Mission trip to DR part 1

Dominican Republic mission trip, 2010

I recently had the exciting privilege of working with a missions team in the Dominican Republic, helping to establish a drama ministry for a tiny church up in the mountains. What follows are excerpts from my journal while there, in three parts.

7-28-2010 - Wednesday

Today we visited “the Hole.” The island here is volcanic in origin, and there is an extinct caldera within the city of Santiago. It was used as a garbage dump for years, and still is, though no longer with government approval. But you know how it is, when people get into a habit – garbage still finds its way into the caldera, in significant quantities, regardless of how many people currently live there, and regardless of a general disapproval. About 800 families live in the hole, with an average size of five, so about 4,000 people manage a life among open sewers, with garbage floating merrily in the creek/river that flows through it. The de facto government of the Hole is one or more drug dealers, and that gives you an idea of the main source of employment in such a situation. The drug dealer who rules the area approves of what is done for the children by GO ministries, and "has their back," so to speak. And before you react with horror that a drug dealer is a governing body, consider that in many countries around the world, corrupt governments actually interfere with charity efforts, and steal goods before they can make it to the intended recipients. I'm not saying that the government of the Dominican Republic is such a government – obviously they are not. But many in Africa are, so keep perspective.

GO ministries has built a small (by our standards) church, actually a two-story building with a chapel upstairs and a feeding center downstairs. Six days a week, they feed the children who live in the Hole – the day we visited, they feasted on rice with a spoonful of beans on the top and a small piece of chicken on the side. That's actually a nutritious, generous meal, and in my opinion, a good tasting one. These children ate joyfully and gratefully, and we were allowed to bring the color-coded bowls of food to them. Different colored bowls signified the size of portions, slightly more for the older, larger children, and the kids know which color to accept.

After lunch, as we took a tour of the area, children asked to be picked up, hugged, smiled at, and generally – well, loved. That's kind of what we all want, isn't it? We were more than glad to do that; they are beautiful children, with alert, shiny eyes and huge smiles.

Supplies for building the chapel/feeding center had to be brought down into the caldera by wheelbarrow – just what was needed for one day, because it would disappear overnight otherwise.

Most of the conditions here I expected. Toilet paper goes in a wastebasket, not into the ceramic throne, because the plumbing simply won't handle it. Don't drink the tap water, don't even get it on your toothbrush – just as in Mexico. Drink lots of water to replace what is leaving your body via perspiration, long before you're aware of a thirst reflex, lest you dehydrate. In fact, today, one of the teenagers did indeed forget to drink enough water, began throwing up, and required an IV. Hey, it happens.

So far, no culture shock for this old man. But the Hole was a whole new experience for me.

I'm making an effort to learn names, and remember things like who I talked to this morning about the scene panels. The week is young, and so I got the first such test completely, and embarrassingly, wrong. Of all people, it was Patrick who had been showing me the drawings, and I should have remembered him if only because he is Sarah's husband. But there you are. In my defense, consider that some of the names I'm supposed to keep track of go like this: Dan, Danna, Don, Dawn, Dennis, Denise.... and that's just the D's for goodness sake. :)

The people in this group are very friendly as well as tolerant of my weirdness, and I could see them becoming good friends if I lived near them. I also like the sense of humor that runs through the group like a lifeline – when the rooster next door woke us up way before dawn, some suggested that we go next door and buy it, and donate it to the ministry.

Tomorrow we begin the drama camp. That will be.. um... Thursday. So we cut some fabric for making costumes, and started working on props, and this afternoon I had a “Gare” moment, when Sarah showed me a shawl and asked if that would work for the woman in the lost coin parable. Of course it would, but it was so like the many times we had costume “parades” for Gare, our director at Backdoor theatre back in Wichita Falls. It began to sink in that I was really directing this play and taking a measure of responsibility for it. And I began to wonder if I was going to disappoint these people who are counting on me to shape it. When we finish casting the play, I think I had better make an opportunity to tell them about the concept of the “audience of one” whom they'll be performing for. (That's “God,” for those of you who are friends of mine but outside the Faith).