I want to tell you about my experience this past weekend with Dove Missions. Since meeting this woman in May, I have been very excited to finally get here and work with her. I got the chance to meet the kids at her club on Saturday and spend an entire day with them reading books, playing games, and just getting to know some of the kids. It isn't outwardly obvious that these children come from such desperate poverty, unless you consider the kids who tell you that they are 12 when they look to be about 7 or 8. We got the chance to be there when a girl, Anamilka, was told that she's been accepted to a private school for which her sponsors in the states have paid. Although we were excited, the hard part was going to be asking her mother for her permission. In order to do this, we needed to go to Anamilka's house. After I piled in the back of a pickup truck with two other volunteers and countless small bodies (kids from the club), we made the journey to her barrio (poor neighborhood). Since I have lived in Santiago for nearly a month now, I have yet to see any of the “poverty” I have read about in text books and been lectured about time and time again. I have quickly come to realize that I live with a very conservative, religious, and by Dominican standards, rich family. Anyway, walking to her house was like walking through a maze of clothes lines, dogs, children, chickens, trash and rubble. A wall of stench hit my nostrils as we approached her front door. To my left, a stagnant pool of water, to my right a swarm of flies. I had to duck down to get inside because the door frame was so low. Imagine a room approximately the size of my bedroom at school (if you've seen it) and then stuff it full of clothes, pots, pans, a table, some crude wall fixtures a coal burning stand with a pot of food atop and a dingy, falling apart couch toward the back of the room. Luckily for me I had Genesis (pronounced hen-es-ses) to hold my hand. She is the younger sister of Anamilka and instantly took a liking to me when I met her earlier that day. I walked in just in time to hear that Anamilka's mom did not approve of her going to school and that she didn't wish for her daughter to have this opportunity. Her reasoning was this: There are so many people who come in to the country in order to “save” their people and then leave. She could not stand the thought of her daughter being giving this opportunity and then having it taken away after a year.
This is where the Executive Director and my friend Liz stepped into her role. With her interpreter at hand (cool for me since I could understand the message two-fold) she launched into a beautiful speech about opportunity, education, how deserving Anamilka is, and how she herself has known what it is to be homeless, without hope and has had to rely on a “step of faith” to lead her to something new. My heart really broke as Anamilka's mom explained how much she loves her daughters and how she cannot afford to send Anamilka to a nice school if the sponsors for some reason decide not to come through. She also mentioned her dream of becoming a flight attendant but never got the chance. To this day, she can only sign her name with an “X”. To some of you, this might sound dramatic. The fact is, it was dramatic. This life, living in a shack with no light, running water or bedroom, is a reality. Liz tells me that I have not yet seen the worst. In the end, after snotting all over my shirt and crying for the majority of the visit, Liz was able to convince her mother that she should let her go. As she put it, “these kids are my heart and soul, Anamilka is my daughter, too. I would never let anything bad happen to her. You know me, you know that I have been here for 8 years. I am not some gringa trying to save the world. I don't give out 'stuff' or give anyone anything for free. An education is the most valuable thing for Anamilka to provide a better life for herself and for her family. She has earned this chance, and it is up to her to work hard at school and with her jewelery business to help offset some of the costs.” I am amazed by the passion and hard work behind this mission. Liz spent the last four months in the states fundraising for the mission and telling the stories of the children that are unable to tell it for themselves.
-Lindsay Nelson
