Dominican Republic Adventures Part 3

After visiting the 4 HOPE clients in Hato Mayor and San Pedro, I was pretty excited about the work HOPE is doing around the world. On the last few days of my trip in the Dominican Republic. A group of the summer interns, a HOPE employee, and a couple HOPE supporters came down to do a weekend trip. With this group we went to a couple bank meetings and met another client in Consuello. In August, most of the HOPE interns went back to school, so it was nice to see them again down in the DR.

We drove about 30 minutes down a pretty bad dirt road in San Pedro to get to our first bank meeting. It was really interesting to see a group of clients paying back their loans. They went around the room and explained their business. Then the loan officer led a couple worship songs and a quick passage from the Bible. For the next 30 minutes or so, the loan officer collected, counted, and recorded the loan payments. This meeting was pretty subdued in comparison to the next meeting we went to.

After that first meeting, we headed down another dirt road to another village. We visited two ladies who had received home loans alongside their business loans. They showed us their homes and they both were beaming with happieness. With the home loan they poured a concrete floor, patched holes in the roof, and bought solid wood doors. We then went to a bank meeting in this village. There were about 30 members at the meeting and it was an interesting environment. They all welcomed us to the meeting and seemed really excited that we were visiting. They began their bank meeting much like the other meeting, but this meeting went much longer. One member didn't come with his payment, so the group had to cover that sum of money. It was 1,500 pesos and the bank president went to each bank member collecting money. He wrote down everything that people put in to cover the missing person and then would make sure that the money was paid back to those people. I am glad that the meeting didn't go as planned because it allowed us to see more facets of microfinance at work. At the end of the meeting, the loan officer asked if there was anyone present who couldn't read or write. About a handful of people raised their hands and the loan officer signed them up for literacy courses. Just another benefit of being apart of the community bank.

On the way back to Santo Domingo, we stopped in and visited a client named Mayra. She began taking loans from Esperanza 10 years ago when Esperanza began operating. She ran various businesses to support her family. Her first loan was for 1,500 pesos ($50) and her most recent loan was for 400,000 pesos ($10,000). Mayra now has a furniture retail store and she said in the last year she had over 1 million pesos in orders. She can barely keep up with the demand. Mayra stressed the importance of capital in her business. After building up her credit and business, Mayra could have received a loan from a commercial bank and at a better interest rate, but Mayra decided to stay with Esperanza. Mayra said, "Esperanza has blessed me, and I want to bless others through Esperanza." It was great to her multiple clients repeat the importance of Esperanza (HOPE) in their lives.

Bank in Santo Domingo we visited an Esperanza Clinic where clients could get cheap healthcare. For just a couple dollars they could be checked out by the top of the line medical professionals and all this just because they are a part of Esperanza. Many clients said, "Esperanza is more than a bank to me, it is my family...they care about my health and family."

This was an incredible trip because it validated why I have been volunteering for the past 4 months. I am glad that this trip only made me believe more in Microfinance. It is a very viable means to help people escape poverty and improve their families lives.

Dominican Republic Adventures Part 2

After a couple days of relaxing on the beach and traveling around the Dominican Republic, our trip shifted. The purpose of our trip now was to experience HOPE International's life changing work in the DR. This part of the trip rejuvenated my energy and reasoning for volunteering with HOPE this summer. It has been an awesome summer/fall with HOPE, but up until this point, I didn't have any ownership of microfinance's impact on those in poverty.

Here are 4 quick stories from visiting clients in Hato Mayor and San Pedro...

Aura had a really interesting story. Typically women in the Dominican Republic are very dependent on their husbands. After Aura's husband passed away, she wanted to be able to provide for her family and not have to move in with other family members. The First Lady in the Dominican Republic gave Aura a scholarship to go to a trade school to learn chemistry. She spent 3 months learning how to make hair products and then did some teaching as well at the school. The income from teaching wasn't enough to support her family so she decided to make her own hair products. We talked to her sons and they mentioned how much their quality of life has improved since their mom started selling these products. Coincidentally, her sons names were Michael and Daniel. So Mike and I had to take a picture with them (Aura is in the background). Aura was extremely grateful that we cared about her story and for the support of HOPE. She talked with us for about an hour and kept offering us drinks so we would stay and chat with her family.

Next, we headed a little ways further down a dirt road and we stopped at Agueda's home. She produces cheese and acts as a wholesaler to supermarkets in the DR. The cheese that she makes out in the country is then picked up, packaged under various brand names, and sold throughout the country. She gave us a sample of her cheese and a piece of dulce de leche (both were great). Agueda also sells ice cream from her home. I was continually surprised by the many things these people gave to us.

