Painting the school

This morning we had some visitors in front of the condominium. Coco peeled some, um, cocos (coconuts) for us. He was really quick, too. Kind of like he's done it a few times. Then we had another guy show up to sell us some lobsters. One of them was really big. Take a look.


We did some really good work today. We got dirty, sweaty, and covered with paint. We started the day by going to the school in El Frances. As soon as we got there, we were surrounded by more than a dozen children. The children were anywhere from about 6 to about 12 or 13 years-old.

We went in and looked at the school. The sign in front of the school says ‘Escuela de El France.’ That’s interesting, because they omit many letters from their pronunciation of words here. Instead of saying ‘El Frances,’ they say ‘El France.’ When they make a sign, they spell the word as they pronounce it – without the ‘s.’

The school is a cement building with walls painted green and roof made of corrugated steel that is painted white. The entire school is about 20’ x 50’. It has two main rooms for instruction – this occupies the bulk of the building. The last section of the building is about 20’ x 10’ and is divided into two rooms. One is a larger room used for storage of supplies – and there’s not much of anything in the room. The room we will use for the library is about 10’ x 10’ – the size of a small bedroom in a typical home.


Shanlee and Megan worked with Rachel and the other children to rake leaves and debris to a corner of the school yard, then they cleaned up inside. They swept cobwebs off the walls and swept the floor. Then they started painting while Greg and I went to get wood for a book shelf. We bought a 14’ piece of 1’ x 8” wood. We walked it down the street to a man who has a power saw. He cut the wood into two 3’ pieces and four equally sized pieces (about 2’ each).

It is interesting that we all have simple construction materials in our homes. Almost every home in my neighborhood has hammers, saws, levels, and other basic tools. Here, there are maybe four people in the area that have saws. We found Pao – probably ‘Pablo,’ or Paul, pronounced without saying the ‘b’ and ‘l’. He had a small shack made from cinderblocks with the typical corrugated steel roof that had all of his tools – a saw, a drill press, and a router. Pao probably does a significant portion of woodwork for people in El Frances.

When we got back, we were amazed at what we saw. They had done some incredible painting using four partially filled 1 pint cans of paint (yellow, red, brown, and burgundy) and a gallon of white paint. With the help of the local kids, they had put hand-prints all over the walls and decorated around them. It looks very good and will be something the kids will always own. They had put a painting of the planet Jupiter on the wall, a butterfly, and words like grow (crecer), read (leer), and learn (aprender). On the door the had painted a sign with yellow stars that reads ‘Biblioteca,’ or library.




While they continued painting, Greg and I built the shelves. They are 3’ high with four 2’ shelves. Simple, small, and it will meet the needs of this small town. They will probably have a few dozen books on those shelves. Compared with the tens of thousands we have in our libraries, the thousands we have in a typical elementary school, or the hundreds we all have in our homes, it is a humbly-sized library – seemingly pathetic. But it is infinitely more than they have now.
The other thing about this morning was sweat. Shanlee and Megan said they were sweating while they painted – Shanlee said it looked like a teardrop in front of her eyes, but it was just sweat dripping off of her forehead. I was the same. I was hammering nails into the wood for the shelves – I was sweating before I’d done six nails.

Shanlee and Megan were talking to the kids outside. It was cool – even without knowing a common language, they were able to smile and say a few words. Shanlee was sitting with four or five kids and they were laughing. Shanlee was able to say things like ‘Sí,’ ‘No,’ and ‘Loco.’ It was funny. Kyah was helping Shanlee a bit, as well – Kyah speaks pretty decent Spanish.

One funny thing – Shanlee had a bunch of teenage boys asking her if she was married. Shanlee said, ‘Sí!’ They asked her if her husband was inside the school. Shanlee said, ‘Sí!’ They left, and Kyah asked if Shanlee knew what they had asked her. Shanlee said, ‘No!’ Kyah explained, and Shanlee decided that was probably better. They came back later and tried to convince Shanlee that she should give them a kiss. Shanlee decided her poor, jealous daddy couldn’t handle it and she said, ‘No.’ Smart girl.

We took everyone but Shanlee and Rachel home to get them cleaned up. Most of them had paint all over their hands. Cleaning that up is simple, right? Not. The paint was oil-based paint, so water is pretty inefficient. We got back to the condominium and Megan went down to the beach to see if salt-water would help. It did a little bit, but not enough. Greg talked to the guy in charge of security at these condominiums – his name is ‘Coco’ – and he brought us a cut-off two-liter bottle with some gasoline in it. Megan and the kids weren’t impressed with the smell, but it did the job.

