By Father Douglas K. Clark

“The heat is horrible. They’re in these hot little houses. Even if the temperature is only in the 80s, the humidity, without air-conditioning, is so intense that you’re dripping with sweat all the time.”

Go to the audioslide show and  listen to Sr. Pat describe her mission trip.

So recalled Sister Patricia Brown, ssmn, Director of Family Life for the Diocese of Savannah who recently spent several weeks in the Dominican Republic with a team from her religious order, the Sisters of Saint Mary of Namur, ministering to Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent. And yet she loved her time there. “I’m glad I went. We had a wonderful time.”

The order decided in 2007 to support an outreach mission to the poorest of the people of Haiti, the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere. In 2008, the order sent a French-speaking group, which for political reasons, was not allowed to enter Haiti, so instead they ministered to Haitians who work the sugar cane fields in the Dominican Republic. Some of these workers speak Creole (derived from French and African languages) and others Spanish. The members of this year’s team all speak Spanish as well as French. The team consisted of Sister Pat, Sister Rose Ann, who lives in Santo Domingo, Sister Yolanda Cruz, director of Religious Education for the Diocese of Fort Worth, a novice and two young women who are entering the novitiate in Canada in the fall. “These women are in their 20s, energetic, gifted and ‘normal’,” Sister Pat said. Their involvement bodes well for the order’s future.

The Haitian workers and their families often lack documentation, face economic exploitation, and are ineligible for any benefits, including free medical care in clinics for the poor, or the possibility of Dominican citizenship for themselves or their children, even those born in the Dominican Republic. They live in “Bateyes,” small villages that were erected at the beginning of the last century when “North Americans” set up the sugar cane industry in that part of the Dominican Republic. According to Father Benvenido Fambio Nyi Fambio, CICM, of the local parish, “At its inception, the Batey was inhabited only by Haitian sugar-cane-cutters and some employees of the industry. Through the years these sugar-cane-cutters began to install themselves in the Bateyes and form families.” These temporary dwellings have become permanent.

Pharmaceutical industry

The sugar companies “replant the sugar cane every five years,” Sister Pat explained. “A great deal of the sugar goes to pharmaceutical companies. About 90 percent of the pills we take consist of sugar. They’ve mechanized a lot of the process, but they still bring in workers from Haiti every year for the harvest.”
“There was a strike while we were there,” Sister Pat recalled. “We were driving into Batey 6, and encountered rioting, with tires set on fire in the streets and bottles being thrown. The sugar company wanted to plant more sugar, but the workers demanded housing, which is in short supply. Soldiers came to keep order. We weren’t sure we could get out. At about noon, both sides started negotiating. Soon, the workers started sweeping the street, cleaning up the broken bottles and the tires. This time they got what they wanted, an agreement for more housing.”

Water shortage

“A lot of them now have water towers,” she noted. “But we were without water for several days, because the water is only on in the morning and the electricity is sporadic—even in Santo Domingo, the capital—so it was hard to coordinate electricity with the pump to get water running into our house. It’s a luxury to have a shower every day here. Can you imagine the traffic in Santo Domingo, when the traffic lights go out? They’ve put in speed bumps and dips to slow people down, but they’ve learned to take the bumps at an angle, so cars can head right at you before swerving at the last minute.”

Hurricane Dean in 2007 devastated the area. Sisters from Canada helped with the recovery. A priest built simple dwellings for the survivors. The government eventually expelled him. A new levee, built after the hurricane, “wouldn’t even hold back bathwater,” Sister Pat observed.

The Diocese of Barahona welcomed the sisters’ mission. According to Sister Pat, “The diocese is very advanced, with a pastoral plan for the next 30 years.” The plan entails training catechists and parish “animators.” The sisters went there to help train these catechists and animators and to catechize children in the parish of Saint Martin de Porres, which is staffed by two priests and one brother, all from Africa. Father Benvenido, who has been the parish administrator, will soon return to his native Congo and will not be replaced. Father Pablo and Brother Leon will remain. There is a shortage of priests, many of whom are foreign missionaries, and the Haitian sisters who used to work in the 18 communities that comprise the parish left a few years ago. All except three of the communities are “Bateyes,” which are extremely poor, with an illiteracy rate of 40%, although most now have a school for basic education. But the children often cannot complete their education after sixth grade because the secondary schools are not available or because they must earn money for their families.

