Yandry

The one person who truly opened my eyes on this trip was a twelve year old boy named Yandry. We met Yandry in Santo Domingo on our second day there. I did not really know who he was but he walked into the church while we were painting and went right to work. He spoke very little English and most of us barely speak a word of Spanish but we found a way to communicate. Yandry's family is very poor. At home he and his six brothers and sisters sleep on the floor. He wasn't able to attend school and his older brother, who we met later, was already working and trying to provide for their family. It really crushed me when we were all eating at the Bread Shop in the Church after dinner one night. None of us wanted anymore fruit that we had so we decided to give them to Yandry. His face lit up and all I could think was that the fuit was probably all he had to eat that day. He never complained about work and he always worked as hard as any of us.  But he did it on an empty stomach. The entire Santo Domingo team was affected by the heart of this twelve year old boy. On one of our last days in Santo Domingo we were planning to go to the river and go cliff diving. Yandry arrived that morning as always but since he was in charge of watching a five year old boy he could not go with us. Katty who helps run Elohim took the little boy to the nursery upstairs so that Yandry could come with us that day. He was so excited to be able to go with us. The night before we left we all had the opportunity to say goodbye to Yandry. It was one of the hardest things I think any one of us has ever had to do. He was happy to take pictures with all of us and went around giving every single one of us a hug more than once. This boy impacted my life forever. He was so happy and so grateful for everything he had even though it was so little. In America we always need more but he was happy just to receive our hand-me-downs from our donation pile. If I am lucky enough to return to Santo Domingo next year, I would only hope to see Yandry again and possibly find a way to help his family out.
                                                                                   -Adelia Stranko