Once they were all cleaned up, Greg went to get Rachel and Shanlee. They had painted squares of different colors all over the floor - reds, whites, and yellows. They were so covered in paint that they walked home so they wouldn’t get paint on the car. Once they were cleaned up, we just had leftover empanadas, rice, beans, some fresh flat-bread, and water for lunch. We still needed the paint to dry, so we are waiting to put the books in the library.

Instead, we went to Rincón (means corner) to see an American they know there. Her name is Cindy, and she is building a home on a beautiful hilltop with views of the ocean, the valley in Rincón, and the surrounding hills. But first, we decided to relax.

We went to Playa del Rincón (Beach of the Corner) and relaxed in the surf. The beach is at the end of a small bay. No 20’ waves, just the occasional 4’ wave to get salt-water in your mouth. Tasty! We played there for maybe 30 minutes, then went to a river that empties into the bay. The bay-water was nice and warm. The river water was significantly cooler. We had a good time.

Then we went to visit Cindy. As I described, her home is at the top of a hill. To get there, you have to take a one-lane dirt road that has nowhere to turn around. We drove up the hill for ¼ mile before we arrived at the gate to her home. The gate was made with round pieces of wood about 5’ high. They were bound together by wrapping them in barbed-wire and then leaving a line of about 12” to the next piece of wood. This made a fence of two parts, separated in the middle and set into the ground and bound with wire at the top to hold the two sides together while still allowing for them to be separated to provide access.

We walked up the hill to her home. She has at least four dogs. Every step closer, we saw another dog come around the corner and it would join the others in barking. Cindy wasn’t home, so we had to leave the books there along with a note on their origin. Down the hill from her home, Cindy is building a school for the children of Rincón. It is similar is size and construction to the one in El Frances. We left the books for her to use in this school.

The homes here are so humble. We would never consider living in these conditions. Most of their homes are so simple. They provide shelter and a covering, but none of the simplest conveniences that we enjoy - running water, toilets, carpeting, air conditioning. Those are all outside their grasp financially.



By this point, it was nearly 7 p.m., so we headed home. We passed a ‘killing tree.’ We didn’t know what that was. When they want to slaughter a cow for meat, they tie it to a killing tree – just a palm tree on the side of the road – that is close to the butcher’s shop. This is done on Friday afternoon. On Saturday morning, the meat will be hanging in the butcher’s shop, and by Saturday afternoon, the meat will all be purchased and gone. We had stopped to see the steer that was tied there, and the butcher smiled to us. He walked towards us, pointed to the steer, and then drew his hand across his throat to indicate that the steer would be killed. He had a great smile.


We also stopped to buy some fruit at a fruit stand in Rincón. It was pretty cool – the man there sold us two piñas (pineapples). He asked if we wanted them prepared for us, and we agreed. He took his knife and cut the sides off, cut it three ways down the center, then cut the pieces off into a plastic bag. It was pretty cool – and it was really good piña, too.

We arrived home just before 8 p.m. and had dinner – it was late enough that we decided to just finish off the leftovers. I think the one thing all three of us are struggling with is the temperature. It’s not so much that it’s hot, but it’s hot and humid and you always feel sticky. We’re never quite comfortable – or at least feeling like we do in the middle of the desert in Utah. Even at night, when it’s completely dark and it should be cool, it still feels muggy. I suspect it’s something you get used to. If we had more time here, we’d probably get used to it. In the few short days we’ve been here, we’re not used to it. It’s really just a minor irritant in a beautiful country.

Giving away our first books

This is a view from the front porch of the condominium we are staying in. It is right next to El Frances but on the beach, as you can see. Picturesque. We’ve had a good day today. We got up and had a breakfast – fresh fruit and bread. We planned to start giving books away today starting with a school, so we started the day dropping me off at an internet café while Greg and the others worked on finding the school teacher. Shanlee, Megan, Rachel, and their children walked around Las Galeras for a bit – it is a small town at the end of the road on the Samaná Peninsula. They did some souvenier shopping - here are a few of the things they saw:



Shanlee, Megan, Rachel, and all of their kids spent a few minutes in a store watching a demonstration of how to roll cigars. They took video, but you only get to see a picture. They tried to sell them cigars after the demonstration, but they were uninterested, for some crazy reason. "Hey, kids! Here's a stogie for each of you!!"

