The Beautiful Children

Hello from Dominican Republic! What a beautiful spot! I wish I could post pictures but we are having trouble getting our pictures from our camera to the Internet. If we can't figure it out I will definitely post some when we get home.

I had bought a ton of supplies and toys for the children in PEI and had packed our bags ready for the airport. Just my luck, we get to the Halifax airpot at 4:00 in the morning and they tell me my luggage is too heavy! I didn't know there was a weight restriction! They told us it would cost $200 to pay for the extra weight. Well, Peggy, Matt, Chris and I opened up all our suitcases and carry on bags to move things around. I kept insisting it was very important we take all the stuff for the kids (it filled almost one entire suitcase and was the cause of the weight issue!). We finally got it all worked out with all of us carrying heavy bags onto the plane so our checked in bags wouldn't be so heavy. IT WAS SO WORTH IT!
We were able to go into a few villages and visit many children. We went on a Jeep Safari with about 20 other people and we had so much stuff for the kids we just kept passing it down to everyone on the jeep/bus and telling them to pass it out to the kids. We all had a ball. I had packed scribblers, pencils, crayons, markers, pens, looseleaf, erasers, pencil sharpeners, toothbrushes, toothpaste, hair clips, bouncy balls, purses for the girls, hairbrushes, mirrors, combs, sunglasses, stickers and BAGS OF CANDY! Definitely a favorite with the kids. The kids would run after the jeep and we would throw stuff out the back. Quite a few times the driver pulled over so we could personally give out stuff to the kids. They were so excited and it was such a humbling experience for all of us on the jeep. I can't wait to post the pictures because the children are absolutely precious and beautiful. Chris and I vowed we would come back and bring even more stuff and stay for awhile with the kids.

I wasn't able to visit the orphanage. It works a bit different here as families are very poor so they send their children to the orphanages but on weekends the kids go back with their parents. Because it is Easter and Holy Week the kids are with the parents and the orphanages are closed. Here in Puerto Plato there is a boys orphanage and a girls orphanage. Many locals have told me there are many children who need to be adopted!

When we come back again we will make sure it's not during Easter - both the orphanages and schools were closed because of the holidy. What was good, though, is we were able to visit many children in the villages at their homes and in the streets of their village. We saw their moms and talked with them as best we could with the language barrier.

With a bursting heart,
Tammy