As Holy Ghost Prep’s 5^th Annual Mission Trip to the Spiritan Mission of Nuestra Senora de la Esperanza came to a close we gathered for Mass with Fr. Don and the people of San Juan de la Maguana in the Mission Church. It is a simple Church with very few religious decorations and objects d’art. However, there is one painting in the front of the Church that symbolizes the hope of the people we went to be with. It is a painting of an expectant Mary (see below). There was a sense of gratitude and joy in that assembly that morning that unfortunately is not often experienced in our home churches. The children from the camp came to say farewell and to make sure we knew that they wanted us to come back and just “be with them” again next summer. (Many of the older children who have been a part of the camp in the past came to see how former missioners are doing.) The relatives of the children came to express their gratitude for our having come to be with them for this special week. Surrounding this church is a poverty that most of us could not endure for very long, but inside that simple church on that hot and humid Sunday morning, there was a wealth of spirit that many of us greatly desire but rarely experience. As with all truly successful missions there is a spirit of reciprocity, but as many of our young missioners discovered, it seemed liked we took a lot more from the Mission than we gave.
Following Mass there was a time for saying farewell and taking photos…this took over an hour. We all gathered over in the playground area that Mr. Malley, the Crawfords, Justin Berg, Marc Connuck, Patrick Higgins and many others have devoted the last few mission trips to building. This simple playground too symbolizes the hope of our mission – to just be with the people and what better way to be with the people than to play and just enjoy this special place to re-create. (…see photos).
After a long road and hot road trip down from the highlands to the Capitol City of Santo Domingo we spent our final night in the Dominican Republic in Juan Dolio which is only around 35 minutes from the airport and is actually on the beautiful Caribbean.
No, we did not spend the week in Punta Cana. We spent the week with the Dominican people, and although Punta Cana is nice, San Juan de la Maguana is
a more special and beautiful place, because it was there that the children and adults of the mission created a place and space for us to be with them.
Yo Maguana Siempre!

Nuestra Senora de la Esperanza

Wyatt Piotti and Keith McQuillian sporting new hats

Pat and Tim Overton relaxing at the resort after a week of service

Kevin Malley says goodbye to campers after the mass

The missionaries during the Sunday service 

Ryan McCormick and Roi Reyes take a photo before saying goodbye

It is Saturday the 7th of July and it has been an exhausting, but wonderful day. Fr. Don made arrangements for us to take all 80 of the campers to a local social club to swim....and we all swam for about three hours. Lots of fun!  After lunch we went on an adventurous ride to the dam on the San Juan River, about forty miles north of the city.  Everyone loved the views of the local mountains and of Lago Presa de la Sabaneta. After sightseeing at the lago a trip to the local bat caves were on our agenda. The caves are always an interesting experience.  After the climb to the caves it started to pour...the ride back to San Juan proved to be the real adventure....down trees, the roads turned to rivers and local "free range"cows and horses were also trying to navigate the roads. Tonight we will be hosting the local youth group for a farewell fiesta....at the Hotel D'Angel. Angel has graciously offered us a wonderful venue for the event and the missionaries have blown up hundreds of balloons for the occasion. Mr. Griffin and Dr. O'Connor purchased a cake at a local bakery.  Tomorrow after Mass and a farewell celebration - at the playground area that Mr. Malley and Marc Connuck worked on all week -  with the campers we are off to Juan Dolio for the night and then our flight back to the USA on Monday. More later!

