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LOS
TOROS OBSERVATIONS
YAME
2010 - Young Adult Mission Experience
Report
Part one - Part two - Part
three
Kelly Tunder, Mark Bennett, Ryan
Henke, Eileen Bennett, Peter Bennett, Deacon Don Kabara
Bridget
Feerick, Beth Delorit, Carolyn Atwell, Peter Schindler, Katie Tunder, Ali
Haischer, Aaron Lorge
On May 26th twelve young
adults accompanied Deacon Don Kabara on our annual YAME to Los Toros, traveling
with great enthusiasm and a ton of resources. We arrived only about one hour
late in Santo Domingo and all twenty-four of our checked bags made it without a
problem! Each of us had personal belongings in our carry-ons to add to a total
of thirty-seven bags, all of them arriving safely at our hotel and then in Los
Toros the following day! This was accomplished with a special effort at
coordinating by Peter Schindler and real teamwork on the part of all the
participants! We were all happy to arrive in Los Toros with good resources to
start our work! We are all very grateful to those who contributed to help us
accomplish our mission!
Our trip got off to a
very special start as Eileen Bennett encountered the famous Juan Luis Guerra on
the plane from Miami to Santo Domingo.....................
Juan
Luis Guerra has sold over twenty million albums, read more
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YAME
2010 Report - Part One............................
First impressions are
significant, after traveling the dusty and often muddy and always bumpy streets
of Los Toros for over twenty years it is a pleasure to enter into the village on
a paved road that is smooth and clean! It makes for neater homes and happier
people who now have less cleaning to do! Everyone appreciated this significant
change and improvement in the village! But more important was the great hospitality and kindness of our hosts who will do anything to help us and make
us more comfortable.
Perhaps the most
significant event of our trip was meeting Jackie who is from Haiti. He
introduced us to some of the Haitians now living in Los Toros and translated for
us. This enabled us to understand the needs of the Haitians and how we could
help them on this trip and on future trips.
Jackie is from the suburbs of Porte-au-Prince
in Haiti and speaks four languages, French, Creole, Spanish and English. He is
twenty-four years old and wants to study in the university, he lives with some
cousins in Los Toros and they do field work for the farmers. Now, as a result of
the earthquake there are over 100 Haitians living in Los Toros and they
have many needs. We plan to help them more during our October Mission.
During this Mission we had an English Program,
three different levels, also Dental Education Program in three villages, a Music
Program in Los Toros, a Volleyball program in Los Toros, outreach to the
Haitians, we worked on a Water Program and a Pre-natal Care Program and we help
the village with their Mother's Day Program. This all sounds like too much to
try to accomplish in just eight days, however we can honestly say we achieved
most of our goals and the ones that were not completely successful helped us to
learn what to do in the future. Most of the time we were very busy and we all
worked hard so we can truly say we gave it our best.
It is not easy working in the third world, it
rained every other day, each day and night had electric black outs, there were a
lot of mosquitoes bites and some lived in homes without bathrooms. There were
some inconveniences but none that we could not overcome. All performed well and
made a contribution in one way or another to our mission.
For the first time in over twenty years I
lived in a house with a bathroom - in the end it really was not that big of a
deal; I guess I have been integrated into the cultural conditions and having a
bathroom made me feel a little like an outsider!
Deacon Don
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YAME
2010 Report - Part Two............................
The
story of Niko Beltre..................
Niko,
he is about 23 years old, came to Hija and Manuel's looking for Donald and when
he found me he made an appointed to talk; when people make an appointment to
talk it is something serious that they want to discuss. Mark Bennett and I met
with him after lunch a few days later. He brought along papers from his eye
doctor in the capital with a quotation for an operation that will cost about US
$2,000.00. That's a lot of money for a Dominican and a lot of money for our Los
Toros Budget. We asked who accompanied him to the doctor and he told us his
brother Fernando went along, so we asked if Fernando could also talk with us.
Niko tried to reach him on his cell phone but he had problems getting a hold of
him and he got very frustrated; we are his only hope of getting any help and without
the operation he will lose his sight. Finally Fernando showed up and told us
that Niko has the same infirmity that he had - Myopia and his condition is serious.
Fernando had his operation about two years ago and since then has been happily
roaming about the village, often visiting people who are ill and encouraging
them.
If
you observed Niko you could see he is worried and scared; he does not want to
lose his sight, he has his whole life ahead of him and he does not want to spend
it in darkness. He has few options in life and not many resources; his family is
poor and there is not much work in Los Toros. Niko is a courteous and kind
person, he respects others and treats others well. He is gentle and wants to
work to help others in his village. But now it is time for others to help
him.
YAME
2010 Report - Part Three............................
The
Haitians................................
We
were in Los Toros when the earthquake struck Haiti last January and we felt the
earth shake; when we heard of the damage that it caused our first thought was
that, though Haiti is at least a two hour journey away some would come to Los
Toros to seek shelter and the community would be affected by the quake. Haitians
were living in Los Toros before the quake and it was just logical that more
would come; they work as day laborers on the farms and are paid with a meal and
a small amount of pesos per day. They do back breaking work and since they are
illegals they keep quiet and to themselves. Some of them are educated, but
because of the extreme poverty that has existed for decades in Haiti many
Haitians do not have the opportunity for education.
It
is interesting how Haitians find shelter in Los Toros; the farmers in Los Toros
grow a lot of tobacco, after it is picked and dried it is wrapped into tubes and
goes through a curing process. The farmers need a secure place to store and cure
their tobacco and they allow Haitians to use old homes and sheds provided they
guard their tobacco. The homes and sheds are usually in very bad shape but the
Haitians are desperate and will take anything. Meanwhile when farm work is down
the Haitians have a great struggle to get food and clothing, many do not eat
every day and many badly need clothes and shoes. Our October Adult Mission Experience
offers us a unique opportunity to directly help the people of Haiti. We have opened
the lines of communication with the Haitians and are learning how to help them;
we can take clothes, soap, towels and other materials that the people need. But
it is not just taking materials to poor people; it is coming into direct contact
with people and offering them friendship and hope; it is one thing to offer
charity to the poor it is another thing to offer love and compassion and solidarity
in the same way that Jesus did in the gospel.
One
of the Haitian homes in Los
Toros.........................................
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Partners
in Building Communities - 
For
More Information about the Los Toros Mission Committee......
Please
contact:
Mike Haischer - 262- 375-2625
or
Don Kabara - 262-377-7527
www.redhorsegrillok.com
www.redhorsegrillok.com
http://www.redhorsegrillok.com
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