The play

The Play

Here a baseball field is called a “play”.   The play here is nothing more than a wide open space with mud, rock, and a few small thorn bushes growing here and there.  Some time ago, someone built a backdrop of cement and chain link fence behind home plate, which is currently in a state of poor repair.  The backdrop is the only thing that lets you know that this field was intended for baseball.   People have been dumping their garbage on the sides of the play (and sometimes smack in the middle).  Every time it rains, water from around the houses flows down by the garbage and carries it into the play, leaving the play flooded and full of garbage.  (Despite all the broken glass, garbage, rocks, etc., the kids all play soccer barefoot.)  There is actually a little bit of something resembling grass on the far side, and that is where you will always find several goats and mules grazing (even in the middle of baseball games.)    Around the outsides of the play and ever encroaching are tall thorn bushes.  The thorns get about 3 inches long and go right through my shoes, soccer balls, tires, everything.  Another problem is both people and animals going to the bathroom right in the middle of the field.

In the late afternoons, when the sun isn’t so strong, the play fills up with kids.  The smaller kids run around pushing old motorcycle tires with sticks, play with tops, ride bikes, play baseball or soccer, fly kites, or wrestle (often fight) with each other.  The girl’s soccer team practices on one half of the soccer field which is laid out in the outfield, and the boys practice in the other.  The baseball team or the softball team (sometimes both) practice on the infield, often hitting balls into the outfield where we are playing soccer (people often get hit by fly balls).  Teenagers drive their motorcycles around in circles on the play, showing off.   People cut across the play on foot or on motor as a shortcut to other places.  Small herds of cows or goats are brought back home, cutting across the play as well (leaving their presents as they pass).  People often come out to watch, and stand or park their motorcycle right in the middle of the field, getting in everybody’s way and thinking nothing of it.  Despite all the chaos, the kids keep on playing, unfazed by any of it. 

Children's games

Children’s games

 

There are a lot of children here, and since they don’t have video games like kids in the states, they have to entertain themselves in other ways.  They do watch TV when there is electricity, but most of the time they are outside playing.  They tend to make a lot of their own toys. 

Kites are very popular.  They make the kite out of sticks and plastic bags.   The kite string they make by taking apart rice bags that are made of little strands of plastic about three feet long.  They then tie these strands together to make a long string for the kite.

Another popular toy for the younger children is an old motorcycle wheel and a stick.  They cut the bottom off a plastic container and nail it on to the stick and use it to better steer the wheel and then run around pushing/steering the wheel with the stick. 

Kids also make a million different types of toys out of sticks, string and anything that resembles a wheel.  They run around pushing or pulling these toys everywhere.   One such toy is a “guagau” (bus).  They take an old water bottle, flatten it, fold over the top of it and wedge a stick inside the opening.  They then walk around pushing the flattened bottle around like a sled runner.

            Lately a lot of kids have been playing with tops they make themselves out of wood and a nail, they then wind sting around the bottom and throw it, hanging on to the end of the string to send it spinning. 

February is the month of Carinival, with the biggest celebration on the 27^th.  In preparation, kids have been making whips by weaving the strands from the rice bags and tying this on to a stick.  They then walk around cracking the whips everywhere.

            Of course this is the Dominican Republic and Baseball is king.  Kids play baseball with any kind of stick they can find and they make balls out of whatever they have at hand.  The other day kids were using an old doll head as a ball.

Kids also play dominoes, swim, fish, or just walk around.

sugar cane

Caña de azucar (Sugar cane)

