Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (Dominican Style)

Glenny, her mom and children

  The other fund raiser that I mentioned in a previous blog post was to benefit a wonderful lady that we have all come to know and love. Glenny works at JR's Bistro. She is a single mother with two young children and she always has a smile on her face. She has been a great help to me with my Spanish and she is learning to speak English really well. Our friends Joe and Kim, former cruisers that decided to make Luperon their home, discovered that Glenny was living in a house with holes in the roof and walls and a dirt floor. You can imagine the conditions of the dirt floor when there is rain. Anyway, thanks to Jerry, Joe and Kim, they organized poker runs, auctions, bake sales and raffles. We enjoyed ourselves while raising money to completely rebuild the roof, floor and outer walls of Glenny's house. No more walking in the mud for her and her children.

What started out as a project to put a new roof on her house ended up being a complete tear down and re-build. Thanks to the hard work of Joe and Kim and to the generosity of the local gringo population. We all adore Glenny and it was wonderful to know that we were able to help such a lovely person. She is the talk of the neighborhood now and it seems like she has been an a Dominican version of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition!

The house still needs to be painted and we are trying to raise a little more money so that she can have a kitchen sink. I will be sure to post an update.

Before

The is the back of the house

Termite were taking over!

Hard to believe the shape the house was in

Getting the new floor

It was a challenge for the guys to get the walls straight

The house looks great on the inside

Glenny - see, she always has a smile on her face

All the neighborhood children are excited

Here is the kitchen - now we need a sink

Nicest house in the neighborhood!

It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home.  ~Author Unknown