Dominican Republic #5: Lasting Impact

Even if you have never watched the episode of Mr. Bean in which he sends Christmas cards to himself and then acts excited when he opens them and displays them in his apartment, you would probably agree that it is an odd thing to do.  At the end of last week, though, I received a letter in the mail that I had indeed written to myself.  On January 30, at the airport on our return flight from Dominican Republic, our team leader handed out paper and envelopes so that we could record some of our impressions about the trip and how we had been changed or challenged to live or act differently as a result.  We were told that nobody else would read the sealed letter but that it would be sent back to us 3-4 months after the trip as a reminder.
 
Some of the impressions I included in this letter were as follows:

• The best investment for the poor is education so that they can become leaders.
• I need to stop answering questions that are not addressed to me.
• What a great deal we can do when we work together; stop being a lone ranger.
• I felt a sense of connection to the teams before and after as well an American team that was building churches and stayed at the same guest house as we did.
• I felt a burden to pray for missionaries more fervently.

Two commitment arose from this trip, which I both wrote in the letter and have begun to do:

• Give greater priority to missionaries/mission work in the charitable donations my husband and I make.
• Offer free editing to a seminary student for whom English is a second language.  A talent I had previously used only as a source of income can also be shared to help build up God's church worldwide.

"Establish the work of our hands for us--yes, establish the work of our hands."                                                                                        Psalm 90: 17b

Dominican Republic #4: Local Food Movement

   As part of our service trip I took part in, we were treated to a “day away” from our construction work.  On the Saturday we were taken into the picturesque mountainous interior of Dominican Republic with Rancho Baguite as our final destination.  It is located near the town of Jarabacoa.  This ranch offered a variety of  eco-attractions, including walking trails, white water rafting, horse-back riding, fishing and a butterfly garden.

   I went horse-back riding along with two others from my group.  When we returned to the dining hall, one of the owners approached us, offering some freshly roasted macadamia nuts that had been grown and processed on site.  When she asked, “Would you like to see the plantation,” I assumed she would show pictures from her laptop.  Instead we were taken a stone’s throw from the dining area to their extensive vegetable gardens and fledgling plantation.

Kale grown outdoors

Kale in pasta dish served in buffet

   This ranch grows nearly all the vegetables and meat served in its buffet-style restaurant.  We saw rabbits being raised for meat and to provide natural fertilizer for the gardens.  The co-owner pointed out kale that would be used in the pasta dish featured for lunch.  Other healthy plants were producing cabbage, lettuce, peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and beans.  This was a welcome sight as our travels in the capital did not allow us to see any land under cultivation.

Macadamia nuts used for seed

Transplanted seedlings about a year old

    The plantation of macadamia trees was also of great interest.  A six year-old macadamia tree is twice as tall as an average adult and began producing nuts four years before.  The processing occurs in a small building that contains an industrial steel drier to reduce the moisture content of the macadamia nuts from 20% to 1-2%.  A simple press is also used to extract macadamia oil, which is rich in Omega-3.  The processed nuts are used by a local bakery.

   As I pondered the agricultural model being shown at Rancho Baguite, I realized that every culture’s food began as a “local food movement.”  When we think of Korean food, it consists of fish, pickled cabbage and rice precisely because these are the readily available raw materials the people had to work with for millennia.  Likewise, Russian borscht is a product of the plentiful root vegetables, including beets, that can be grown in a cooler climate and will keep through the winter.  The North American reliance on imported food is a symptom of our affluence.  We feel restricted by a “100 mile diet,” but most of the world’s population has no other choice.

   A few times during our stay in Dominican Republic we were given single serving packages of Oreo cookies or jars of peanut butter imported from the U.S.  That made me uncomfortable.  As a North American I am part of a system that does not encourage local food, and over-packaging has become a status symbol abroad.

Dominican Republic #3: From Sponsored child to Translator

   During the short-term service trip that I took part in last month, our group was assigned a translator, a 36 year old man named Victor.  Through our conversations with him, we came to know his story.

Victor, left, lends his phone to track down a missing piece of luggage.

   When he was a young child Victor’s mother was heavily involved in witchcraft.  People would come to his house to have their fortunes told and to get spiritual help when they were in trouble.  He remembers seeing his mother in fits where demons came over her.  She was absolutely opposed to Victor, her firstborn, reading the Bible or having any contact with Christianity.  Thus for his first years he was ignorant of the true God.

   For some reason, his mother softened a little when there were prospects for Victor to go to school.  The only way the family could afford education was through child sponsorship with Compassion®.  One of this agency’s stipulations was that the child be permitted to attend Bible classes on Saturdays.  Even though it meant Victor would be exposed to the Bible, his mother went along with it.

   Victor came to know the Lord through these classes.  At the age of five or six he recognized he had the talent for memorizing Bible verses.  He continued his education; he is grateful that eventually his mother also became a believer in the one true God and turned away from her previous practices. 

