friendly and familiar the community here is with each other. We have been blessed so much so far, and we look forward to spending the next couple of days here to continue to witness God´s working here.
The new house they are staying at is apparently one of Elizabeth´s brothers. It is smaller, but according to Aury, was better suited for the family due to its location, and because it is single family, one story building. The house is very close to Aury´s house and Alex´s parents and family. They cited better safety, proximity to school (very close), family support and cooler, less noisy location.Aury stated that they had put a three month down payment which is customary on the previous house, we have yet to find out the result of the money after the move but will ask later today.
Also, we spent time shopping today. There are two options for inverters.
1) 1.5k 24volt trace inverter ' 12950 pesos (approx 360 dollars) this inverter is supposed to work for up to 6 hours. two batteries are needed which cost an additional 4500 pesos each (approx 125 dollars each)
so total cost is around 610 dollars.
2) 1.0k 12 volt trace inverter 9950 pesos (approx 276 dollars). This inverter is supposed to work for 3 to 4 hours. Also we can get a bit cheaper batteries.
We decided to wait a day because I couldn't recall what you had stated the cost should be or if there is a limit. Please let us know as soon as you can so we can have Aury purchase.
A young boy named Jaidel or Heidle is living with Alex and Elizabeth right now. He is nine years old and is of Haitian descent. What we have gathered so far is that the family recently took him. He was born in Santo Domingo, and his father died in a truck accident (not sure when). First, Aury said he though the boy´s mother went back to Haiti, but when Jaidel was asked about his mom, he said he´s never known her. What Aury said was that Jaidel was being taken care of by a Christian woman who basically could not take care of him anymore because she is so poor. He has never been to school, in part because he has no documents, something Aury says they are working on.
Tomorrow night (Thurs), we are planning to meet all the local Mercy League reps following evening church service. There we will try to hammer out a vision statement and discuss with Pastor Franklin his needs for a vehicle. We will also discuss how they expect to be able to use volunteers, and work on self sustainability. Aury also mentioned Pastor Franklin is currently supporting a house of elderly people which we will discuss as well.
We plan to take the cable car tomorrow. Also, we asked Aury about the Christian coffee house-business but he said he doesn´t know anything about one. In fact, he said it doesn´t exist at this time-perhaps it was mentioned as a possible future project someone was planning? We´re not really sure.
We will be here until Friday late morning before we depart for Santo Domingo.
Thanks,
Many blessings to you
Gene and Christina
