4/6/09
After the people of the Barrio Maria Montez realized we were there only to help them and wanted to spend some time getting to know them, they let us right into their community. We walked down the dusty white dirt road into the heart of the village. The children ran ahead with excitement as we were led by the community health workers. Being the photographer with the giant camera, I get some interesting reactions out of the kids. Some are shy at first while others can’t seem to get enough attention. By the end of my impromptu English-Spanish lesson making animal noises and dancing around like a fool, a group filled with energy and smiles had formed around me. I love how children are children no matter where you are. It didn’t matter that not one of them understood most of what I was saying (in either language!), they were just happy that someone cared and paid attention to them.

4/7/09
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I am here in the Dominican Republic with Vitamin Angels and UNFI. We are going to make one distribution today in Mercedes and a visit to Haiti. Yesterday I went to the Barrio Maria Montez in Barahona where we saw about 100 kids who were all in need of vitamins. The vitamins prevent blindness and parasites in children. There were one-room houses and barely any furniture, but the country I visited today is much poorer than the Dominican Republic. The kids there looked shocked to see Americans. I also saw kids filling up water bottles to drink from an unfiltered river. I am glad I can do something for these kids.

Three hours from Santo Domingo on a fairly decent road is Maria Montez, a Batey in the Barahona District of the Dominican Republic. When we arrived, there were over one hundred children and moms waiting – most had been here for about 3 hours. Dr. Ana Celia Carrero, the Medical Director for Batey Relief Alliance (BRA) accompanied us; we traveled with her last year as well – she's terrific and knows all of the village health promoters.

To accomplish our work at the village level we rely completely on these lo...