We headed back to San Pedro from Hato Mayor to visit 2 more clients, Jose Luis Rincon and Milan Tapia. Jose has an amazing story. He manufactures wheelbarrows with a lifetime guarantee (supposedly the only life time warranty in the country). He started building them out of a wood shack that he lived in. As a result of the loans he's received and the expansion of his business. He has now built a modest two story cement block building. The first floor is his work shop and the top story is his home. He has a truck to transport his wheelbarrows to construction sites and for the hour we were with him, he did not stop smiling. In 30 minutes he built about half of a wheelbarrow by hand. It was truly impressive. Within a few minutes he knew all of our names and was joking with us in Spanish. He got us all involved in one way or another. He gave me the chance to try some welding. Jose is one of HOPE's all-star clients and his joy was contagious.

The last client we visited today was Milan. She started with a HOPE loan years ago when she had a sewing business. After she experienced great success and was employing 7 other seamstresses, she decided to open up a school for underprivileged children. It was initially in her home and she quickly outgrew her capacity. She rallied her community and government to help her construct a bigger school building. Now she has 385 students and desperately needs more space because of the demand for the education she is offering. As a result of Milan's success, she is giving back to her community. Spending an hour with Milan was moving. Seeing the children respect her and love on her like a mother was heart warming. It really reminded me a lot of going to visit my mom at her school and how students loved her. Milan recognized my level of Spanish and talked with me at that level. She will be traveling to Lancaster to speak the HOPE Annual Breakfast in November and I wish I could be there to see her again.

I'll save the rest of the HOPE trip for Part 3 because there is too much to share...

Dominican Republic Adventures Part 1

On September 11th, I woke up at 2 AM and drove to the Philadelphia airport to catch a flight to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Last summer, I spent three weeks on the island of Dominica, not to be confused with the Dominican Republic. This trip to the Dominican Republic was an incredible chance to see HOPEs work first hand and spend a couple days of vacation on the beach.

Our (Mike and I) flight left Philadelphia at 6 AM and we landed in the DR around 130 in the afternoon. We then took a taxi to downtown Santo Domingo and hopped on a "wa-wa" (small bus) to the Samana Peninsula. This was our first Dominican experience. Dominicans cram as many people as possible in buses or cars (in one of our vans we counted 21 people). Claire, Mike, and I went to the back row of the wa-wa. There were four seats, so we sat down and put our traveling backpacks in the 4th seat. Before we knew it there was a mom and two kids squeezing into the back row with us. For the next 5 hours to the North Coast, we had 6 people and 3 backpacks in a space that would have been uncomfrotable for 4 average sized passengers. I couldn't move my legs and it was probably the most uncomfortable bus ride I've ever been on. For some reason I couldn't stop laughing though and the only thing I could do was lean forward and fall asleep on my backpack.

It was a relief to arrive in Las Terrenas but I was exhausted by now and not in the mood for doing anything other than sleeping. Over the next few days we would spend time relaxing on the beautiful Caribbean beaches, walking around the village, eating some amazing fruit, and drinking fresh fruit juices. The best fruit juice was Chinola (passion fruit), but I also had mango, pineapple, melon, and strawberry. It was nice to not have a phone or watch because I woke up whenever I felt rested and went to bed whenever I felt tired. I spent the mornings reading The Kite Runner on the porch of the apartment we were staying in. We went to a market to get food and made our meals in the apartment. It was very simple living. One day we were sipping on jugos naturales on the beach and we saw some people pulling a 4 foot shark out of the water. After that we decided to not swim as far out into the ocean.
After we spent some time swimming and reading on the beach on Sunday, we went back to our apartment and checked out. We decided to take a bus 4 hours to a town called Puerto Plata so we could go to 27 waterfalls the next day. This night in Puerto Plata was full of adventure. We each paid $8 for a bed in this hostel. We were the only people staying there and it wasn't the nicest accommodations I've ever had. Since there obviously wasn't any air conditioning, we opened the windows to cool down the room. Soon we had bees flying around our room. In an attempt to escape an attack by one of the bees, Mike dove onto one of the beds. Good thing there was an extra bed in the room because Mike snapped the slats that held up the mattress. Now the only thing holding up the bed was a couple cinder blocks under the bed. Falling asleep was tough because when you laid in the bed, your body sunk into a mattress canyon. Was it worth the $8? Definitely.

The next morning we hopped on another bus and headed to 27 Charcos (waterfalls). I fell asleep on the bus ride out to the waterfalls and was awaken by a bus of Dominicans yelling that my friends got off the bus already. When I stepped off the bus I realized that the driver just dropped us off on the side of a dirt road. We walked down the dirt road for a while until we found the entrance to 27 waterfalls. This was the highlight of the first half of the trip. We paid about $15 dollars each and it was some of the best money I've ever spent. We had a guide for the three of us and he asked us if we wanted to hike or swim. We chose to swim, meaning we were swimming to the bottom of each of the waterfalls and then climbing up the waterfall. On some of the waterfalls, our rather large Dominican guide, Pablo, would just grab our arm and pull us up the waterfall. After we climbed up all 27 waterfalls, we swam a little bit and then began our descent. Now we got to jump off of each of the waterfalls. The highest was probably 30 feet and some of them were like natural water slides. I had a huge smile on my face for the three hours we spent climbing/jumping off of waterfalls. Swimming through canyons filled with clear blue water was incredible. This excursion surpassed my expectations immensely. We walked back up the dirt road until we came to the paved road where we stood on the side of the road until a bus stopped to pick us up.

