Trip report: La Suiza orphanage, the Dominican Republic

[skiing is life]

Tomorrow i will get to see true poverty. not the homeless man that i usually see at the Northampton exit of I-91 every saturday, begging so he can buy a bag of weed. real poverty.

Tonight, along with my grade which consists of 24 students (yeah i go to a small school) will fly south to an orphanage in the dominican republic for six days to help out. We will be donating varios things such as money, shoes, clothes, cans of soup, and services.

We will also be connecting the orphanage to the national grid with single phase power. we will be painting mureals to liven the place up, give new school supplies, we will also be putting an extention onto it, adding one more bedroom and a new kitchen. donating culterly and a new stove.

when i come back i will post pictures, videos and a write about some of my experiences there. ill see you guys in a week.

 

[deadheadskier]

It's sad, but in much of these areas the government is to blame. My brother recently traveled on Jamcruise and worked the non-profit greening team for the cruise. He organized passengers to donate thousands upon thousands of dollars worth of school supplies including several computers to donate to impoverished schools in these two countries. They made contact prior with local officials, so they were expecting them.

Once at port, armed customs agents refused to allow them to donate the goods without paying a four thousand dollar tariff :angry: They had to reload everything back on the boat, then they snuck as much as they could in back packs and took taxis from the ports to do what the could. Over 50% of the donated goods ended up coming back with them, which they then donated to schools in Miami.

How these officials could be so ruthless in not letting the good will of foreign people help out their future generation is beyond me.

 

[drjeff]

Tomorrow i will get to see true poverty. not the homeless man that i usually see at the Northampton exit of I-91 every saturday, begging so he can buy a bag of weed. real poverty.

Tonight, along with my grade which consists of 24 students (yeah i go to a small school) will fly south to an orphanage in the dominican republic for six days to help out. We will be donating varios things such as money, shoes, clothes, cans of soup, and services.

We will also be connecting the orphanage to the national grid with single phase power. we will be painting mureals to liven the place up, give new school supplies, we will also be putting an extention onto it, adding one more bedroom and a new kitchen. donating culterly and a new stove.

when i come back i will post pictures, videos and a write about some of my experiences there. ill see you guys in a week.

Guarenteed, you'll have a completely new outlook on life when you return! I've now been on 6 "dental missions" over the last 15 years to places such as remote native Peruvian indian villages along the Amazon River, Sri Lanka and now 4 trips to Haiti. Hands down, going to areas of the world where the level of poverty is staggering will TRUELY make you appreciate what an advantage you have just by simply living in The United States :flag:

 

[skiing is life]

i cant write right now. i feeling of mixture of anger, despair and confusion. maybe tomorrow.