The Hole

There is a barrio (a neighborhood) that the missionary here calls "the hole." It is one block over from the church and school at which we are serving. It probably covers 2 square blocks. This is a place where on the surface there is little to hope for. By the time they are 12 years old, boys will most likely be involved in the drug trade and the girls will be in prostitution. Most have very little. Many have never owned shoes.

READ THIS CAREFULLY: The following photos are not "art." They are not "beautiful." I wish they could do justice to the total experience of walking through this "hole." Use your other senses to imagine sour and foul smells, noise of yelling kids, kids crying, kids playing, motorcycles driving, roosters crowing, and also silence.

This place is uniquely colorful; profoundly built. The houses are stacked 3 and 4 high. The materials used to build are mainly concrete and wood. There are textures everywhere...tile, concrete stairs, fabrics, dirt, sand, holes and cracks, tires, wires, clothes lines. The electrical wires are hung like spiderwebs; plastic kites stuck and wrapped around them. Very narrow paths with sewer water and doorways lead to dark living quarters. The place feels crowded but vacant; heart breaking. The younger children are curious, full of life, running around. The elderly are few. The teens eyes, especially the boys, looked hopeless. There are young moms, naked kids, babies being washed in small wash tubs. Laundry with a machine set in the narrow pathway and a hose filling the machine.

There are two things that hit me regarding this barrio.

These people are poor, really poor (honestly, I’m at a loss to describe it). 

The second thing that stands out in my mind is that there are worse places than this along with ignored poverty in our own communities.   

We come here to the Dominican Republic offering service and we do it in our own communities; building, fixing, teaching life skills. Flip flops and food and skills can help. They can provide a way out of the cycle. They can give physical life. BUT they cannot provide what is most important. They can't give HOPE. Most who live in the hole, will likely die in the hole. We will all die. Whether rich or poor, we all face our end.  

There is a hopelessness that strikes literally at the heart of all humanity and its end is far worse than starvation or any other demise.  While poverty and starvation grip this area you see something different in the Christians here that cannot be ignored.  There is a peace that overrides their physical needs.  It is the kind of peace that causes poor children to put their pesos together to give a family poorer than they, food for a week (this really happens!) and people financially capable of leaving choose to stay and be a light to the community.  

This hope found in Jesus Christ. 

Contrary to popular belief, Jesus Christ did not come to save people from poverty, starvation or even cancer (though He could).  Christ came to conquer the worst enemy of man, sin.  Jesus Christ came to resolve the eternally damning result of sin.  Freedom from the bondage of sin found in Christ is the definition of real Hope, Peace, Love etc.  In Christ we can have Hope, Peace, Love etc. just like these Dominican people have in the midst of their physical poverty.  If you pay any attention to entertainment news, you can clearly see similarities in the lack of Hope between the Dominicans in “the hole” and many actors in Hollywood or in the music industry.  It is through Christ that eternal hope is found… though one may battle starvation and/cancer. Though they may die, they will live for eternity with Jesus Christ.  We too can face the challenges of this world knowing we are but a vapor, here in the morning and gone by afternoon. 

This is where there is:

Hope for the starving,

Hope for the cold,

Hope for the religious zealot,

Hope for the thief,

Hope for the victim, and

Hope for the criminal.

Through Christ all can be reconciled to God for His glory!  This is the beauty of the cross.  Broken people can hope no longer in the temporary things of the world, they can hope in God.     

Walking from the church to the "barrio"

This is Jenny's parents' house. She grew up here and came out of this life.

Looking up from the ground by Jenny's house. You can see how high they build up.

The Colmado is a store with a variety of things. The owner of this store attends the church.

A few of us had a coke from his store

We walked along a narrow path held in by a few metal bars. This overlooks some of the barrio below.

The paths of the barrio wind back and forth and up and down revealing "rooftops" and garbage below

They ride motos through very narrow paths with ramps to make it up and down

the white in the center is a washing machine with a woman holding a hose in the top of it

some new construction. new footings for building vertically

new wood. there was a fire recently that burned 35 homes.

the plastic on these wires are kites that got caught

the left is an area under homes

lots of garbage between the houses

this little girl followed us through the whole way

this girl on the left attends the school at the church. this is her little sister.

the electrical jungle

this house/lot is just between the church/school and the barrio

the contrast between the barrio and this house only a half a block away

Barry and pastor Pedro Juan walking back to the church

the white building is the school

The Dominican flag. Tomorrow is Independence Day.