Easter Sunday in the DR is wonderful
We woke up on Sunday morning to find out that the Easter Bunny is alive and well in Cotui, and had left green plastic cups full of Easter grass and candy eggs at the doors of the eight students with us. No hunting necessary! We are breakfast and set out on foot to the center of town, about a 15-minute walk, and joined the many people filing into the Immaculate Conception cathedral on the town square. We were ushered to seats right in front and to the side, where we could see everything. The center seats in the first few rows were occupied by proud families and young boys and girls dressed all in white, there for their First Communion. The altar area up filled with floral arrangements. The windows were all open, allowing a warm but not oppressive breeze to fan us. The music started with several recorded songs, and the service began with the procession down the center aisle, priests and celebrants all in white led by young acolytes bearing the Bible, the crucifix, and the censer filled with incense.
Most of us are not Catholic and many of us do not speak much Spanish, but the service was not to hard to follow: invocation, confession, assurance, and praise. One of the lectionary readers mentioned our group and thanked us for our mission and service to the community. Then, in a surprise, the priest giving the homily mentioned us again, and used our work as an example of the ways in which God can be served with courage and humility. That was pretty moving. The time came for the passing of the peace, and in addition to greetings passed between members of our group, hugs and handshakes, we shared many warm embraces with members of the community who sought us out the greet us and thank us. Again, moving. After the offering and Holy Communion, and prayers and creeds that were recognizable to many of us, the priest called Rita Severinghaus forward and asked her to speak. Surprised but ever ready, Rita introduced herself as a former Cotui resident who had lived there for years, and visited dozens of times for planning and group mission work. She has a number of cousins here and many, many close friends, and she thanked all for our warm reception. When the mass was over, we gathered outside and waited for the bus to pick us up, posing for several pictures and continuing to greet old and new friends.
Glen arrived with our now-familiar bus, and we piled in and headed out of town and into the mountains, passing fields of pineapple, (some being harvested), orange groves, passion fruit vineyards, and cattle grazing. With spectacular mountain views on every side, we passed through a few small villages and finally arrived in the hilltop village of El Limon. Rita first organized a health clinic here almost 10 years ago, and recalled breaking ground with a student group from Sharon Academy and working with a Peace Corps Volunteer. When the volunteer was called home Rita herself supervised the construction. Chris LaPoint, a nurse now living in Arizona and a member of our current crew, was a volunteer in 2012 and recalls the floor still being tiled and the roof uncompleted as she and others ran health clinics and worked with a young volunteer health worker named Miriam.
We got out to the bus and that same Miriam, now an LPN and the fulltime nurse there, greeted us with a huge smile, proudly showing us around the immaculate and well-kept five room facility that serves as many as 30 children, women and men from surrounding villages. She and an apprentice doctor just out of medical school, assigned by the DR Ministry of Health, are the sole health care professionals there. They are responsible for vaccinating all of the children on 10 surrounding villages, prevention and treatment of many diseases, including dengue, malaria and zika, and diagnosing many other ailments for primary treatment and referral to local hospitals. Our six nurses were particularly interested in watching as Miriam showed her thorough record-keeping, and toured them through the treatment areas. There were able to counsel her in many ways, explaining about some of the medications she administers, and listening to her questions. They had carefully packed a suitcase full of medical supplies and brought it with us on the bus, and gave this to her, reviewing all of the uses to be sure she would be able to maximize their use. In a little over an hour, this hugely productive visit, characterized by mutual respect among medical professionals, had continued to enable the process of health care delivery to a formerly drastically under-served area of the country.
Before we left, Rita greeted the women next door whose family had donated the land for the clinic. She presented Rita with a bag of very fresh eggs, and Rita noted the appropriateness of the gift on Easter, provoking much laughter.
