Profe in the DR 16

Profe in the DR 16

The new hurricane season is upon us, the first system pasted over Haiti and my site bringing six days of rain.  Currently the sun is out but there is water everywhere.  It will be some time until things dry out.  All the rain increases the dangers of cholera in the area, not to mention dengue and malaria.  Cases of all three have been increasing in the country.

            I was lucky; I was in the capital for half of the time it was raining.  I had a three day conference on mobilizing marginalized populations.  The conference was held at the Quality hotel on the east side of the capital.  It was the first time in six months I showered with hot water.  The conference started early in the morning and ran until after ten each night.  Could have used a little more sleep.

            My right hand is still in a cast, and I have a pretty good chest cold going on.  It’s hard to stay healthy here.  My system is under attack far more than normal here, and sleep is often hard to come by.  One neighbor has his music blasting until late at night; the other cranks his up early in the morning.  When deafening music isn’t robbing me of my z’s, the dogs, motorcycles, people yelling are.

            Gitana, (the volunteer in Batey 7) and I have put together a small soccer league during summer vacation.  Only four bateys are involved.  We managed to get a grant to cover transportation, and buy 2 soccer balls for each team.   We decided to make the league co-ed, mostly since we didn’t have the money to create both a boy’s league and a girl’s league.  A co-ed sport is something new here.  I have worked on the guys to get them to behave better around the girls, but the girls are still apprehensive to practice with the boys.  Tomorrow is our first game; I can only hope all goes well.