La Vega
Is a large community (by Dominican standards) located in the middle of the country, founded by the Spanish, as a center for plundering the island of it’s gold. The statistics say the population is 25,000 but it’s easily double that, or more. To the east of La Vega lies a fertile plain, (which is what La Vega means) where many crops are grown, especially rice. To the west is a rugged mountain range, which hosts the highest peak in the Caribbean, Pico Duarte, at almost 11,000 feet. The drive from Santo Domingo takes over an hour on the countries main North/South Artery, the Autopista Duarte. As you enter La Vega from the east and navigate through narrow streets on a confusing non-grid layout, you must fight your way through congested traffic, buses, taxis and motorcycles before you come to a community known as Maria Auxiliadora, or “Helping Mary”.
Maria Auxiliadora is nestled in the first steep foothills of the mountain range at the furthest outreaches of Southwestern La Vega. As the population of La Vega has swollen, people have started to occupy these steep hills on the outskirts of the city with their small shacks. As you enter Maria Auxiliadora the paved roads give way to dirt, mud and rock streets strewn with trash and puddles. On both sides of Maria Auxiliadora’s main street, which leads to the church, there are many “tiendas”, or stores, butcher shops displaying freshly butchered chickens and goat, beauty shops full of women fussing over each other, barber shops with men talking loudly while getting trimmed and shaved with strait razors, lottery ticket vendors tempting the poor with easy money, “colmados”, or corner stores, which are home to animated conversations and games of dominoes for those who are without work or passing by with nothing to do. Street vendors have set up shop on the sidewalk. Mostly, they offer fresh fruits, vegetables, and household wares. Children playing with homemade toys, dogs sniffing for food, rickety horse drawn carts rattling by, cars spewing bluish clouds of diesel exhaust, bony cattle grazing, radios blasting merengue, bachata and reggaetone, televisions blaring melodramatic Spanish soap operas, abundant and overflowing trash everywhere, shaded porches with families watching passersby, trucks announcing “plantains for sale” with loud bullhorns, grandmas rocking babies, damp ever-present heat, sudden rain showers, all add to the plethora of sensations one has spending the day in Maria Auxiliadora.
As we continue down main street Maria Auxiliadora we approach some steep hills; at the bottom of one the Iglesia el Camino is situated. The streets end but the neighborhood stretches even further back and outwards towards the mountains where the community known as “La Loma”, or the hill sits on the slopes surrounding Maria Auxilidora. Many of the poor live here in homes built of wood and scraps, with leaky tin roofs and dirt floors. It is a good location for the church and for the new water system as it is accessible to the poorest people living in the hills above. The church is a two-story building. The sanctuary is located on the first floor and very simple, almost like a warehouse. Classrooms and offices are on the second level, crowded with computers, books, papers, posters, guitars and all the other things available for educating the children. The water system distribution point is located in front of the church, while the components are in the back. It has the smell of fresh paint and is sparkling new. We anticipate that many botellones will be passed through this window and that many will benefit from the clean water at an affordable price.
