We enjoyed our time in Luperon, and tried to repay some of the hospitality we enjoyed by doing some good while we were there.
With the crew of another boat (Tanda Malaika – who you may remember from our Crooked Island story), we found a teacher – Altagracia – running a small school from her home. We thought for sure she would know of some needs in the community, so we went to ask her. It turned out that she needed some help herself.
We organized an over-ambitious project to repair her spalled and uneven floor and remodel her roof, which did not keep rain out at all. The house was made of four smaller buildings together, and really just next to each other, rather than integrated together. The kids were getting rained on!
We drew up a plan and consulted a local contractor. Belinda on Tanda Malaika set up a GoFundMe to defray costs. We spread the word on social media and, within a week, we had the bill covered. I’d like to express massive thanks to those of you who donated! You made a huge difference. We did a lot of the work ourselves -and with the crew of Tanda Malaika we had plenty of hands for the work, but felt it was important to hire a local contractor and labor for the work as well.
Since we were dealing with structures that were over two hundred years old, it was hard to decide where to terminate our efforts. This home had been in Altagracia’s family for six generations, added onto through the decades. Needless to say, several other improvements were added as we went. The final result is not perfect, but it’s a huge improvement.
Altagracia – beautiful soul – was more than grateful, and the smiles of the children were really all the thanks we needed.