They are currently in the process of cutting the sugar cane around here.  It takes about six months to cut all the cane.   First they fly over in an airplane and spray the cane with a chemical that causes the sugar cane to dry out.  (Not sure what this does to those of us living close by.)  After a few weeks it is dry and ready to be cut.  They set fire to the cane just prior to cutting it.  This gets rid of the long blades leaving just the cane.  It also gets rid of wasps, and other things that like to make their homes in the cane.  (it also causes ash to fly up into the sky and float down like snowflakes, then somehow accumulate inside my house.)  The cane is then cut by hand with a wide machete and stacked in piles for counting.  The men cutting the cane are all from Haiti as this job is seen as beneath any one from the Dominican Republic.  They work 12 hour shifts, and are paid by the number of piles they have cut.  Cane is also cut by machine, which are kept running night and day.  Burning the cane is not essential and they don’t burn the cane if they want to make white sugar, or if they plan to use the plants for replanting.  After the cane is cut it is loaded into open air trucks and then carried off to where it is loaded on to open aired railroad cars and taken to Barahona for processing.  The fields are then cleaned up by hand, or by machine if they plan to replant the field.  Cane seems to resemble grass, it keeps on growing back.  The more it is cut the better it grows, however over time it gets splotchy, or in clumps and so they then replant the field.  10 inch pieces of cane with buds on them are then planted in the ground in long rows, and fertilized.  The field is then watered using irrigation ditches, and pumps when necessary.  The cane grows fast, and will be ready to cut again next year.

Profe in the DR 09

Profe in the DR 09                                                                                March 26, 2011

I have now been in my site about 5 months and in the country 7.  Despite living on a resort island, I have only been to the beach twice, once during training, and the second time in the end of February.   There just never seems like a good time to go.  I always have something I am working on. 

            March 12^th, 13^th was the Chicas Brillantes two day interchange with six bateys.  This was the second interchange we did, this time I was in charge of it.  The theme was “Girls of Science”.  The two day event was absolutely wonderful; all the girls involved had a great time doing science experiments and activities.  The only problem was that none of the girls from my batey attended.  The woman who was helping me with my group did not like who the group chose to participate, and refused to take them.  She wanted to take the same five girls who went to the first interchange (and who are related to her).    Since she didn’t go, three girls couldn’t go.  Since the three girls couldn’t go, the other two didn’t want to.  So I went without anyone from my community.   Life as a PCV.

            The boy’s soccer team had their second game on the 13^th.  They played batey 7, who are coached by a female volunteer who used to coach college women’s soccer.  The boys from here won 1-0.  They played their third game just last Sunday against batey 2.   I was in San Cristobal so I asked an older Hatian man (Blanko) to coach them.  The game was going well until the second half when batey 2 slowly started replacing the boys with men until there were more men playing than boys.  The men also seemed intent on hurting the boys from here.  The coach from here then decided to stop the game and go home.   I am hoping Blanko will continue on as coach of the team, freeing me up to work more with the girl’s team. 

            The girls’ team continues to play everyday.  There are now about 17 playing.  They always divide into the same two teams and never switch it up.   They never do any drills, or any type of practice, they just play.   They never listen to any advice, but always insist I be there.   They are however slowly improving. They are not the most athletic bunch; all the athletes went off to play softball.  However, they seem to really be enjoying themselves, and if it weren’t for soccer, I don’t think any of them would be exercising much.  I have managed to get the boys, small children, and young men to leave them alone while they practice.  

            I started up an art club.  12 boys showed up the first day with notebooks of things they have already drawn.  We practiced drawing something they picked up outside that day and they were all quiet and intently drawing the whole time.  I am hoping to get supplies from World Vision so we can do other types of projects as well.

            World Vision did however give me four sets of chess a few weeks ago.  I plan to start up a chess club soon.  For now, I have been teaching people how to play.  In the evenings my house is full of people playing chess until about ten o’clock.

            I just recently spent five days near San Cristobal about a half hour west of the capital. I participated in training for a program called Deportes para la Vida which started in Africa as Grassroots Soccer.  The program uses sports to teach about AIDS.  I took two young men from my community as well and we are now planning to give the courses here in Isabela.

            I am working on several other projects, trying to get them going.  I am helping plan a men’s soccer tournament with 14 teams from all the bateys.  I am also going to do a four week math camp focusing on students who have problems with singe digit addition.  I am trying to get supplies together to start an engineers (science) club, and am waiting on photocopies of a book to start English classes.  The youth group I am working with is working on the garbage problem in the batey.  

            This morning I spent four hours helping World Vision translate letters from children to their sponsors.  (When they called and asked for my help, I thought it was one letter they needed to translate, not the stack of letters they came by with.)  In return I asked for more things for my community. 

            I have gotten much better at riding on the back of motorcycles; I no longer feel the need to hold on to anything.  I have even mastered riding three to a motorcycle. 

