We just received an invitation from Ocean World here in the Dominican Republic. They have invited all the orphans to come for free to Ocean World. There they will get an education about dolphins in the morning and in the afternoon they will swim with the dolphins. How exiting this will be for the children. We are busy making arranagements for this proposed trip. We will be giving you more news about this later.
3rd World Frustrations
We are still working on getting full internet service. It has taken 4 months to get a phone and a dialup connection. We are told this week we will have it in our home. Speaking of our home..we have just installed a new fan which is a great relief to Marta. Also we have put up some book shelves and soon will be painting our walls. Like everything else it takes and incredible amount of time to get equipment and supplies to do things here. We live in a land without Walmarts or Targets. We notice when volunteers get here they ask us everyday to get things for them. They think we can just run downtown and get it. We tell them that most things they ask for are not available. I am not sure they believe us. Take our table-top stove we have put together for candelmaking. First, the propane tank we got for it had the wrong connection. Second, after we got the right adapter then the hose they sold to us did not fit. Third, after we hooked it all up the regulator was to small and we have to get another one. Fourth, when we had the right regulator they the stove fitting had a safety mechanism that would not allow the system to operate. We finally got another stove and now everthing works. This took about 5 trips and three weeks of work to put together.
Photos for this month, July,click here
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July 5, 2004
Field report from Good Samaritan Orphanage, Dominican Republic
Dominican Outreach This week we have a team from MIchigan, about 45 people in all. The are mostly from one Assembly of God Church. They have been preforming puppet shows, doing drama skits, and teaching bible stories to more than 100 children in the neighborhood. It is street evangelism. Most of the missionary folks are high school boys and girls and they provide a lot of energy to the place. Several youth pastors have come on this trip with them and they are taking these ministry teams into many neighborhoods. It seems to be having a positive impact on the community at large. In the midst of all this activity we have people who come to the orphanage seeking help. This week we have assisted one family who lost their house and had no food so we were able to give them two weeks of food and pay the father ofthe family some money for doing some work at the orphanage. One of the ministry teams has painted the kitchen at the orphanage. The kitchen cooks are so happy with their bright blue painted walls. Now the team is beginning on the walls of the cafeteria in the main dining room.
Candle Making
This week Marta started candle making with some of our long-term volunteers. They have been having so much fund designing prototype designs. The melt the wax, color it, then add scents such as mango, kiwi, banana. I have been designing labels for the candles that are encased in sqaure glass jars with lids. Each label has a picture of one of our orphans. It is one of the self sufficiency projects we have created here at the orphanage.
Orphan Nursery Project
A few weeks ago some of the older orphans started a project of growing Flamboyant trees. It is an idigenous tree of the island. Orchid like flowers grow from the top of the trees. Generally the flowers are red. The trees look like living flames. Right now they are in bloom all over the country. The boys have 26 small tree successfully started. They will get about two dolloars apiece for them. They are so excited. Also have a number of melons growing in a loarge garden area.
Happy Meal
Marta spotted the perfect Happy Meal at Mc Donalds in Santiago the other day. It is one of only two McDonalds we know of in the nations. The Happy Meal consisted of the national beer, a hamburger, and fries. See attachment for picture
Dale and Marta Johnson,
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atten. Dale and Marta
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