La Romana
Anne
and
Laura (
pictured at left eating lunch) make their home
in
La Romana, population 100,000. La Romana is located on
the Southern coast of the D.R., two hours East of
Santo Domingo.
The city is named after the Roman scales used to weigh sugar cane. La
Romana is known for the
sugar cane industry and the largest sugar
cane refinery in the country is located there. The city also has a large
number of "Free Trade Zones". Foreign companies set up assembly
plants in the country to take advantage of lower wages. The advantage
to the D.R. is that the Free Trade Zones employ many people who would
otherwise be unemployed.
Anne
and
Laura (
pictured at right) work at the "
Niños
y Niñas de Cristo" (
Boys and Girls of Christ)
Orphanage. The Orphanage has 80 children. Five boys less than three years
old and 75 girls ages three months to 18 years old. The orphanage is a
non-denominational Christian ministry supported by Swiss, U.S. and Italian
sources. The girls were overjoyed when they found out that Anne and Laura
were staying six weeks. Many foreigners come through the orphanage but
are usually there for less than six hours, so six weeks sounded too good
to be true. They would ask Anne and Laura how long they were staying,
then go tell a friend and then both would come back to confirm that the
first one got the story right, etc. Both Anne and Laura love their girls
and will have a hard time saying goodbye when their term is up.
Laura
painted a couple of murals on the newly painted bedroom walls. One of
a child sitting on a cloud playing with balloons and another of a child
in a crib.
Laura is also working on some watercolors for her major D.R. project (
pictured
at left). Her subjects are people she has met or houses she has seen
in La Romana. Laura and her Grandmother are
pictured at right.
Anne
(
pictured at left) enjoys her family and her four sisters ages
12, 15, 19 and 20. She spends most of the time with the younger two since
the older two are busy college students studying medicine and engineering.
Dad is an evangelical pastor which means church five days a week. In general
La Romana is very religious with "an evangelical church on every
corner".
Anne
and Laura (pictured at left eating lunch) make their home
in La Romana, population 100,000. La Romana is located on
the Southern coast of the D.R., two hours East of Santo Domingo.
The city is named after the Roman scales used to weigh sugar cane. La
Romana is known for the sugar cane industry and the largest sugar
cane refinery in the country is located there. The city also has a large
number of "Free Trade Zones". Foreign companies set up assembly
plants in the country to take advantage of lower wages. The advantage
to the D.R. is that the Free Trade Zones employ many people who would
otherwise be unemployed. 
Anne
and Laura (pictured at right) work at the "Niños
y Niñas de Cristo" (Boys and Girls of Christ)
Orphanage. The Orphanage has 80 children. Five boys less than three years
old and 75 girls ages three months to 18 years old. The orphanage is a
non-denominational Christian ministry supported by Swiss, U.S. and Italian
sources. The girls were overjoyed when they found out that Anne and Laura
were staying six weeks. Many foreigners come through the orphanage but
are usually there for less than six hours, so six weeks sounded too good
to be true. They would ask Anne and Laura how long they were staying,
then go tell a friend and then both would come back to confirm that the
first one got the story right, etc. Both Anne and Laura love their girls
and will have a hard time saying goodbye when their term is up.
Laura
painted a couple of murals on the newly painted bedroom walls. One of
a child sitting on a cloud playing with balloons and another of a child
in a crib. 
Laura is also working on some watercolors for her major D.R. project (pictured
at left). Her subjects are people she has met or houses she has seen
in La Romana. Laura and her Grandmother are pictured at right.
Anne
(pictured at left) enjoys her family and her four sisters ages
12, 15, 19 and 20. She spends most of the time with the younger two since
the older two are busy college students studying medicine and engineering.
Dad is an evangelical pastor which means church five days a week. In general
La Romana is very religious with "an evangelical church on every
corner". 