Huelga Without Water

On Friday after school the school staff was called into a brief impromptu staff meeting. Sonia informed the staff that there was a possibility of a national huelga (pronounce welga =strike) on Monday, which would mean no school. Over the past few weeks rumours had floated around about protests because of electricity prices and social issues, including abuse of women, which is a growing sad reality here in Santiago.
Sonia explained that we teachers live in fairly safe neighbourhoods, but since some would need to travel through some less safe areas to get to school, it would be necessary to shut down the school. Also around the school itself, a huelga might mean that some people might show their protest by means of burning tires or blocking roads. Sonia told us we would receive an email on Sunday to let us know whether school would be in session or not.

Sunday afternoon we got the awaited email, informing us that a huelga was in the forecast for Monday and that school would therefore be closed. We were excited to have an extra day off and started making tentative plans of what we were going to do the whole day. Anthony wanted to paint the kids' bedrooms, fix up the little school desks we have been using as night stands, I wanted to bake, tidy up the house, do a load of laundry, and the list went on.

Just after our Sunday night dinner, I noticed that our water was off. Strange enough, the power was still on. Usually when we loose power, we loose our water too since the water pump downstairs does not operate without city power. "Oh well," I thought, as I looked at the stack of dinner dishes sitting in the sink, "I have all day tomorrow to do them. The water should come back on soon."

But by the end of the evening, there was still no water. "Surely it will be back on tomorrow," I thought to myself.

But Monday morning came, and still no water. How disappointing. The day off, staying at home started to loose its appeal.  A whole day at home as a family and then no water?!  By the time breakfast was finished the sink was overflowing with dirty dishes and the counters and table were sticky from the pancake breakfast.  There wasn't even enough clean dishes to eat lunch! Never mind baking, which I had hoped to do!  I sighed. It was going to be a long day. I quietly asked God for extra patience for the day.

A while later Anthony came in carrying a large bucket of water. "Where did you get that from?" I asked, as he grinned from ear to ear. "From the tap outside in the parking lot!" he told me happily. "We need to wash the kids uniforms for school tomorrow, and besides the wet towels are beginning to stink with the warm temperature. I'll haul up enough water for a load of laundry and for you to do the dishes."
About 5 trips later up and down the long stairway the washing machine was running and I got down to doing some dishes.

"I'm going to take the kids to the store with me to pick up some paint, they need to get out for a bit." Anthony told me after a while. Since everything seemed quite normal and calm, and the La Sirena store is just down the road, I agreed it would be fine to take the kids out. I decided to stay home and finish the stack of dishes.

After all the dishes were washed and counters wiped clean, I went to check on my laundry. It was stuck on the rinse mode. "Of course," I thought to myself, "it needs more water to run the rinse cycle. I guess I will have to start hauling some more water."

By the time I was on my third trip up the stairs with the buckets I was exhausted and discouraged. I had at least another three trips to make to have enough water to run the rinse cycle. "Maybe I should just wait for Anthony to come home." As I made my way up the stairs, I had to think of the many people in this world who live every single day without running water. We are so blessed to have clean running water in our apartment. What was I complaining about, no water for one day? Just a few minutes away there are many families who daily have to find water to carry home. I had to think back to a few weeks ago when we were visiting the New Hope Girls Academy, and I had the priviledge of walking through the neighbourhood where these girls's families live. Just a little tin house with no running water, no bathroom facilities. I remember coming home afterwards and thinking that our little apartment seemed like a palace. I remember being so thankful to God for all our blessings. How could I forget so quickly how very blessed we are? How dare I complain about a few hours of no running water, or doing a little walking for clean water? I told myself to be thankful instead for the blessing that I do enjoy.

Although one of the neighbours had told Anthony that the prospect of getting the water running again would be slim, due to the huelga, late in the afternoon we were delighted to have our water problem fixed. A nice plumber who must have taken the time to come and fix the problem, despite the huelga! When Mattais and Kaelie noticed that the water was back on, they shouted, "Hurrah, the water is working again! Now we can finally have a shower!" At dinner time we all thanked the Lord for His goodness in giving us running water again.

A Visit to New Hope Girls' School in La Vega

La Vega is the third largest city in the Dominican Republic, and is about a half hour drive south of Santiago up against the hill sides.  This past Saturday we went there to visit the New Hope Girls' school, a project that was started by a Vidal and Joy Reyes, a couple from Santiago, who have their children in our school. Together with the Reyes and several other teachers and our children, we had planned to go to the girls' school to put up Christmas decorations and spoil the girls with some treats and as a surprise, a new pair of shoes.

After driving through the old part of the city of La Vega, we came to a very run-down "barrio", or district, up against the hillside, mostly comprised of shacks built of cinder blocks and tin. We parked our cars along the main road, and climbed up a dirty alley-way, littered with garbage, refuse materials, and dirty water trickling over the broken and uneven cement slabs. The New Hope Girls' school and home rises like a friendly place along this sad path of poverty, dirt, and brokenness.

Vidal and Joy bought this property in April, and coverted the old broken home into a functional two-storey building. During the day, 24 girls from the surrounding barrio come here to hear from God's Word and to learn how to read, write, and do some math. Back in June, when the Vidal and Joy had just started the school, out of all the 24 girls, who are between 6 and 14, only one girl knew the letter A. Tells you something about the illiteracy of poor Dominicans!

The school is also a home for 4 girls who are no longer being looked after by their parents. Very sad. Vidal and Joy told us stories of fathers who are not faithful to their wives, mothers who prostitute to make a living to care for their children, sicknesses, hunger, drunkenness, and fights. This is why the New Hope Girls' School is there. To stand like a symbol of hope on the hillside. Thankfully, soon after Vidal and Joy began working on the home, local Christian people began to help and offer their assistance in many ways. Three Christian ladies from the neighborhood have taken the task upon themselves to teach the girls during the day and also to stay with the 4 girls during the night. It is Vidal and Joy's hope and plan to have the local community involved as much as possible, rather than making this project look like it is run by some supposedly rich and arrogant Americans!

Sherilyn and Kaelie on the path leading up to the school.

Mattais and Kaelie were quite happy to hand out some little toys and teddies which Oma Koster had given along with us in July.

The upstairs level of the home functions as classroom and sleeping quarters. It's a very cozy place. We strung up some Christmas lights and all the girls helped decorating the room with little ornaments. They loved it.

 

The downstairs area is for cooking, eating, and playing. There are many things to be done to the home yet, but at least there is a partly tiled floor where the children can remain clean.

Look at this cutie! These little girls were staring at us with big brown eyes, and it must have been quite a bit to take in for them; to have all these new visitors, to get some treats, to get a pair of new shoes, to do Christmas decorations.

Tim Houck, our Canadian colleague said: "The title for this picture will have to be: Where is Waldo?" (see if you can figure out why he titled it that way -- guesses can be placed as a comment on our blog).

The shoe manufacturing company, KEEN, which has a factory in La Vega, donated shoes for all of the girls. They were so delighted!

 

This little girl was a new visitor to the school, and did not have a pair of shoes that had been ordered for her. She got a little bunny (teddy) as a gift. She was very happy with it and held onto it very tightly.

At the end of the afternoon we returned to our own apartment, quite overwhelmed by the many things we saw that afternoon, feeling very blessed by  everything that we receive from God every day, and determined to return in a few weeks again to do some work at this place of new hope.

Please pray for these little girls, and that God would bless the work that He has called Vidal and Joy to do in this little barrio.