Profe in the DR 27

Profe in the DR 27

I spent six days in the capital last week.  I headed in on Monday afternoon, arriving around 5:30 pm.  Tuesday I had my mid-term dentist check-up, all good.  Wednesday was my mid-term medical exam; all good, except he thought I should get an x-ray of my spine.  The PC doctor felt an x-ray wouldn’t show what we needed to see, and sent me for an MRI instead.  So Thursday I had an MRI.  It took about 20 minutes.  The machine was very noisy and very confining, and the technician told me not to move.  So I lay there, inside the machine, with my hands up on my chest, slightly crossed, feeling a little claustrophobic, and thinking to myself “I wouldn’t make a very good vampire.”  

            Friday, Saturday and Sunday was the Construye tus sueños business plan competition.  The 24 semi-finalists were divided up in four rooms, six groups each room.  While the other competitors spoke of their plans for future businesses, Jairo had emphasized how much he had already done/invested to already start up his business.  He was hoping to show how determined he was, and to show that his plan was more than just an idea.  That it would be successful.  Unfortunately for him, the two judges in that room were weighing heavily a businesses need for the prize money.  The judge told me Jairo by far had the best plan, but that it was clear he was going to be successful even without winning the prize money (a strange kind of competition where the winners weren’t necessarily those with the best plans).   Jairo took it in stride, and we later discussed other ways to raise the money he was hoping to win to buy a small truck.

            I returned Sunday night, exhausted and back sore after six days of sleeping on beds that sagged so bad they resembled hammocks.  By 10pm I was out cold despite the blaring music from the colmado next door.

            Monday was pretty normal, three English classes, Creole class, working with a student on math, soccer, and chess at night.  In addition to that there was a meeting of the education committee, which is in charge of the computer center.  When the committee formed in January, it was thought that World Vision was going to hire someone to run the computer center, so people joined the committee because they wanted a job, not because they wanted to help the community, or even knew anything about computers.  Once they found out that World Vision was not going to pay anyone, they all quit, leaving only the president of the committee.  When there was talk of charging adults to use the center, they came back to the committee, hoping to get money again. 

            On Tuesday I woke up to the sound of women fighting.  It seems the fight was just a continuation of a fight that broke out the evening before over a man.  It’s not so much a case of love and jealousy as it is of protecting one’s economic interests.

            The results of my MRI came in, and the doctor said while I don’t have any single great problem, I have several smaller problems, and asked me to come back to the capital Wednesday morning.

I went to the capital Wednesday and saw the back specialist.  If I can remember well, I believe he said I have a herniated disc, arthritis, a nerve being pinched, muscle spasms, and something else.  He showed me the x-rays and said “ as you can clearly see here …”, however, it wasn’t so clear to me.  He prescribed me two medicines, and told me to bend my knees when I lift anything, even a pencil.  The Peace Corps doctor said she is going to consult Washington about what else I should do.   I got back to my site in the evening on Thursday.

            Friday I rode my mt. bike for an hour, then had art club.  About ten boys were drawing today.  After that several boys came in to play chess for a while.  I taught English and had Creole class, then headed out to the play for soccer.  As I walked out on the soccer field, there was a man with a shovel and wheelbarrow digging up the little bit of grass we have on the field.  When I asked him why he was stealing the grass and making holes in our soccer field, he said “It’s OK, it’s for the park.”   While I applaud his efforts working on fixing the park, I couldn’t understand why he would take the grass from the middle of the soccer field instead of walking just a few more yards to where plenty of grass grew behind the soccer goal.  What was even harder to believe was that half the soccer team was already out on the field while he was digging up the sod, and said nothing to the man, especially when you consider how hard they worked filling in all the holes on the field earlier in the year.  In the evening, while the kids played chess, I was reading Matilda in Spanish.  Some girls were asking about the book, so I read the first chapter to them.  It’s not as easy doing read-alouds in Spanish, but I’m working on it.  I have been reading to a few kids here and there, and plan to do more and more in the future.  It’s hard to find good books however.  Most books I come across talk about things that kids raised in a batey would not understand.  The kids here can hardly read, and need all the help they can get.

            Saturday I rode for an hour, studied Creole, cleaned house, supervised the kids playing chess, studied Spanish, had soccer practice, and ended the day with more chess.

            Sunday after riding for an hour, we calculated the bi-weekly chess rankings.  I also made a checker board using bottle caps for checkers.  We then worked on the soccer field, cutting back thorn bush,  adding more dirt to the field to fill in low spots, and removed glass from the field (no matter how much we pick up, there always seems to be more.)  The kids then played soccer.

            Normal busy Monday.

            Tuesday I had two meetings with representatives from World Vision.  One was to iron out some of the problems with the committee in charge of the computer lab.  The second was to discuss starting a sala de tareas.  They are asking me to start up a tutoring center.  I am going to use older students to help teach the younger students, using games, activities and the computers to do so.  We will start with math and then move into reading.  We will start November 7^th with one group in the morning and one in the afternoon.

            My Wednesdays are pretty much like my Mondays.

            Thursday I had my first English class with Jairo.  We decided that he is around so many Americans in all the different conferences he goes to that he should study English.  After that I went with him to Neyba to buy some long-needed groceries and get to an ATM.  I was down to my last few pesos.  Jairo and his wife were trying to get a birth certificate for their baby born in August.  They have already made several trips to the government office, and were once again told to come back some other day.  Since both of them are very dark-skinned, there seems to be no hurry for the officials to register the baby.  In fact, they are being made to jump through a lot of hoops that someone lighter skinned wouldn’t have to.  They are also constantly being told to come back another day.  The officials are hoping that Jairo won’t have the money to keep traveling to Neyba, and will give up.  Discrimination against Haitians and anyone who looks Haitian is very strong here.  In the afternoon, I went to Batey 5 to further discuss the winter soccer league with Elia.

            Friday involved art club, English, soccer, chess, and in the evening a meeting of the computer committee.  I was supposed to meet with Yasily from World Vision but she never showed nor called.

            Saturday Yanlico arrived at noon, and after lunch we went to Batey 4 to conduct a coaches clinic.  Yanlico is from a batey in the north side of the country where they have a very well developed soccer league.  He played for many years and now coaches.  After the clinic we returned to Isabela and Yanlico conducted a practice with the team of teenagers.