Hi all! We are "resting" at the hotel for an hour before we go on a shopping trip to the city market this afternoon. I guess they don't want to overwhelm us with the purpose of the trip too soon!
We arrived Miami on Wednesday evening ahead of schedule and had nice quiet Italian dinner at an Argentinian restaurant (go figure). Yesterday morning we had breakfast, then walked for 3-4 hours down Ocean Drive on South Beach. This is the old Art Deco section of the beach and the buildings were all very cool! Here is Miami Beach at 9:00 am.
After arriving in Santiago, DR at about 8:30 last night, we didn't arrive the hotel until about midnight our time, 11 PM EST. We had a short night's sleep, but were excited this morning to get out and see our first Compassion project. This is one of several Compassion projects in the area and it serves about 320 children that are in their program here. It includes the Compassion Child Survival Program where mothers are taught the basics of child care with the goal to reduce the number of infant and Child deaths in this area. We had a wonderful and inspiring day interacting with the children, talking with them, serving them a snack and watching some school games. Here is a sample of our time at the center.
Take a close look at this picture. Who does the boy (whose name is Michael) remind you of? Here's a hint.....his initials are AOF!
We then took a short walk to visit a family home where 3 of the 5 children are in the Compassion sponsorship program. Here are some samples from our visit. The first picture includes 5 people that accompanied us from Compassion, including two interpreters in the light blue shirts. This is the front of the house that doubles as part of the laundry drying process.
Here is the kitchen.
The bedroom.
This is the family. Note that the oldest son has eye problems and is nearly blind. It sounded like the problem is correctable, but there are no financial resources for the medical treatment required and he is too old for a Compassion sponsorship.
That was our morning in a capsule. In the late afternoon we went sightseeing and shopping. Then we returned for dinner at the resort. It's a beautiful place, right on the ocean on the north shore of the D. R. Here's the view from our room.
On Sunday, Kristen's and Mike's sponsor child, Marianyelis Jerez will visit us here at the resort. She will like to swim at the beach and the pool. Tomorrow we will visit another Compassion project and are sure to have another moving experience like we had today. We'll update our experiences as we can.
Stay warm in the north! It's in the 80s and muggy here, with rain showers predicted for the remainder of our visit.
Adios and Love to all!
Charlie and Kristen
