Ramona - Luperon

Next door to the Kingdom Hall in Luperon there is a dear sister named Ramona.  She has been baptized for four years now and attended Pioneer School last year.  Ramona has donated the land where the Kingdom Hall is located next door.  She donated for a period of 10 years, 5 of which has already passed.  There is another sister that has donated more land for a bigger hall, but they don't have money to build the hall yet.

I asked if I could take pictures inside of her home to show you what a typical Dominican home looks like inside.  Here in the DR there is no such thing as Social Security, so when a person gets older they really rely on their family to support them.  Ramona earns money by baking a special bread that you can only get in that area of the country.  Here is a picture of it:

We actually had to purchase this bread from another sister that makes it since Ramona had already sold her 1,000 rolls for the week - Ramona makes hers in a the shape of a circle -

The bread is called pan criollo or local bread

In order to make the bread she combines all the ingredients in the house and then takes it outside to her outdoor "oven".  It really isn't an oven, but more like an open pit.  She rolls it and then puts it in the big pan and cooks it on both sides.  Since it is not "baked" in the traditional way it comes out as a very dense bread. 

This is her oven room on the back side of the Kingdom Hall



This is her outdoor "oven:  She would make a fire on the cement platform and then cook the bread in the black pan

This is Ramona showing us how she mixes all of her dry ingredients

Michaela and Ramona - Ramona smiled the entire time we were there - except for this picture of course

She also makes a candy that she sells and of course we had to by some - tastes like Mexican sugar candy

As you can from the ceiling the wall only divides the three rooms (living room/dining room, and the two bedrooms) - remember no indoor bathroom - only outhouse I showed you before

This is her pantry that she sells her items from

This is another view of her living room/dining room - her son purchased her the big "American" refrigerator which she doesn't like -remember that the power here goes out so much that the locals have little refrigerators - that way if power is out you have less to lose - they shop every two or three days here