I arrived in Punta Cana last night with Mark Robinson and Ken Speers from Ontario. These two dedicated volunteers have been managing the Canadian trips to the Dominican for several years now. They are here now for 8 weeks to receive and manage all of the groups, 140 people in total this year including the Nutri-Lawn group. We made it through customs with our 10 hockey bags of donations and relief gear and to the local hotel to stay the night.
I arrived a couple of days before the rest of our group to finalize some arrangements for equipment and supplies. We are waiting in the hotel lobby now for the NPH director to pick us up and start the 3 hour journey across the South East corner of the Dominican to San Pedro where we will work for the next week. Before we leave Punta Cana, we will be visiting Roco Ki Golf Course (www.rocoki.com) where the course superintendant Damon DiGiorgio has graciously offered the use of their brand new Toro TRX Trencher and any hand tools we need to borrow for our project. Thank you to Damon for his generosity, and to Brandon Mathews of Toro (Latin America and the Caribbean) for putting us in touch with him.
Once we arrive at NPH, our first project is to receive the Sea Container that was shipped here a month ago. It is currently sitting in port. Tomorrow’s project is to supervise the grading of the field with a local pay loader that we hired, make contact with the PVC Pipe supply company to ensure our 1.5” pipe will be delivered to the site on Monday and to arrange for Bermuda Grass Sprigs to be delivered on Wednesday for the installation of the turf.
The weather is 30 degrees and humid….a drastic change from the sub zero temperatures at home.
