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Old News
Old
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Travel
Adventure
travel in the Dominican Republic: Two
hours into the mountains, Maxima Aventura, or Maximum Adventure,
is a wilderness dude ranch for adventure travelers and extreme sports enthusiasts
Around town..
Quest
for the 'Right' Cigar Confounded by the sheer volume of unfamiliar
product on the shelves, after a year of legwork a local bistro owner discovers
an ideal cigar made from a small, Cuban family-run factory hidden
away in the Cibao Valley.
Puerto
Plata's Great American Breakfast Place Any
gringo
with more than a week in town gets a hankering for a back-home breakfast.
Anna’s
Bar & Grill puts “Fat" Eddy back in action Over the winter
hundreds of frequent visitors discovered that one of Puerto Plata’s most
renowned watering holes, Fat Eddy’s Pub, had closed its doors. But last
Friday, Anna’s Bar & Grill held its grand opening just across the street,
with “Fat” Eddy at the helm. /990502
Cafe
Cito: Jazz Bar in downtown Puerto Plata Cafe
Cito has becomea popular hangout for foreign residents
Legal Matters
Law
firms associate to provideCanadian-Dominican expertise Garcia
Abogados & Asociados, in Santo Domingo, and Pierre Caron & Associés
in Montreal, collaborate on cases involving civil rights, commercial law,
family law, real estate, collections and other services requiring
legal expertise and contacts in either jurisdiction.
Buying
Property in the Dominican Republic Title Searches: A good
lawyer will come up with strategies and methods to neutralize disorder
in the system By Fabio Guzman.
Statistics
Regional
StatisticsCrime stats, tourism arrivals and other statistics
Population
Demographics
Airport statistics
for October 1998
Tourist arrivals at Puerto
Plata International Airport: 42,987
Dominican nationals arrivals:
11,009. Aircraft landed: 205 scheduled, 144 charter. Share of market: Britain
41%; Germany 21%; USA 11%; Canada 6.5%; Spain 6.5%; Holland 6%; Belgium;
3%; Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Colombia each less than 2% Click
for Summary by Airline |
Editor’s Note
Robin and Don Morse of Rhode
Island spend their winters in Puerto Plata and dedicate much of their time
to looking after the Costambar Mission School.
In a country in which the
greatest social need is surely education, this retired couple has turned
what once was literally a classroom under a tree into a full fledged public
school housing hundreds of students. Much of their support has come from
the community of foreign residents, through company donations, private
support and from organizing hot dog roasts and other local events.
The Costambar Mission School
is an ongoing effort in which each year one main project gets tackled and
solved, while other opportunities pop up and contribute to the growth and
well being of the school. Thus there is an annual need for funds and institutional
support, while there remains a constant and ongoing need for things like
books, school supplies, pens and pencils, in short, anything that kids
can use at school. Often people coming to Puerto Plata for holidays bring
along an extra suitcase with small things to donate and these contributions
are always appreciated. Thus if you are interested in helping out in any
way, please write to the Costambar Mission School by E-mail before coming
down to express your interest and to make appropriate arrangements.
missionschool@popreport.com
Whatever your donation, large
or small, you can rest assured that it will be put to the good use of this
exemplary project.
Editor
The POP Report |
|
The
Costambar Mission School
Newsletter
January 2000
Dear Friends,
The Costambar Mission School project was started ten years ago
in the small village of Cafemba on the other side of our golf course here
at Costambar in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic. There were found twenty
two students having school under a mango tree with their native teacher.
Fund-raising was started by Costambar homeowners and a school was
then built after the government gave the land for the buildings. With the
increase in enrollment, more classrooms were definetly needed. The boards
of Education of the D. R. has insisted on adding more students and classes
to rhe school.
 |
Students watch
new desks being delivered to their school |
Smith/Enron, an American Company who was constructing an electric
plant not far from the school, donated funds for a well, septic system,
bathrooms and a concrete wall. At the same time, European Union and Forno
Social had two classrooms built at the school. The Canadian Government
furnished fifty desks which the school was very thankful for. Churches,
civic organizations, school children in Michigan, a yearly visitor from
Illinois, homeowners and friends have all contributed to this endeavour.
This
year, the Ministry of Education has decided that baseball will be an obligatory
sport in public schools. Don and I have been collecting little league baseball
gloves for four years, so we will be ready for the sport at the school.
More equipment is still needed and your donation will be appreciated. The
school seems to be ahead of some schools in the country. In San Cristobal,
sixteen out of thirty four have bathrooms. Only six schools in that town
have a library. Before we left last May a small library was built by Don.
Concerned friends have donated funds to purchase Spanish language books
for the library. The students will be allowed to take the books out on
loan. Let us know if you are interested in making
a donation (we are buying books at a discount price in town) All books
are labeled with the donor’s name, so please notify us if you wish the
books you donate to be labaled and cataloged before they go to the school.
The government is now supplying the public schools with their workbooks.
If you donated money for the workbooks last year, the money was used to
purchase library books.
The mobile dental clinic continues to come out to the school to
instruct the students in proper hygiene for their teeth. A local Dominican
doctor is donating his time to examine the students and distribute vitamins
to those who need them. We have been to many health stores and cases of
vitamins have been donated for the students.
 |
Two or the school's most
dedicated supporters, Robert Hildreth and Robin Morse, receiving a donation
from Tim Hall of the Canadian Consulate |
Our special thanks goes out to Robert Hildreth from the Rotary
Club of Puerto Plata for handling the finances and putting together the
plan to level the playground and install an asphalt surface, basketball
and volleyball court. The main concern now is electricity to the school.
We are installing a small transformer to improve power and upgrade those
utilities. All wok will be completed by a professional Dominican electrician.
Thank you for all your supp and contributions in the past and we hope you
will continue to help the Costambar Mission School in the future.
BEST REGARDS,
ROBIN & DON MORSE
All Donations Appreciated:
Robert Hildreth
Apartado Postal 414
Puerto Plata, R. D.
Robin Morse
PMB 235
580 Thames Street
Newport, RI 02840 |