First barrio visit outside Jarabacoa

When we were finished working at the orphanage today we were taken to see a drop-in center in Palo Blanco that Kids Alive has been running for several years to serve the needs of the children who are not fortunate enough to live in El Arco! We met Jan who runs the center; she is from Oregon and has been doing this for work for 20 years and is very non-plussed about it when she shares her stories. She reminded me of Mother Teresa when we met with her. The center provides the children a full meal in the afternoon Mon - Fri and after school academic support. These children live in a barrio, no running water or electricity let alone a desk to do homework on! Some of the shacks have a chair and maybe a little table. As we walked the rocky lane in the barrio Jan explained that the conditions had improved since she started in 2001...hard to imagine that conditions were worse that what we were seeing and smelling! One of the issues Jan shared with us was that witch-doctoring still exists and a short while ago they had an issue with an 18 month old baby who was ill. The grandmother who was raising the children believed that draining the blood out of the baby would cure her; intervention didnt work, they drainined the blood and of course the baby died.