            No one ever talks about the weather here, its always hot and sunny.  Quite a switch from living in Northern Michigan. 

            My clothes are slowly getting holes and rust marks.  The woman who washes my clothes dries them over barbed wire like everyone else here.  She uses the wire that makes up the fence around her house. 

                                                                                                                          

email to friends Feb. 17th 2011

Hi all,

Knock on wood, I am safe and sound currently.  I am in the world vision office in the nearest town to me.    I have been trying to establish a relationship with the people of world vision.  They have money and can help me with materials for my projects.  They benefit by of course by counting any work I do with those materials as work done by them.  Its a win, win. 

I have now been in the DR 6 months as of today.  A little more than 3 1/2 months in my site.  Tonight I have a girls group meeting.  Its the first official meeting.  Last Friday we met but it was just informational.  Some of the girls fought a little after the meeting becuase they did not want one girl in the group.  The young woman that is going to help me with the group also does not want her in the group and told me that if the girl is in the group she will not help. One mother said she will not let her two daughters participate if this girl is in the group.  I asked what is so alwful about this girl, and they said her mother thinks she is better than everyone else.  After thinking about it long and hard, I decided that I am not going to kick the girl out.  I want to give everyone a chance.  Also I didn´t think it is a good idea to let a mother control the group with threats of pulling her two daughters if we dont do things the way she wants.  The whole idea of the girls group is to empower girls.  There are plenty of other girls that want to participate.   As far as the young woman who is/was going to help me, I expressed these thoughts to her, and she said she will let me know today.  The women in the batey do a lot of gossiping and a lot of fighting with each other.  Every day I see or hear at least one fight in the streets.

As far as my soccer project goes, things are going well.  The young men just had a game on Sunday and lost 1-0 against a team that previously beat them twice 4-0.  They out played the other team in everything but the final score.  I am working with the regional secretary of the department of sports along with several others to plan a soccer tournament between all the bateys.  12 teams in all.  Hopefully we can get this off the ground.  If the tournament is successful with the young men, I want to do one with the girls next.
The girls team is doing well.  They have really improved.  Just recently however we have lost half our numbers to softball.  This is not a problem since we had about twice the number of girls as we had before.  Also, I dont care what sport they are playing, just as long as they are doing something positive.  They werent playing softball before and as a result of being out and active with soccer, some decided to start playing softball.  The girls are having less problems with boys/men and children bothering them.  One reason is that I started up a game for the children 8-11 that happens at the same time the girls practice, and I have asked some of the boys to help run it.
The boys team will hopefully have their first game this sunday.  Batey 2, which is about a mile and a half away now has a boys team.  Since we can walk there, we dont have any expenses for transportation.  (always a problem).  The only problem is that it rained a lot last night and it is most likely that the soccer field is flooded again.  I havent seen it yet.  Hopefully it will dry out soon, or the field in Batey 2 is dry.  The boys have become real serious this week.  I have been working on leadership with one boy in particular, and he is now the captain of the team.  He told the others that if they dont come to practice this week, they couldn´t play on sunday.  So all the boys have been showing up everyday. 
Another volunteer working in an orphanage in the east part of the country gave me 3 sets of old soccer uniforms (just shirts).  Someone donated 8 sets to the orphanage.  Needless to say, everyone was extremely excited about the uniforms.  Now if we could just do something about shoes.  Just about everyone is playing barefoot. 
We have been working at cleaning up our soccer field (which is in the middle of the outfield of the baseball field).  I personally have picked up at least a couple hundred pieces of broken glass, and there always seems to be more.  We have been cutting back the thorn bushes but they keep growing back, and we have been trying to get people to stop throwing trash on the field.  We havent been able to do anything about the animals (and people) going to the bathroom in the field however.
I have been using soccer as a means to teach leadership, teamwork and getting along.  Everyone always seems to be yelling, arguing and fighting here in the batey.  I have managed to get the kids that play soccer with me to talk without yelling, to stop arguing and fighting over every little thing, and to stop saying ¨Tú no puedes¨ (you can´t do it) ¨Tú no sabes¨(you don´t know how) or ¨tú no sirves¨(you´re no good).  I am still trying to get them to say positive things.  Step by step.
Wednesday the third grade teacher asked me to teach his kids soccer for gym class.  The captain of the boys team helped me, and we divided the class in two and ran two games at the same time.