The main road into Las Galeras is paved, but it soon turns into a number of smaller dirt roads that are difficult to drive on. We bounced all over the place while trying to get to the people we wanted to visit. With all of the bouncing, we managed a picture of the flowering trees:

One place we went was a nicer-looking area with free-standing homes in a sparsely populated community. There was a home that resembles a castle that was built by Italian brothers. These homes were all built intermittently among the trees. Most homes were a few blocks apart, but they weren’t that regular in their dispersion. By one of the homes there were two men using long poles to pull down the coconuts from the trees.

We stopped at one place to watch them make a different type of cheese. They put the milk in a large pot on a large fire and cook it – when we got there, they were lifting and pulling it with what looked like to large sticks. The cheese looked like taffy in its consistency. They would then move it to another place where someone would cut it into smaller pieces that they would sell. We bought two pieces of about 1 pound each for use in our meals.


The other thing we bought there was bags of water. It is just that – they have water in a small bag – maybe 8 – 12 ounces – that they keep refrigerated and you buy them for 2 pesos each - less than .10 each in U.S. Dollars. Here is Shanlee demonstrating how to properly consume water from a water bag:

We then went to visit a family the Dennings have known for quite some time. They lived in this area a few months ago, so they have driven around and have met many of the people. The first person we met was Alfredo – he is about five and came running up to us to see Greg. The last time they were here, they had taken pictures of the family, and Alfredo wanted to see them. Greg had printed the pictures out – pictures of Alfredo, his sister, and his mother. As soon as Greg gave him the 8 ½ X 11 inch sheet of paper with the four pictures on it, Alfredo grabbed it and ran across the street to show his mom. He was so excited.

Then we brought the books to them – five in total. There were two books with dinosaurs in them. Alfredo would snap the book open, have me read the name of the dinosaur, then close the book and open it to another page. He did this probably twice – going through each page. I spent some time talking his mother – she had a book to teach English words. She went through three pages looking at each word and saying it out loud. With some, she would ask what the word was. Most I was able to translate, but I don’t know what a ‘pram’ is. Thanks to Word’s thesaurus, it now know it is a buggy or a pushchair. We also read a book about dolls to their baby. She has beautiful eyes – she just stared at us while we talked to her. This is where they live - it is a store front with a living area behind it.
Here are two pictures of the little girl with Shanlee and Megan.

After this, we went to visit another family in El Frances. This family lives together with all of their extended family – they said they lived in a kind of ‘family ward.’ They have a 14-year old boy who wants to learn English, so we brought him an English book. We also brought another 7 books. We sang Happy Birthday to the 14-year old in English and then watched them hand the books out to their family members. It was great to see them all sharing the books with each other. The mother was really nice – she spoke to us and thanked us for the books. She said hi to Shanlee and Megan. When we explained that they didn’t speak Spanish, she complimented them for coming. Shanlee and Megan are starting to say a few words in Spanish, so they both said, “Gracias!’


We also went to a small town - I don't even know if it had a name - that had a school under construction. It is a place the Dennings will go back to in the future, when they can talk to the teacher there. Right by this town was a place called La Boca del Diablo. It means the mouth of the devil - it's a blow hole, but the surf wasn't high enough for it to really do anything. The area all around it is sharp black rocks that they call Los Dientes del Diablo - the teeth of the devil.

We then came home and Rachel made Empanadas. They were made with flat-bread, filled with black beans and cheese, then deep-fried in oil. Rachel also made Mango Salsa for us to put on the empanadas. I ate two – they were incredible, and I was very stuffed.By this time in was nearly 10 p.m., so we went in front of the condominium and went swimming for 30 minutes, or so. The pool is nice and the moon was overhead, filtering through the palm trees just off the beach.

The Journey, Part 2

Now that we’re here, here is the family we are with. They are the Dennings. They are doing a wonderful work trying to spread literacy throughout the world. They are: Greg (Father), Rachel (mother), Kyah, Parker, Kimball, and Aaliyah. We will post pictures of them tomorrow. They have made us feel like part of their family from the moment we arrived.



Today was recovery from a day of travel and getting to where we’ll be working for the next few days. We woke up late and ended up packing things up for the morning. Rachel has taken care of us – we certainly won’t be hungry. The food has been awesome – most people might turn their noses up at rice and beans, but we are eating it up, if you’ll pardon the pun. We had pancakes with peanut butter and honey for breakfast. Then Rachel made rice and beans for lunch and made small tortillas – some pan-fried, some deep fried in oil. We scooped the rice and beans onto these and ate. Delicious!

