VIncentians at Work in the Dominican Republic

$5,000 builds a 30′ x36′ chapel and a new understanding of Vincentian CommunityPatrick Tracey writes… “I Saw St. Vincent’s Work In the Hills of the Dominican Republic”

Last Feb. I partnered with a group of fellow lay Vincentians on a community-building project in the Dominican Republic. These people were involved in the St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) and Catholic Charities in Nassau Co. They were going on their annual service trip and had advertised a couple of open spots. I had been looking into developing an International Plunge (or service week for students) service opportunity for St. John’s University and thought their experience and contacts would be a great lesson in how to proceed. St. John’s and Campus Ministry let me join this group for two weeks.

The group was made up of what might seem like very ordinary people retired cops, nurses, and senior couples. But they were extraordinary in that they had raised $5000 and that was enough to sponsor the materials needed to build a 30′ x 36′ chapel in a village in the hills. For me it was a great example of worldwide Vincentian community. This is the kind of community inspired almost 300 years ago when he organized relief for a sick family in Chatillon, France.

Each year for the previous 7 or 8 years this group of SVDPers had done some fund-raising, networked to find a community in the Dominican Republic (DR) that was in need and assisted them on a building project. Their main network in the DR was through Manolo Feliz who is the national president of the SVDP in DR, this man is simple person who has dedicated so much of his life to the care of the poor as St Vincent had done! And Fr. Luis Quinn who is a heroic pastor to the people of the DR. He has done so many advocacies for the local people, through his actions, preaching and organizing, that the government officials recognized him with the title “Protector of San Juan Ocoa”. Also Sr. Theanny Nunez, who ran a complex in San Juan Ocoa that included: an orphanage, a trade school for boys and girls, a hospital, and a nursing home, helped us immensely. The DR has close to 14% unemployment, serious environmental issues and an economically unjust system that sees the richest 10% of the people make and consumes 40% of the income and resources. That wide disparity perpetuates poverty.

Numerous people on Long Island had helped to sponsor the build. These caring people also collected medical supplies for us to bring to the Sisters, who do so much pastoral care with so little. ANOTHER STORY IN ITSELF…. These were not exotic prescriptions they needed, but simple cold, pain and diarrhea remedies that we take for granted. Just a little ways outside of San Juan Ocoa the paved road ended and running water was not readily available, we were fortunate enough to carry bottled water for our team. Electricity in the hills is rare; perhaps one merchant in the smaller villages might have a couple of solar cells and batteries. Most people made due with flashlights, candles and transistor radios. We rented a couple of solar units and had two electric lights, which made us the center of the small village, Tromojos, where we headed to work. Jack Eschmann, who is the veteran leader of the group, and Manolo had arranged for us to help Tromojos get their chapel built. Manolo and the SVDP visited at the site, transported beds, arranged for all our accommodations, and invited us to a community meal on the weekend and their planning meeting with the local leaders.

We left everything but what we needed to work at Sr. Theanny’s school and headed out in the SVPD’s van that they lent us for our two weeks in DR. We would work for the next five days in Tromojos, and come back to school where we were able to use real beds and showers in the dorms for the weekend. In SJO, where the school is, the park with a plaza across from the church was the center of town. Small cafes, shops, restaurants, crafts people and vendors gathered around the plaza. The weekend it seemed like all the people young and old came to that central area. The second week would be about the same schedule.

The trip to Tromojos was two slow, bumpy hours drive up into the hills. The major modes of transportation for the people are walking and small 50cc motorbikes, on which as many as four ride and no one where’s a helmet! Once we left town you could see poverty wherever there was humanity, except for the occasional large plantation. They lived in wooden shacks with dirt floors and corrugated tin roofs, known as “flying razorblades.” They are called this because in a storm or heavy wind they might be torn off and found embedded in a tree or another house, if not a person.

That is one of the reasons why a solid brick chapel is more than a place to pray, it is the community center like the church in town, a safe haven and a bastion of hope for poor people with so little else. On our way up and up the hills we made a few stops at various families and villages where Jack and the group had worked previously or had made friends. The Rosary Society from Long Island had given us hundreds of very simple, inexpensive rosaries, which we distributed. The people, especially the children, were overjoyed; we had given them a great gift. You could see many didn’t have enough, of things we take for granted and even the basics, their huts had no electricity or plumbing and yet their smiles were full of joy.

The kids loved baseball and they played it with makeshift bats and a ragged ball on a rocky slope in back of where the chapel would be. They knew all of DR baseball players in the major leagues, Soriano, Sosa, and many more. We helped the young baseball players to fix up the field a little and we got them a couple of bats and balls. We gave the team a couple of carving tools to use in future bat-making, an equipment bag and bases we made out of canvas.

The villagers had already dug out the deep troughs where the four walls of gray block would begin. The government doesn’t help with project like this for the poor small villages. So it is left to the SVDP, the pastor, the farmers associations, the people and the Vincentian Family to figure how to get it done. The farmer’s association lent tools to work site, sponsored the Dominican foreman and the one other professional, the mason. They had jury-rigged a water supply (nature fed) that worked most of the time, except for that one late afternoon I was a soaped up!

I was inspired with the communal effort. Outlying villagers joined the work site; previous project partners would come up the road on the back of the occasional truck. Everyone helped in some way. Children helped carry buckets; some neighbors brought us a couple of chickens (still alive!), men who had work would come later and relieve people who had been at the task all day. One elderly lady gave us a couple of avocados, saying “May (MUY?) Gracias, no tengo mas.” It is amazing, when you are blessed to work with poor, simple down to earth people, it is easy to understand St Vincent’s compassion and if you get to help, even a little, you can appreciate his zeal for service. This hard work, steel reinforcing of cement and brick, was an experience of welcoming joy that came together each evening with prayer. We would say the rosary, alternating English and Spanish decades, after someone opened with a song or reading. They prayed a litany of saints and sang a song to the Blessed Mother, who they revered. The prayers were vibrant community events, with hand made bongos, candles, flashlights, and contributions from everyone.

When we left at the end of two weeks the chapel was almost a third of the way completed. And we were about a third of the way closer to understanding what Vincent experienced through his service. We had planned to leave work clothes, gloves and some tools, and they appreciated them. BUT THEY GAVE ME MUCH MORE. One of the brightest young fellows, who was a great worker, a terrific player, but not going to school, we made arrangements for him to go to Sr. Theanny’s school with sponsorship from our group.

I learned a lot on that Vincentian Family trip. It helped me to see that those of us who have so much in the way of worldly goods can learn true community by sharing and serving others. This service trip enlivened my personal response, as a part of the worldwide Vincentian mission. We are already looking into connecting our Habitat Club with one of Manolo’s projects next year.