   Currently Victor acts as a host/translator for the teams sent from Canada to assist COCREF (a federation of 16 Christian schools).  He was incredibly patient with us, explaining nuances of the Dominican way of life.  He also pitched in with the construction work, although it seemed to go above and beyond his role.  Since this job as host and translator for work teams is seasonal, he also does written translations for Compassion® when children and their sponsors correspond with each other.  Depending on the week, he will translate between 200 and 400 pieces of correspondence for this agency; he is paid by the piece.  He told us that about 50,000 Dominican children are sponsored through this agency.

   Victor is a praise team leader at a large church that was founded by Korean missionaries.  He also speaks some conversational Korean.  He and his wife have four children; the youngest is a girl whose name is based on the Hebrew word “Jireh,” associated with God as our provider.

   My youngest daughter and I jointly sponsor a Compassion® child in the Dominican.  Even though it didn’t work out for me to visit the girl we sponsor, my experience with Victor confirmed the long-term impact such a sponsorship can have.

Dominican Republic #2: Questions

Prior to this trip I was asked to write a series of devotions that reflect upon questions asked in the Gospel of John.  Each day the team gathered to read the Scripture and then shared thoughts and sang along with the guitar we brought along.  Here is one of these devotions that applies to most of us.

 

“Lord, what about him?

Read John 21:18-24

   Peter has been given a glimpse into his future as a follower of Jesus.  As a strong willed and dominant personality, Peter has made decisions and set out a course for his life, but Jesus says a day will come when he will suffer greatly for the testimony of his Master.

   And so the question comes on Peter’s tongue, “What about him?”  He sees another one of the eleven and would like to know his destiny.  Isn’t this part of our human tendency, to want to know what will happen to others, partly out of concern but also partly out of idle curiosity?

   Jesus is clear in showing Peter that what happens to the other disciple is not his business.  The most important thing is that Peter keeps following Jesus.  He redirects the focus of Peter’s life to Himself instead of side issues and comparisons.  The journey will be different for each of God’s children, and that is OK.

  At times when one child in a family is singled out to do a particular chore, the quick response is, “Well, what about my brother?  What about my sister?  Why do I have to do all the work around here?”  It can be easy in our families and workplaces to see and magnify inequalities or to grumble about something that is not fair.  However, first we need to focus on Jesus.  In light what he endured for us, we may reconsider the situation or we will approach it with more gentleness.

Be still and know that I am God

Be still and know that I am God

Be still and know that I am God

-from Psalm 46:10a

Dominican Republic #1: A Team Built by Building

   In elementary and high school I was never the athletic type, so I missed out on the experiences gained by being part of a sports team.  In later years I have been part of committees and a school staff, where in some ways we function as a team for a common goal.  However, I would have to say that my best and most genuine experience of being part of a team occurred on foreign soil by doing construction work.

   Although we all attend the same church and had some acquaintance with each other, the service trip to Dominican Republic made us into a team.  We varied in ages from 15 to 65+, with three married couples, a single, and four individuals whose spouses stayed back home.  The team members had skills in the areas of business, education, skilled trades, problem solving, concrete forming, management, music, photography and writing.  Some had previous experiences in the D.R. and other Latin American countries.  We all had something to contribute, and it was such a blessing to see how each person was given the space to try different jobs on the work site.  Genuine concern was shown with simple questions like, “Do you need a break?” and “How are you feeling?”

The team minus Joyce, who was ill this day.

   By mixing concrete, scooping it into pails, carrying pails in a relay, hoisting them to the second story, passing them to the “pourer” and retrieving the empty pails our team made progress on the upper level of a school by making all the columns and the over half of the bond beams.

   But really, upon reflection, our team was much bigger than the eleven of us.  The Dominican skilled carpenters and general labourers, who knew how to make the forms for the concrete and had the muscles and stamina to do the heavy work of mixing the concrete and hoisting pails with a hook made of re-bar, were also part of our team.    Our translator, Victor, and our driver, Daniel, facilitated our labours through communication and transportation. Without these men and the guidance of the site foreman, Lucas, we would not have accomplished anything of value.  How can I forget the women who prepared healthy meals for us three times a day and did our laundry?  The “team” gets even bigger when we think of the individuals from Burlington who spent 10 days prior to us making the block walls (exterior and interior) and the teams lined up in coming weeks that will put on the roof, parge & paint the walls and finish up the classrooms so that they can be used to address overcrowding and to add a further year of high school to this K-10 school.

Bent re-bar used as a labour saving device

   Even those not directly involved in building but who donated money, prayed for us and gave us permission to leave our homes and workplaces for a time were part of the team.  Now I can see clearly that there’s no room for “lone rangers” in the kingdom of God.  We are hermanos y hermanas (brothers and sisters), as the Dominican people are quick to call fellow believers.