We took the bus from 27 Charcos back to Puerto Plata where we hopped on Moto-cochos (motorcycle taxis) to take us back to our hostel to pick up our bags. Riding on these motorcycles was another one of my highlights. We were very trusting of the hostel we stayed at because we left our bags in an unlocked room. They could have stolen our passports, phones, hundreds of dollars, credit cards, cameras etc. We then got on the bus (still in our wet clothes from jumping off waterfalls) and drove 4 hours south to Santo Domingo. Once we arrived in Santo Domingo, the trip started to transition to focusing more on HOPE. Mike and I were staying at Claire's (a HOPE DR intern) apartment across the street from the Presidential Palace. We spent a day walking around the city and seeing common tourist sites. This wasn't interesting me too much because the cathedrals looked like any other old church and the castles just like any other castle.

A couple of my random observations of the DR: the food is too bland, plantains (maduras) are amazing, police, military, and random people carry shotguns, humidity is intense, it's hard to understand Dominican Spanish, the water is pretty warm, Dominican coffee is strong (and made in a Greka), traffic lights, signs, and rules don't mean anything, jugos naturales are incredible, and don't drink the water!

Part 2, the HOPE trip, coming soon...

Blessings in Abundance

Hope International has proven to be a blessing in so many different ways. Professionally, it has been great to work for something I truly believe in and alongside so many incredible people. Spiritually, I have been encouraged by many different people at HOPE and challenged by living outside my comfort zone. Personally, I have been given the opportunity to visit much of the Northeast and many times stay for free at friend's houses to make my trips much more afforable. Many things have just fallen into place, such as having my mowing job. Mowing gets me outside, doing something physical, gives me access to a truck when I need it, and has made it financially possible for me to volunteer out here.

In my last post, I wrote all about my East Coast road trip with Alan. The weekend after that I went down to Deep Creek, Maryland to spend the weekend at a friend's lake house. I think it is incredible the blessings that I've received across the nation and so far from home. Since that weekend I have decided to try and lay low for a couple weekends.

Now that I'm not traveling as much on the weekends, I am spending more time on Saturdays mowing lawns. Mowing really isn't that bad until it is 90 degrees outside with high humidity. I honestly rather be mowing then sitting around on the couch. It is nice to go do something productive. The international house that I am living with just filled up with the students who will be attending the local University. It is great to meet people from countries all over the world. Last night, we played an indoor soccer game in the barn. We played four vs four and there were six countries represented (Ghana, Brazil, Guatemala, Sudan, Albania, and the US). That is an experience I couldn't find in too many other places. It is great to have a full house of interesting people to spend time with. I am trying to take advantage of living with people from South America by practicing Spanish with them. It is hard for me to be bold enough to speak in front of everyone in the house, but I am really enjoying practicing my Spanish one on one.

Over the past few years, I have come to find that living in different states or countries is a catalyst for personal growth. There are times of boredom, loneliness, thankfulness, and gratitude for a multitude of blessings. Even though life at work (HOPE & mowing) may be hectic, there is much more time for reflection and connection with God. It is these times when I find myself out of my comfort zone that I am pressing towards God. The distractions of home are great, but can serve as a road block for spiritual and personal growth. I miss home (California) every now and then, but at other times I am extremely grateful for the position I am in, even if that means a lonely night here or there. I thank God for today and the challenges that he has allowed me to have this summer.

Last week was the first week of Point Loma. This was a tough week for me. For the first year in 17 years there was no first day of school picture, meeting new teachers, or reading different class syllabus. After Freshman year of college I realized that I loved to learn and be in an academic environment. I don't know if that is because I started working in the business world that year and saw what I had waiting for me following graduation or if my perception just changed as I was growing. I miss the academic environment, the late nights in the library with friends, studying (talking) late at coffee shops, growing my knowledge, and the list goes on.

Two weeks ago, I began my quest to the next step in my life. It is tough knowing that there is a good chance that even after a lot of hard work looking for a job, I will probably have to settle for a job that I don't necessarily want to do. So much for that degree right. This quest is taking a lot of my focus, energy, and time. I feel guilty with this lurking in the back of my mind because I am not as efficient when I am working at HOPE. Much of my free time on the weekends is being spent in coffee shops searching for that elusive job, connection, or person I need to talk to. I am confident and trust that if I take this journey day by day, it will work out and God will help place me in a job that will grow me in different ways.

On September 11th, I am heading down to the Dominican Republic for a little over a week. I am traveling with a few of the HOPE interns around the country as well as visiting HOPEs operations down there. I am excited to see what our work at HOPE in the United States supports overseas.