Life is an all-day, every day struggle to turn something into money for Vanessa and Shelia. They are 19 and 16 respectively. These young women live in a mixed Dominican/Haitian Community called “Hole of the Pigs”. Their work consists of cleaning up plastic jugs that have been found in the garbage dump. They use diesel fuel to get the labels and glue off of the outside by scraping and then with Clorox and soap water they wash the buckets inside and out using a toothbrush and bottle cleaner. They make $1RD peso/bottle that equals (for those who want to do the math) - 2.16 cents US or next to nothing. They had an estimated 5-600 to clean on the day we met.
Sheila lives in the community with her boyfriend. Vanessa is married her husband is in Haiti Right now he goes back and forth to get work and take money and items that he has gathered in the DR to sell back in Haiti.
They have a boy who stays in Haiti with his grandmother.
We will be spending more time with them and trying to get to know them better in the coming weeks. Please pray for the development of the relationship and that they respond to an invitation to church and that the power of the Gospel of Jesus does a work on their hearts and minds. Pray for their salvation.
