Profe in the DR 03

Profe in the DR 03

Hola GTA,

I just finished my sixth week of training, four more weeks to go.  They informed us of where our future sites will be.  My site is where I will be living for the next two years.  I will be in a small community called a Batey.  A batey is a small town or village formed by the sugar companies long ago, to house the sugar plantation workers.  The sugar companies no longer run these towns but the people continue to live there.  Most are from Haiti or of Haitian decent.   The batey I am going to is called Batey Isabella, and is located in the providence of Bahoruco, which is located in the Southwest of the country.  I will write more about my site once I finally get there.

I don´t know if you have been looking up any information about the Dominican Republic (hopefully you have), but I thought I would share a few  things.  The DR shares the island of Hispanola with Haiti.  The DR makes up about two thirds of the island on the eastern side.  The people speak Spanish, however they speak very fast and tend to leave out the letter S a lot.  It can be a bit confusing at times.  The population is about 10 million which is about the same as the state of Michigan.  The land area here however is only one fifth of Michigan´s.  The country has a big problem with electricty.  There are very few places that have electricity all day long.  In the capital, the electricity goes out all the time with out warning.  In some places they have a schedule when it will go out.  Likewise, water does not run all the time. 

                               

Last Saturday we took a hike through a nature reserve and finished off the long hike with a swim in a river. 

                       

           

Hasta luego,

Profe