Marcos: orphan of the week
Marcos is 8 years old and is of Haitian background. He has recently started a garden in an abandoned vehicle on the edge of the orphanage property. The children love to play in the bus which has all the windows broken out and and is totally trashed. We were getting ready to haul it off when we discovered that some of the boys were using to for minature gardens. They had found styrofoam trays in the trash that they filled up with dirt. Somehow they found seeds in a nearby abandoned garden site and began planting their crop. Marcos and another boy proudly brought us their plants which are a few inches high now. We will transfer the plants to a functioning garden soon. Marta has a special place in her heart for Marcos. She snorkled with him a few weeks ago. He was so afraid of the water and he clung onto Marta for dear life. But Marcos was so facinated with the fish he saw that he would not lift his head out of the water. Marta said this was her "aha moment." Those two really bonded.
Marcos was abandoned as a baby. Then he was raised by a Dominican couple who abandoned him when they saw he was of Haitian origin. There is deep bigotry here in the DR against Haitians. So Marcos has been abandoned twice. He is difficult to get close too as you would imagine and often plays alone. It is a good thing to see him relating so well to us.
Peace Corps Alliance
A local Peace Corps couple, Steve and Laura, work in the local public schools. Laura works to introduce special education services and Steve teaches teachers on the use of computers in the classroom. They have offered to include some of our older orphans in a computer project and a nearby school this year. They are organizing a team of students who will communicate with classrooms of children in the US. Each team will write about there views of each other and share their expereinces. This cross cultural activity will help dispel myths each of the cultures have about each other. Dominicans think all Americans are rich and live in New York. Americans often think all Domincans are poor and only play baseball (Sammy Sosa is Dominican). Therefore some of our orphans are learning computer skills during this month so they can be ready for this project.
August 23, 2004
Field report from Good Samaritan Orphanage, Dominican Republic
You may have noticed that there is a donation button at the bottom of the webpage. This link allows you to directly donate to our work in Esperanza, Dominican Republic, by safe and secure electronic transfer via PAYPAL. Many of you have used this service to buy or sell things on EBAYas we have. You can even pay by check number if you desire. Funds go directly to a PAYPAL account from which we can transfer these funds to our account in the DR. If you never used it before, you will have to take a few minutes and sign up for a PAYPAL account. It is an electronic bank account that you can use for other activities if you desire. It is about the only reliable way for us to get funds here as many banks cannot do international fund transfer to the DR. Just click the donation button at the bottom of the page. There is a VISA card logo on it. You will be taken directly to PAYPAL. There you will be asked if you are a member or not and if not you can click the link to sign up. Eventually you will be taken back to the page where you can transfer funds. It is set up in a way that you can donate from $1 to as much as you desire. Many of you have already pledged a set amount each month. This is a quick a easy way to donate. Otherwise you can use snail mail and send donations to Orphanage Outreach in Arizona who handles our donations and funds transfer from there. The transfers are done electronically through PAYPAL. Either they can do it or you can.
Bug of the Week
The boys are collecting bugs for our science lab. It is one of their favorite things to do with Dale. This week they captured a Rhino beetle which is indigenous to the Carribean and feeds on bananas.
Dale and Marta Johnson,
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atten. Dale and Marta
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