Voodoo prevalent

Despite the Catholic roots of the people, only about 200 adults out of the 20-30,000 inhabitants of the parish are considered firmly Catholic. The rest may occasionally attend Mass, but often attend Protestant churches (Adventist, Methodist, Baptist, Evangelical). “I gathered that people considered themselves Catholic one day and Protestant the next depending on which church was offering activities,” Sister Pat said. “There’s nothing else going on in the Bateyes.”

Father Benvenido writes that voodoo (vudu) is also present, practiced by an estimated 47% of the population.

In the face of these challenges, Father Ben-venido points out in a written description that the parish is developing a program of evangelization and catechesis that entails an integral formation: human and religious. “This formation involves human and religious values, pertaining to the reality and the context of the situation in which the population of the Bateyes live.”

The parish is also implementing a formation program to enable adult community animators to assume their responsibilities.

Youth pastoral program

Because so many youths feel almost abandoned by society, the parish plans to create a youth pastoral program with the objective of forming them for the future and is already “forming children and youth in human and religious values through an integral catechesis.”

Father Benvenido describes the parish’s missionary effort as “a service of love and justice, especially among the people of Bateyes who are poor and marginalized because of sinful structure[s], created and maintained by the Dominican and Haitian governments.”

Sister Pat’s team taught religion to children and did home visitations in the morning and helped the formation of adult catechists and animators in the afternoon. The priest had developed a list of the children eligible for catechesis in each Batey, 30 Catholics in each of six Bateyes, for a total of 180. “It was sad to have to exclude the other children who showed up. But the ones who participated knew why they were there and were attentive for the three hour program.” The team taught the adults, some only teenagers, others elderly, Scripture and the Sacraments. Some of the older adults remembered the days when a priest would only come once a year for the patronal feast. “Although they had had very little formation, the adults asked very good questions.”

Determination impressive

Sister Pat was impressed with the determination of the women in particular. One woman, paralyzed since childhood, dragged herself through the dirt to attend each of the sisters’ sessions. “Her wheelchair is broken. She could get a new one, but only if she could get to the hospital to pick it up. The woman across the street was about to receive a graduate degree in education. She brought us a bound copy of her dissertation, which cost her 6,000 pesos, a month’s salary. She was so proud of her achievement. Every morning she left home in a different outfit to hitch a ride on a motorcycle to the Batey where she teaches. Another is taking computer courses.” The men are mostly stuck in the sugar cane fields or seeking work in Santo Domingo.
Activities for adults and youth

The parish had many activities for adults and youth during the week, including a mission, a beach day, and special programs on non-violence and on sexuality for the girls, who tend to have children very young. Sister Pat asked, “What about the boys?” The priest answered, “I talk to the people who are there”—Dominican men and boys do not tend to go to church. Nor do many couples actually marry in the Church, as is often the case in other Latin American countries, for reasons that are not very clear.
“We met a lot of people who were desperate in the sense that they have nothing, and yet they seemed happy,” Sister Pat said. “They have a lot of fun, and constantly make music.”

Asked what would make a long-term difference in these people’s desperate lives, Sister Pat admitted that she does not know. No matter how much is invested, no one knows where the money goes. Unlike Haiti, which has long suffered from deforestation, the Dominican Republic has reforested, but is still terribly poor. “There is no manufacturing,” Sister Pat noted. “The cost of living seemed very high. Prices at the Jumbo store, the largest in the country, were comparable to prices here.” The country basically produces sugar and other raw materials—and baseball players.

People of faith

“I met wonderful people in the Dominican Republic, people full of faith, who had the universal desire to contribute to life. It was great to see the catechists and animators engage themselves with each other on topics of faith. When we got to the Exodus story, they immediately recognized that they are slaves to the sugar industry. But they have great faith. And the Church is doing a great deal to offer people the means of growing in faith, although it is poor in resources. But there is still a great deal more to do.”

Sister Pat is grateful for the contribution from the Savannah diocesan tithe that helped fund her participation in the mission to the Dominican Republic.