The other thing we’ve eaten a lot of – fruit. Last night, we had fried plantains. They are kind of like bananas, but not. They don’t have a flavor as strong as bananas. We’ve also had mangos. They sell them everywhere on the side of the road, and they are incredible. Perfectly sweet and very tasty.

We had planned to have cold showers. Their condominium in Sosúa has hot water, though. I was disappointed – I wanted Shanlee to have a nice cold shower to start her day. Greg assures me we’ll have that opportunity soon. He even told Megan that to get hot water she had to turn the nozzle all the way to the right (all the way to the cold side). A man after my own heart.

Just after lunch we packed up a bunch of books, our clothes, and food for the next few days and started from Sosúa to go to El Frances. Sosúa is on the northern coast of the DR. We drove east along the coast towards the north-eastern peninsula. It was a long journey. It was long for a few reasons.

First, we made three stops. The first was not planned – it was a beach where they hold world championship kite-surfing competitions. There were probably hundreds of kite-surfers in the water on this beach.

We noticed that there are trees that are blooming now with bright red flowers. At one point, the trees grew over the road and formed a tunnel. The trees are beautiful alone, but the tunnel was an added touch of beauty. We loved it.

The second was to a waterfall. Here, they call them ‘El Salto’, or the jump. That is exactly what we did – jumped from the waterfall into the pool below it. It was so fun. I’ve never jumped from that high up before. Megan wasn’t into the jumping – Shanlee went down and made a more modest jump. There were kids jumping and climbing up the rocks like they were climbing a ladder. I wasn’t so smooth, but I made it.

The third stop was a bay with very shallow water – we waded out into the bay about 100 yards and could still stand about waste-deep in the water. The water is clear and a light-green hue. After that, we made our way to El Frances.

The trip was long because of the roads. They are all surface streets – posted speed limits are no more than 55 miles per hour; most are less than that. Even with the speed limits, you still drive slower. There are obstacles everywhere. The most common is pot-holes, but there are also places with one-lane roads, construction, and speed bumps. The speed bumps are more like speed craters or speed mountains. You can’t go more than 10-15 miles per hour on these roads in many places.

Another interesting thing about travel here is that there are small mopeds everywhere – it is a primary mode of transportation for many. In fact, Greg said that they are the affordable ‘taxis’ for many people. You just go up, tell them where you are headed, climb on back, and away you go.
People live right along the roads – their homes are nothing like what we live in at home. Some are just corrugated metal laid together to form walls and roof. Greg said they seldom have hurricanes on this part of the island – Santo Doming has them often. That’s good, because a big hurricane would bring some of these homes down.



Some homes are made of cement, but they have rebar sticking out of them – like they have plans to expand, but haven’t done so, yet. The larger cities have nicer homes and apartment buildings mixed in with the small homes. The buildings are colorful, too. They like to paint them yellow and other bright colors.

I sorely underestimated the trip from Santo Domingo to Sosúa yesterday. I thought it was about 100 miles. It was, in fact, about 240 kilometers, or about 150 miles. The trip today was from Sosúa to El Frances, which is on the Samaná Peninsula – about 155 kilometers, or 93 miles. That’s about a 1 ½-hour drive at home – that took us probably five hours of drive time here.

The people have their businesses in their homes or along the road – selling fruit, gambling on sports, small grocery stores, whatever they can do to earn money to live. There are a ton of people that sell fruit along the side of the road. There are ‘bancas’ in every city and town we drove through. I didn’t know what those were. A banco is a bank, so what’s a female bank?? It is basically the place you go to place bets on sporting events – you see two or three people sitting in chairs outside these small buildings all along the road. The bancas are no larger than maybe a bedroom – cement walls painted with the name of the banca. Many are affiliated with a group or parent company, so they have that name on the walls, as well.




With all of this, we arrived at El Frances at about 7:30 p.m. I was amazed at how great the kids were. We went through the normal ‘Are we there yet?’ questions from time-to-time, but they were great. As noted above, Sosúa and El Frances are closer distance-wise than Santo Domingo and Sosúa, but there were many more twists, turns, and bumps, so we had to travel much slower. There were places where the road was so undulating that it would bounce the car up and down quite hard. You couldn’t talk normally because of the bouncing of the car. We all laughed as we tried to talk while the car was bouncing.

The other thing we’ve been able to see is a lot of beautiful countryside. Palm trees, coconut trees, the aforementioned flowering trees, and many others I can’t begin to name. Tomorrow, we start working!!

Here is a video of me jumping from the waterfall.