We rode happily home to the hostel, and after lunch and a little rest, several groups went on sightseeing tours by foot, returning to the town square for some ice cream and local window shopping. Each group was led by one of the several local guides and translators who know and work with Rita when she visits, and continue to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the group. We are already good friends with them. There was good energy at supper, and afterwards we circled our chairs to do some planning for Monday, when we head to the village of Hernando Alanso and begin our health clinic and library work. We'll start slowly and deliberately, but we are eager to meet the teachers and students, and start the mission we have been planning for these many months. This was a very good Easter!
Most of us are not Catholic and many of us do not speak much Spanish, but the service was not to hard to follow: invocation, confession, assurance, and praise. One of the lectionary readers mentioned our group and thanked us for our mission and service to the community. Then, in a surprise, the priest giving the homily mentioned us again, and used our work as an example of the ways in which God can be served with courage and humility. That was pretty moving. The time came for the passing of the peace, and in addition to greetings passed between members of our group, hugs and handshakes, we shared many warm embraces with members of the community who sought us out the greet us and thank us. Again, moving. After the offering and Holy Communion, and prayers and creeds that were recognizable to many of us, the priest called Rita Severinghaus forward and asked her to speak. Surprised but ever ready, Rita introduced herself as a former Cotui resident who had lived there for years, and visited dozens of times for planning and group mission work. She has a number of cousins here and many, many close friends, and she thanked all for our warm reception. When the mass was over, we gathered outside and waited for the bus to pick us up, posing for several pictures and continuing to greet old and new friends.
Glen arrived with our now-familiar bus, and we piled in and headed out of town and into the mountains, passing fields of pineapple, (some being harvested), orange groves, passion fruit vineyards, and cattle grazing. With spectacular mountain views on every side, we passed through a few small villages and finally arrived in the hilltop village of El Limon. Rita first organized a health clinic here almost 10 years ago, and recalled breaking ground with a student group from Sharon Academy and working with a Peace Corps Volunteer. When the volunteer was called home Rita herself supervised the construction. Chris LaPoint, a nurse now living in Arizona and a member of our current crew, was a volunteer in 2012 and recalls the floor still being tiled and the roof uncompleted as she and others ran health clinics and worked with a young volunteer health worker named Miriam.
We got out to the bus and that same Miriam, now an LPN and the fulltime nurse there, greeted us with a huge smile, proudly showing us around the immaculate and well-kept five room facility that serves as many as 30 children, women and men from surrounding villages. She and an apprentice doctor just out of medical school, assigned by the DR Ministry of Health, are the sole health care professionals there. They are responsible for vaccinating all of the children on 10 surrounding villages, prevention and treatment of many diseases, including dengue, malaria and zika, and diagnosing many other ailments for primary treatment and referral to local hospitals. Our six nurses were particularly interested in watching as Miriam showed her thorough record-keeping, and toured them through the treatment areas. There were able to counsel her in many ways, explaining about some of the medications she administers, and listening to her questions. They had carefully packed a suitcase full of medical supplies and brought it with us on the bus, and gave this to her, reviewing all of the uses to be sure she would be able to maximize their use. In a little over an hour, this hugely productive visit, characterized by mutual respect among medical professionals, had continued to enable the process of health care delivery to a formerly drastically under-served area of the country.
Before we left, Rita greeted the women next door whose family had donated the land for the clinic. She presented Rita with a bag of very fresh eggs, and Rita noted the appropriateness of the gift on Easter, provoking much laughter.
We rode happily home to the hostel, and after lunch and a little rest, several groups went on sightseeing tours by foot, returning to the town square for some ice cream and local window shopping. Each group was led by one of the several local guides and translators who know and work with Rita when she visits, and continue to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the group. We are already good friends with them. There was good energy at supper, and afterwards we circled our chairs to do some planning for Monday, when we head to the village of Hernando Alanso and begin our health clinic and library work. We'll start slowly and deliberately, but we are eager to meet the teachers and students, and start the mission we have been planning for these many months. This was a very good Easter!
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