So we are HERE! We are in the village of Montellano…. in Dominican Republic, for {Project} La Tienda. I’m sorry I couldn’t blog earlier, as you can imagine, internet is hard to find in the village where we are staying. I’m very excited to find a source of internet (and power!!!!!) to update the blog!!!!!
Tamara and I prayed long and hard that none of our suitcases would be confiscated while traveling through Cuba and into the Dominican … and so far, everything – even from the wonderful-Dominican-transportation that we had the lovely privilege of experiencing (I think the Dominican men want to marry and whisk Tamara away – she was getting a lot of offers …. !) has gone very smoothly and according to plan.
First off, can I just say this is a very hard post to blog about … I don’t even know WHERE to start …I didn’t think it would be this challenging to write and explain what we’re doing but I’m going to try. Please be patient with me as I fumble through this post.
On the first day, we were able to hand out the items you all donated for the women at La Tienda – it was so exciting to be able to hand out all the goodies for the women. They were so incredibly blessed by all the donated gifts you guys sent with Tamara and I. As soon as we arrived, Rachel, Tamara and I went through all the donated medicine, tylenol, vitamins, toothbrushes, toothpaste and MORE and divided all the goods up into 27 different bags for each La Tienda women.
Here’s Rachel, the 27 year old art co-op genius :), in her Dominican home, reading through the notes and packages that we delivered. Rachel has been here five years, raising two orphans and caring for all of La Tienda – she cannot receive mail or packages unless someone hand delivers them to her … her mom can’t even send her a care package. We made sure there were some goodies in the suitcases that would cheer her up (like peanut butter) …
getting the goods unpacked to take to the village ….
All the goods, getting organized to deliver to the ladies (Thank you to Annette and Soyna for lending such BIG suitcases for our trip!) …
So we jumped into Rachel’s truck, along with her two year old adopted son, Jonathan, and her 13-year-old adopted daughter, Rosairi and drove into the village where the art-cop of La Tienda is located. Right away, we were able to meet the 27 women who make all the lovely jewelry of La Tienda and were able to hand out the bags of items to each women. They were very shy, very modest in their thanks, but you could tell that they were extremely grateful and happy to receive such presents … one women left the store very quietly with her bag of shampoo, deodorant, a toy for her children, a comb, some pads, and three head scarves … within minutes she returned to the store, sat down at one of the art-cop tables with her beautiful head scarf tied carefully around her black hair. It was precious …
This is Livi …mother to eight children … she makes the coconut candles and bottle-cap earrings …
Here is Marianna – she makes the necklaces out of seeds and found objects …
Here are some of the women at work in La Tienda … they received their paycheck and just turned right back around and went back to work making more jewelry …
They are so beautiful … these women were so excited to have Tamara and I there – at first, they were unsure but then when Rachel explained what we were doing, they were very excited to have their photo taken …
inside the store …
Tamara and one her new friends …
These are the home surrounding the village where La Tienda is located … there truly are nothing more than a shack … the floors are covered in garbage and dirt …
This is Francia …
absolutely heart-breaking … I don’t even have the words to describe this image …
some of the children …
such gorgeous souls ….
yes, playing in the garbage dump …
Tomorrow is Sunday … so we are going to the church in the village and then we will spend the day photographing the store and the jewelry that they have made. By Monday, we hope to be photographing each women in their homes and spend more time meeting their children and getting to know everyone on a personal level.
Not sure when I will be able to blog again but hopefully within a few days, I will find internet access yet again … the electricity is inconsistent so we’ll see where the next few days take us.
by Gigi
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