I am studying Hatian Creole everyday.  I have a class on monday, wednesday, and Friday.  I teach English to a young man from Haiti who came to the DR after the earthquake in Haiti.  He then teaches me Creole.  I am coming along slowly.  He on the other hand is learning at great speed.  There are a fair amount of Hatians in the batey, and most of the older people were born in Haiti.  The younger people all can speak Creole, but they mix in a lot of spanish by taking off the final letter of the word and putting a creole pronunciation to it.  This of course does not help me with my Creole, since they are teaching me the incorrect way to say something. 

I am planning to start up a beginner English class next Tuesday.

Living alone in my own place is going well enough. Its nice not to be number 14 in line to use the bathroom in the morning.   I had to buy a lot of things for the house.  I rented the small refrigerator, four folding chairs, and the bed along with the house.  I had to buy a small stove and gas tank, pots and pans, lantern (for when electricity goes out, which happens every four hours, then comes back for four hours), etc.  I made a table and desk out of wood.  and plan to make some shelves soon.  Next to my house is a ¨Colmado¨ They sell beer there on the weekends and play very loud music. (Bachata)  It is so loud that it is difficult to talk in my house.  The music goes on until 1 or 2 in the morning.  The house is in a very central part of the batey.  In the evening, I get a lot of visitors, especially the teenagers that play soccer.  I decided to not allow children in to the house and no more than 8 people at one time.  The teenagers come over and play cards.  I just taught them the Japanese game¨Daifugo¨last night and they really liked it. 

I fixed up an old trek mt. bike that a volunteer leaving the country gave me.  It was in terrible shape and required a lot of fixing and a few new parts. (it needs several more new parts but I dont have the money.)  I have now been taking someone out with me to go mt. biking. They have been showing me different two tracks and paths through the sugar cane.  We have only been going out for an hour or so at a time, but as they get in better shape, I hope to go out longer. 
 Take care.

Dan

Profe in the DR 08

Profe in the DR 08

I finally moved into my own place at the end of January.  The house is quite nice by batey standards.  It has block walls, cement floors, corrugated metal roof, bars on the window (no glass), two bedrooms and an indoor bathroom.  That’s as nice as it gets here.  It was used as an office by an NGO prior.  It’s in a pretty central part of the batey, and unfortunately right next to a colmado where they play music on the weekends and sell beverages.  The music is so loud I can barely talk to anyone in the house.  The music goes until very late at night, and is mostly bachata with an occasional Haitian reggae song now and then.   People sit on the rocks outside my door at night.

Since moving in, I have painted the walls in the main room and plan to paint the bathroom.  I have built a table and a desk, and soon will make some shelves.  I have also bumped my head on the bathroom doorframe numerous times because they built it only 5 feet 7 inches tall. 

I get lots of visitors, especially the teenage boys who play soccer, who come over and play cards.  However it is not uncommon for someone I have never met before to just walk in my house and sit-down and talk to me.  I had to make a rule about all the little children coming into my house however; otherwise it would be a zoo. 

            My Creole is coming along slowly.  I study by myself everyday and with a teacher on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  He is a 25 year old Haitian who was attending the university in Haiti up until the earthquake last year.  He speaks Creole, French, Spanish, and I have been teaching him English in return for the Creole classes.  Even though the majority of the people here speak Spanish as well, they always seem to appreciate it when I speak Creole. 

              I have been working with a youth community group.  The group lost some key members and hadn’t met in a long time.  We are working at putting new life back into the group, electing new board members, carrying out regular meetings, setting priorities, and trying to raise money. 

            I am still trying to get the girls group off the ground.  They had a problem with one particular girl being part of the group, and got into arguments over it.  One mother said she would not allow her two daughters to participate if the girl was in the group, and the 21 year old woman who is helping me said she would quit if I didn’t throw this girl out.  When I asked what was so horrible about this girl, they said she thought she was better than everyone else.  After thinking on it long and hard, I decided not to throw the girl out, and told those who were opposed to her that it was too bad if they chose not to participate because of her, but I guess I would have to find others to take their place.   Despite their threats however, no one chose to quit.  

