When Kids Anticipate

Here's an interview with our kids, C (8) and E (10).

What do you think about our upcoming trip to the Dominican Republic?

C: I think it's going to be fun. We're going to get to go to a beach and it's going to be cool to build a school.

E: I'm excited about the trip because I think it's really cool that we're going to help some people who are really in need. I heard a story from someone in our VBS last year (who went to the DR on a service project last year) that they made a friend there and I think it would be really cool to make a friend in another country. I don't remember being to another country. So, I'm really excited to go out of the country. I'm also excited to go to the beach. I think overall, it's going to be a fun trip to go on, especially since we're going with people that we know from church. I'm excited to do the VBS (vacation Bible school) in case we get to do that.

What do you think it's going to be like there?

C: I think it's definitely going to be hot.

E: From the pictures I've seen, I don't think the buildings will be very nice or modern. I'm not expecting that people will be dressed in very fashionable clothes. I think the people are going to be kind of nice and really excited and have smiles on their faces because I don't think they get to see other people very often. And since we'll be helping them, I think they will like it.

C: It's going to be cool to talk Spanish to them. I think it's going to be cool to meet Jacob's friend because I've never met a Dominican Republic person.

E: I've always imagined it kind of bare and flat and kind of dry, besides the ocean and trees.

What do you think will be the most different from our culture?

C: They have to go fetch their water.

E: I don't know for sure, but I think they have to go get their food.

If you could do anything you want with the village kids, what would you do?

E: I would get to know them by just talking to them and getting to know what their culture and lifestyle is like. 

C: I would play with them and I would ask them what their favorite color is and favorite food and favorite school activity.

E: I would teach them some of our favorite games and if they didn't have the same games that we have in America, then I would teach them those games. I would definitely play with them and also if they really like to learn and didn't get to go to school, I would teach them some tricks for math facts and try to teach them to read.

Like what games?

E: Like tag, hide-and-seek, seaweed (a game on the trampoline, but you can do it without the tramp). I would maybe teach them volleyball because I think they would really enjoy it.

C: Like football or basketball or soccer, because they probably don't even have a tramp.

I would say "would you like to play 'futbol'?"

E: But they probably already know how to play soccer.

C: Beisbol. 

What do you think your favorite food will be there?

C: Probably nothing. I don't know what they have.

E: I think I will like the rice. I studied what kind of food they have in the Dominican Republic and from what I remember, I think that my favorite will be rice.

What do you know already about the Dominican Republic?

E: They celebrate a lot of the same holidays that we do and the Dominican Republic shares an island with Haiti.

C: They eat frog legs and crabs. Sammy Sosa used to play for the Cubs.

Is Sammy Sosa from the DR?

C: Umm, yeah.

What else would you like to share with our friends and family about our trip to the DR?

E: Joaquin from the Dominican Republic (who works for Missions Door in the U.S.) is going with us and is going to translate for us. 

Faces and Scenes of Villa Hermosa

Economics of Water

Do you take clean drinking water for granted? I do.

Yet 1.1 billion of our fellow human beings do not have access to an improved water supply, according to the 2006 United Nations Human Development Report.

Looking at our recent home utility bill, I see that we pay $3.08 per 1,000 gallons of water. As far as I know, it's generally good drinking water. Nevertheless, we drink even cleaner water via the filtered water dispenser on the refrigerator door. The grocery store one mile from our home sells 5-gallon bottles of drinking water for $6.99. A local distributor will deliver (presumably with a service contract and equipment rental) for $6.85 per 5-gallon bottle.

The median household income in my suburban county, after income taxes, is somewhere in the vicinity of $200 per day. So a 5-gallon bottle would cost my neighbors about 3.5% of a day's wage.

Outside the city limits of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, a 5-gallon bottle of purified water on the regular market sells for the equivalent of US$1.25. More than half of the households of one of these poor communities live on less than US$2.00 per day, according to a Harvard study. For these people, a 5-gallon bottle of safe drinking water costs them the equivalent of more than 60% of a day's wage for the family, or effectively 17 times what it costs my neighbors.


Thanks to the contribution of a generous donor, the visionary collaboration of two non-profit organizations (Ministerios Benedicion in the D.R., and Missions Door in the U.S.), the work of a group of volunteers who have gone before us and the selfless leadership of local pastor Jose Rodriguez, clean drinking water now flows abundantly and more affordably in Villa Hermosa.


The mission of the Villa Hermosa water project, pictured here upon its completion earlier this year, is:

"To provide safe, clean and affordable drinking water to the underdeveloped community of Villa Hermosa through a self-sustained economic development project that will allow the local church to provide spiritual, physical and social healing."

May we be ever more thankful for the bounty we receive; may we increasingly and joyfully lavish our abundance on others; and may we steadily realize that ultimately, provision comes graciously from our Creator.

Grace and peace...