Monday in the DR

Our morning started out with a learning experience for the women of the group. We learned how to get ready for the day with no electricity. We woke up to the power going out due to a rolling blackout and discovered that without showers, hair dryers and straighteners we had to significantly alter our routines. Just after we got things figured out the power switched back on and it was a mad scramble to hit the power button on the hair straighteners!

Our first stop of the day was Palo Blanco Care Center. We started painting the new building on the property that our February team was a part of constructing. It was amazing to see the progress of the building that was so far from completion just four months ago. The bottom floor of the building is now a woodshop where the older kids that attend Palo Blanco can learn wood working. It was so much fun to see some of the kids working on projects. The kids, with the help of instructors, had built folding chairs, miniature play houses, wall shelves, and corn hole games.

In the afternoon Tracey (accompanied by Chris, Rachel and April) got to visit the home of her sponsored girl, Veronica. Veronica’s story is heartbreaking and unfortunately very typical. We learned that Veronica’s dad had illegally gone to the US many months ago and on Mother’s Day in May her mother followed suit and abandoned Veronica and her two brothers. Veronica and her siblings now live with their grandmother who made it clear that she is not happy with the situation. The grandmother commented that the mother had left her with the children and she feels like she is stuck in prison now.  The importance of sponsorship and the involvement of Kid’s Alive in these children’s lives is so apparent. These kids are being provided for physically, emotionally and spiritually and being taught about God’s crazy love for them on a regular basis because of the Kid’s Alive sponsorship program.  And because of that we are able to pray and hope for an amazing future for them in the midst of unfathomable hardship.

In the evening we spent several hours at the Ark playing with the kids. We played board games, colored, played ball, and painted fingernails. Several of the girls at the Ark really enjoyed painting some of the guy’s fingernails. Chris Bennett looks great with sparkly purple fingernails but we wonder what kind of looks he will get on the construction site tomorrow!

Tomorrow we anticipate more painting at Palo Blanco, spending a little bit of time with our sponsored kids at ANIJA, and running our first day of VBS in a barrio (one of the little neighborhoods).  Tonight when you are saying your prayers we ask that you specifically pray for Veronica and her family and for intervention in a heart breaking situation.