Help the Rodrigues’ get home
Donation protected
In January my beautiful new wife and I made our way to the Dominican Republic, to work and volunteer at a local eco village outside of Puerto Plata.
From the moment we arrived we had great intentions and were ready to dive in and get to work.
Within days though we realized something wasn’t quite right. Pippa started to get really sick, she was having respitory issues, losing her voice and coughing, she was in near perfect health when we left (I say near perfect because for those who know my wife know she suffers from a brain injury sustained in a car accident two years ago).
Gradually she got worse and worse.
Finally.... we found answers
We found black mold on all of the mattresses that were in our apartment, along with the pillows.
We complained naturally, and were told we had to move our own mattresses and find an apartment without a mouldy mattress or pillows. Eventually we did.
When the rain started we noticed noticed we had roof leaks, 7 of them to be exact, we’ve complained and mentioned this to the owner of the camp, to no avail. 8 weeks later we are still leaking from the roof every time it rains!
All the while, Pips always remained positive. Reminding me we were here to help others, to serve them, and maybe if we just kept doing that things would get better.
it didn’t.
weve lost hundred of dollars worth of food because we were given a fridge that doesn’t work properly. We’ve asked for a new one- our request was ignored. The latest loss was a whole chicken and half a pound of ground beef we had bought THE DAY BEFORE.
After 3 weeks of being here we started to “work” for the camp. Hoping we could improve things for the guests, ourselves and the owner. We settled on an amount of money per month and got right down to working. Putting in 12+ hour days, marketing, online social media, grounds work, building improvements. We did this for a month.
After that’s time, we approached the owner about receiving our salary, we had already started to dip into our emergency savings fund to buy food, water, the necessities. We were told by the owner, after her leaving the compound and us in charge for 5 days that there was no money to pay us, so we weren’t getting any reimbursement for our time spent working and we no longer were required.
I have traveled to the next city over, taken interviews, talked to as many people as I can about finding work, nothing is working for me.
And now Pips health is detiorating. Her symptoms from her accident have returned. I have watched as she has become more and more fatigued, unable to think straight and very unstable emotionally.
I am begging for help to get us home. We have depleted our emergency fund. And we are stuck.
It is killing me not being able to provide for her, to get us home, to take care of my family!
I need your help, I turn to our friends and family, and to the Internet.
please help us get back to Canada!
From the moment we arrived we had great intentions and were ready to dive in and get to work.
Within days though we realized something wasn’t quite right. Pippa started to get really sick, she was having respitory issues, losing her voice and coughing, she was in near perfect health when we left (I say near perfect because for those who know my wife know she suffers from a brain injury sustained in a car accident two years ago).
Gradually she got worse and worse.
Finally.... we found answers
We found black mold on all of the mattresses that were in our apartment, along with the pillows.
We complained naturally, and were told we had to move our own mattresses and find an apartment without a mouldy mattress or pillows. Eventually we did.
When the rain started we noticed noticed we had roof leaks, 7 of them to be exact, we’ve complained and mentioned this to the owner of the camp, to no avail. 8 weeks later we are still leaking from the roof every time it rains!
All the while, Pips always remained positive. Reminding me we were here to help others, to serve them, and maybe if we just kept doing that things would get better.
it didn’t.
weve lost hundred of dollars worth of food because we were given a fridge that doesn’t work properly. We’ve asked for a new one- our request was ignored. The latest loss was a whole chicken and half a pound of ground beef we had bought THE DAY BEFORE.
After 3 weeks of being here we started to “work” for the camp. Hoping we could improve things for the guests, ourselves and the owner. We settled on an amount of money per month and got right down to working. Putting in 12+ hour days, marketing, online social media, grounds work, building improvements. We did this for a month.
After that’s time, we approached the owner about receiving our salary, we had already started to dip into our emergency savings fund to buy food, water, the necessities. We were told by the owner, after her leaving the compound and us in charge for 5 days that there was no money to pay us, so we weren’t getting any reimbursement for our time spent working and we no longer were required.
I have traveled to the next city over, taken interviews, talked to as many people as I can about finding work, nothing is working for me.
And now Pips health is detiorating. Her symptoms from her accident have returned. I have watched as she has become more and more fatigued, unable to think straight and very unstable emotionally.
I am begging for help to get us home. We have depleted our emergency fund. And we are stuck.
It is killing me not being able to provide for her, to get us home, to take care of my family!
I need your help, I turn to our friends and family, and to the Internet.
please help us get back to Canada!
Organizer
David Rodrigues
Organizer
Fergus, ON