Ryan and Brian ponder the mysteries of the cave

Robby flees from the dreaded vaca

The missionaries seek shelter from the oncoming storm in the bat cave

The fellas explore the Lago

Lago Presa de Sabanata

Ryan McCormick and Pat Overton taking a break from the hot sun to play some Spanish Sorry

Cass DiYeso entertaining some of the campers in the pool

Tim Overton with a young camper atop the life guard chair at the country club

Mr. Ryan and Luis 

Chaperones Doctor O'Connor and Mr. Griffin

Keith McQuillian, Wyatt Piotti, and Matt Hoover pose with campers on the last day of activities

It is day six of our Mission Trip.  Today we will have our final sports camp and arts and crafts sessions. Last night we went out for ice cream after dinner and then had a
Texas Hold Um Tournament on the roof of the Hotel Angel.  Mr. Ryan provided the prizes and match sticks were used for chips. and the big winners were Kevin Feeney, Wyatt Piotti and Ryan McCormick. Cass DiYeso suffered a last minute defeat when the last card flipped was an ace of spades. Giving Ryan the victory.  Cass tried hard to contain his angst. Tomorrow we will take all of the students swimming at a pool that is part of a local social club.  For most of the students this will be the only time they get to swim all year.  7/6/12

A group of Dominican campers pose with our missionaries after a game of baseball

Pat Overton helps campers in making their beaded necklaces 

Mr. Griffin leads the campers in dancing during the afternoon activities 

Chaperone Tim Overton holds up his rendition of the red, white, and blue at the 4th of July fiesta. , Interestingly enough, these are the same colors as the Dominican flag.

A Fresco from the inside of the Cathedral of the outside of the Cathedral

John Polidoro, Brian Nachtman, and Wyatt Piotti take a break after climbing the steps to the top of the Cathedral in San Juan de la Manguana

Group of HGP missionaries in front of the Cathedral in San Juan de la Maguana. The students climbed the steps to the top of the Cathedral for a wonderful view of the city and the surrounding mountains

Dominican sunset filtered by tropical rain as viewed from the Hotel Angel

Hola Americanos! On July 1st the 26 missionaries from Holy Ghost Prep landed in the Dominican Republic.After a four hour interesting drive, we arrived in San Juan de la Maguana about 25 miles from the Haitian border. Father Don McEachin our Spirirtian host greeted us at the airport and guided our path to the mission. For the first day and a half we organized for our camp and met with the local youth leaders and got to know them a bit. Yesterday (Tuesday), we had our first day of camp. After dividing into groups a variety of sporting activities were held.  In the afternoon - after our siesta - we had an activity session with the 80 children in the camp.  They made tie dye shirts, danced, made some music and attempted to crate some orgami dogs (paro)...it was a lot of fun.  Everyones health is good and the meals provided by the Hotel Angel has been different, but tasty.  Tonight, after our daily activites we are going to have a fiesta to celebrate the 4th of July with our local hosts...cake, dance, hot dogs!  Peace and blessings...from the Dominican Republic...

Ryan McCormick and Connor McMullen dominating in a game of hoops

Cass DiYeso, Sameer Vij, Drew Marus, and Rob Skalicky cheesin'

Mr. Malley shown here building a swing set for the school

Me llamo Cass!

Sam Kuchma with the campers after a game of dodgeball

The Dominicans shown here teaching the Americanos a new game

No Dedos Bobby!

Kyle Speilberger, John Dwyer, Kevin Malley, Kevin Feeney, and Pat Overton with their campers

Sameer Vij tangos with one of the youth leaders at the 4th of July Fiesta 

The Dominican youth leaders can't resist Drew Marus

Kevin Feeney with a Dominican camper

All is good in the Dominican

Marc Connuck and Felix working on the new playground 

Cass Diyeso, Ryan McCormick, and Sam Kuchma with campers

Wyatt Piotti and Keith McQuillian pose with campers after a game of hoops

Two young campers sporting tie-die shirts they made

Connor McMullen, John Dwyer, and Jared Tucillo shown here

Sam Kuchma shown here with a young camper

Hey Macarena!

Wyatt Piotti, Keith McQuillian, Sameer Vij, and John Polidoro making music with the campers

Making tie-died shirts is just one of the many activities the campers participate in 

Jack Hoover hard at work

Wyatt Piotti and Brian Nachtman celebrating with campers after a win in volleyball

Bobby Reading poses here with the young Dominican campers