Profe in the DR 13

Profe in the DR 13

I had a meeting with other volunteers two weeks ago.  We spent the night at the beach house in Bahoruco (see photo on FB), which used to be another volunteer’s site.  There were nine of us so several of us just had floor space on a sloping cement slab.  It rained at night and water dripped down from the tin roof above.  The beach was ok, the locals have been selling off the rocks on the beach so the beach was actually kind of sandy (at least until they sell off the sand.)  The waves were strong but not as bad as San Rafael which is further up the road.  And any beach is better than the dust/mud of my site.

I had left my cleats which were full of mud near my back door to dry, when I got back the next day, I noticed there were a lot of ants walking all over them.  When I picked them up, millions of ants swarmed all over the shoes.  Turns out they had built a nest in my shoes in the one day I was gone. 

I had several meetings in the capital and was there from last Tuesday until last Friday.  I was planning to stay longer and maybe go to the beach or something, but I got itchy to get back to my site.

 I spent Saturday helping make metal soccer goals.  We worked on them at the sugar mill in Barahona.  The sugar company provided the materials and welding equipment for the goals, and later delivered the finished goals to my batey.   (That evening I was the first to score in our new goals.)  We still need nets, but I am hoping I can get those from World Vision.     

Right now is mango season.  Everyone is eating mangos.  The kids walk around with mango on their face.  And roadside tables are full of mangos for sale.  Apparently it is also fly season.  They tell me that the flies always come during mango season.

Monday I got a call at 7:30am from the sugar company; they were sending a grater out to smooth out our soccer field, and wanted me to tell them what I wanted done.  I had asked for this while I was making the soccer goals on Saturday, but hadn’t thought they would come out anytime soon.  Our soccer field is now in much better shape.  Later in the day, I participated in the newly formed education committee.   They are working with World Vision to start up a pre-school class.   I also convinced them to work on trying to get eighth grade and high school offered here in the batey (our school only goes up to seventh grade).  My idea is to offer those classes at night using the existing school.   This is a long term project as we would have to get it all approved by the ministry of education, and that could take forever.  I am aiming for the 2012-2013 school year.

Yesterday I went to the World Vision office in Galvan and got nets for our soccer goals. (yeah!)   I also went to Batey 9 to get some t-shirts that the volunteer who lives there had brought back from the capital for me.   The road into batey 9 is very rocky and bumpy and I was bouncing all over the place on the back of the motorcycle.  Later in the day when I was playing soccer I suddenly got some muscle spasms in my back.  I called the PC doctor but it was too late to get to a pharmacy so I had to wait until this morning. 

This morning however, I couldn’t get out of bed.  Every time I tried, I got a terrible spasm that shot a jolt of pain through my body, taking my breath away, and making it impossible to move.  One time I got all caught up in my mosquito net and could get out.  I had to move the net and myself little by little to set myself free.   (It all would have been quite comical if it hadn’t hurt so much.)   I had my cell phone next to me, but for some reason the new cell tower must not be working as my phone kept switching between no service and one bar.   I eventually was able to call my friend and asked him to come help, but wasn’t sure how he was going to get in since all the doors were bolted from the inside.  I decided to try one more time to get out of bed and slowly wiggled myself around to get myself in a different position and slowly (with lots of pain) got myself to a seated position from which I eventually was able to get on my feet.  I got the doors open and then went back to my bed as I was exhausted from the effort.  More than an hour had passed since I first tried to get out of bed.   My friend then went off to the pharmacy and picked up the medications.  They kicked in after a half hour and I could move around a lot better.  I`m guessing all the lifting of the heavy soccer goals on Saturday was what set my back off, the motorcycle ride just added to it.

Today marks nine months in country, what a great way to celebrate it, being trapped in my own bed.