In November 2012 (and continuing through now, Mid- December, 2012) there was a lot of rain almost daily here on the North Coast of the
Dominican Republic. Because of the rains we had one weekend in early/mid November when the river that runs past my little town of Montellano rose and flooded several neighborhoods. (This was 1-2 weeks after Hurricane Sandy passed us by and headed to the states.) The rising river swept away
several houses, including the home of my neighbor's mother. So, her mother came to live in our building and despite losing all her belongings, she has been a wonderful neighbor and has planted
a beautiful little veggie garden in the flower bed here.
Above is a photo of a part of the river where the water rose, then came 3 streets inland, and destroyed the classrooms and library on the 1st floor of the Makarios Elementary School. With 4 feet of water filling the library and downstairs classrooms, the school lost almost all of their books, and I and other neighbors went over to help clean up. Below is a short video of some of the clean up process.
The smiling neighbor man seen here pleasantly
washing mud off of everything from the school doctor's medicine
bottles to laminated posters and lego blocks, lost many of he and his family's
belongings in this same flood that hit his home at the same time it hit the school.
Yet, he and his wife spent most of the week after the flood donating their time
and energy to clean up the school so that it could re-open. What an amazing
example of "giving of yourself" for others this holiday season!
I'd like to give a shout out and huge thanks also, this Christmas, to the Youth
Group and families at Raleigh Mennonite Church who have supported Makarios
School in their rebuilding efforts after the flood by sending the money from
their annual Christmas cookie sale, this December, to the D.R..
Part of the money you guys raised will go to buy new elementary school
books in Spanish to restock the library at Makarios. The kids and staff are
excited to be able to restart school again! So thanks for your
wonderful donation to help them out this Christmas!
Below is a little mini video Christmas card to all of you!
It features two of my co-workers -- HHI Community
Health Workers Carlito and Estela, on the left -- and some of Estela's
family and a neighbor, wishing all my friends in North America a
"Feliz Navidad - Merry Christmas" - from the small mountain
community of Negro Melo, one of the communities where I work.
At the end of the short video, in the distance, you will see a brief second
of a large brown and grey cow who "fell down and couldn't get up." : )
He eventually had to get helped up by 5 neighbor men. It was so funny.
One minute he was standing up like normal and the next minute he just
fell over sideways! Apparently some invisible being over there was
doing some cow-tipping! : )
All the neighbors and I had to stop the video to go watch the drama play
out because it was such strange behavior for a cow here. Hee Hee hee. (And
in all the excitement my Spanish grammar on the video was rather dreadful).
But the cow is fine now! :) On the video after the Merry Christmas you'll
hear me say "Negro Melo esta muy linda (Negro Melo is beautiful)," and
right after that one of the ladies in the video says "and there are cows!"
Ha ha ha. And indeed there are!
So, without further adoo. Here is our very brief but heartfelt
Christmas video wish for you! Love you all. Merry Christmas!
And so it was not snow or ice that fell in Negro Melo this Christmas, but rather a cow.
Perhaps we should rename him "Snowflake."
Merry Christmas to you! :) May the God of Peace who loves the whole world
be with you this holiday season!
