We have twins at the orphanage. Domingo and his brother Yefri are six years old. Their mother brought them here desperate to feed them. She had no money and her children were starving. The mother lives here in town and knew of the orphanage. We agreed to feed the boys while we evaluated them. Despite their temporary situation and difficulties, the boys are fairly healthy. They seem to play well with the other orphans their own age. The mother spoke to us yesterday and reported that she is going to Santa Domingo, the capital city and is getting married. This may be good news for the boys but it also may be an excuse by the mother to abandon the children completely. We are not sure what will happen.
Mailing Address: Snail Mail
Not until you get to a third world country does one appreciate the US postal service. As much as Americans complain about mail, it is the best in the world. The whole time we have been in the DR we have never seen the local post office open. We have found a post office about 15 miles away where we have a friend who has offered her PO Box for our mail. But let me warn you, it takes about a month for stuff to get here.
Mailing address
(via the kindness of our friend):
Dale and Marta Johnson%
Leticia Minaya
Roman de Pina �35
Mao, Velverde, Republica Dominicana
Darren Wertz: Donor of the month
We want to say thanks to Darren Wertz of Ridgefield, Wa., for his recent donation sent to us via Paypal. It is people like Darren who make this work possible. Not only is your reward in heaven, Darren, but it is here on earth too, in the gratitude of children.
September 21, 2004
Field report from Good Samaritan Orphanage, Dominican Republic
Last Week�s Hurricane Hourly Blog
Marta thought that it would be a good idea for her to attend the local public school in order for her to improve her Spanish. She has been making good progress in her language skills but would like to get better. So when the local principal asked for our help the other day, Marta took this opportunity to go to the school the next day to hand out supplies, pencils, and paper. So I asked her what grade she should be in. "First grade" she said, "Because that is about the level I am at now." So beginning this week Marta will attend first grade and assist the first grade teacher. Her real goal is to learn better Spanish. Marta did try out the chairs and tables and complained about the chairs being too small. Also, the teacher thought she might be too big for first grade. Some of our orphans attend first grade and they reported that they were delighted to have Marta as a classmate.
Jeanne Roars through the Region
Jeanne was a hurricane for nine hours. As soon as she stormed across the waters from Puerto Rico and touched the eastern end of the Dominican Republic she became a hurricane. We started a hurricane blog to let our friends and family know about our situation hour by hour. Jeanne moved directly at our area the first night but then stalled about 100 miles east of us. There she pounded the town of Samana killing 7 people and leaving hundreds homeless. We were starting to get worried. Ahead of her path were reports of tornadoes. A few touched down about 10 miles south of us. News reports kept saying she would turn north but she did not. The hurricane kept heading west directly at us but at about 2 miles an hour. During the next day her winds died down to about 60 miles per hours and headed straight at us. By the time she got to us the winds were only about 40-50 miles per hour. There was some damage in the area. We saw a restaurant that collapsed and a few wooden houses that were blown apart. Here at the orphanage we only had minor damage from heavy rains. We have a couple of sink holes that we are trying to keep the kids out of but that is about all that happened. We are thankful to survive this storm.
Dale and Marta Johnson,
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atten. Dale and Marta
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