Journal Entry 6 (from the
trip in February 2011 to catch us up to date.)
The night our little group arrived at the house that was to
be our home for the next week the electricity was already out. We had come prepared with flashlights and
headlamps, knowing that electricity is inconsistently available in La
Victoria. With the help of a little team
of Dominican men who were to be our guides and translators we moved our bags
and boxes of supplies into the dark compound.
We began to light candles, blow up our air mattresses and build mosquito
net contraptions with duct tape and whatever else we could cobble together. After a couple of hours of what felt like
setting up a campsite inside this home, we were ready for some food and
water. It was clear that the toilets
were not flushing and when we went to turn on the faucets, they were dry. One of the young men helping us brought a
five gallon jug of drinking water to disperse among the thirteen of us.
This
seemed sufficient for the first night and all of us seemed content enough to
wash off the day of travel with wet wipes.
However, the next morning, after breakfast, it was becoming apparent
that we were all feeling a bit grimy. We
had fruit and power bars for breakfast and there was a definite “stickiness” to
the whole group. Not wanting to seem
like prototypical high maintenance Americans, no one was complaining, but the
topic arose, “How can we wash our hands?”
Another immediate concern included, “Do you think the toilets might
flush today?” They never did. We were there for a week and had all of the
issues one might presume in a third world country. And we had no water. Other than what our little car could carry in
trash cans, we had no water. Enough for
a bucket over the head and a wash cloth over the body…I never knew one wash
cloth could clean so much!
No one seemed to
complain much, however, after the fifth day, it was clear we were living in a
fairly “unsanitary environment”. We
pushed through and decided that it was evident what our next trip would
entail: attention to the water
issue. We lived this way for one
week. Our dear friends have been living
with this for a lifetime. We were all
feeling a stirring within us to address this issue of water that affects so
many of the people of the Dominican Republic.
This will be our focus. We will
move in this direction. May God show us
what He wants to do through us in the DR.
No comments:
Post a Comment