            I applied for and received a grant to put on an overnight girl’s conference involving 30 girls from six bateys for March 12-13^th.  The theme is “Girls of Science”.   We will have several workshops, experiments, problems to solve, all having to do with science.  We are trying to combat the idea that the sciences are a boy’s domain.

            I thought it would be cool to have a men’s soccer tournament between the bateys, and so I took the idea to the representative of the Department of Sports, for the province.  With his help, and that of the regional representative of the League of Soccer, we have formed a committee to plan a tournament between 12 bateys.  We are currently trying to find sponsors for the two day event.  The sugar company (that owns and runs everything around here) said they were interested in sponsoring since both their Haitian workers, and their Guatemalan owners were soccer fans.  We are now waiting to see how much they will give.

            The boy’s soccer team just had their first game ever against Batey 2, who was also playing their first game.  The boys from here won 2-1.  I was particularly pleased with how the captain of the team managed things during the game.  Tons of the fans were yelling at him, trying to tell him what to do.  He stuck to his guns however and did what he thought was right, including not letting a rather good player play because he did not show up for practice all week.   Leadership is new to this boy, and I have been working with him a lot on his skills.  I was also pleased that the team was able to stay positive even when they were down 1-0.  We have been working on that a lot as well.  We have are next game on March 6^th.

            The girl’s team lost half their members to softball.   I can’t complain since the team was too big to begin with.  Also, part of my job is to get youth more involved in sports.  No one was playing softball here for quite some time, and it started back up as a result of the girls being out on the field playing soccer.  So now there are two sports for girls to do. 

            I fixed up an old bike, and have been taking out different people mt. biking.  Rides have been short however, seldom longer than 1 ½ hours, since they are not used to riding. We have been riding two tracks and paths between the sugar cane and the asphalt road up the mountains. 

Profe in the DR 07

Profe in the DR 07

 

I brought in the New Year here in my site.   A lot of people who grew up here were back visiting, even more so than for Christmas.  There was a lot of celebrating up to and well after midnight on the 31^st.   As it was a weekend, this celebrating continued the next two days as well, during which time there was also a wedding in the batey.   Starting on the evening of the 5^th and lasting for the next three days was a large voodoo celebration.  It was to coincide with the “día de los reyes” the catholic holiday celebrating when the three kings visited the baby Jesus.  The voodoo celebration involved a lot of music on drums and homemade instruments, including bamboo horns that as they played them by blowing into them, they also drummed on the outside of them with sticks.  On the sixth, they paraded a little bit in the streets similar to what they did on the 24^th of December, with dancing, music, a man cracking a whip, and the entire procession led by a decorated bull.  The three day celebration was culminated with the killing and eating of the bull, and its bones were then buried the next day as part of the ceremony.   I was hoping to see and photo a lot of the ceremony, unfortunately I was sick with stomach problems that whole week.  (All part of living in third world countries.)

Now that the holidays are finally over, I am working on starting up new projects.  I am forming a group of girls between the ages of 11-15 to participate in a program called “Chicas Brillantes”.   The program focuses on developing self esteem and leadership.   I will be taking five girls to a nearby batey this weekend to participate in a regional overnight conference.  I am also starting to work with students in the elementary school.  I am currently focusing on math, but plan to eventually work with reading, English, and other subjects.  I currently have one small English class, but plan to start up a few more in February.  I am also working on starting up an environment program sometime in March, along with a program for teenagers on life choices called “Escojo mi vida”.

I am continuing to work on forming soccer teams here.  I have three teams formed so far.  A girls team, a teen age boys team, and a young men’s team.  The men’s team just played their 3^rd game against teams from other bateys.  They lost 3-0, but they have come a long way in two months.  The majority of the guys still don’t have shoes yet, and we had a big problem trying to come up with the gas money to get over to the nearby batey, but little by little things are coming together.

 

Profe in the DR 06

Profe in the DR 06

I have now been in my site for two months (more than 4 ½ months in country).  I am continuing to work on forming soccer teams, which are coming along little by little.  I have managed to form a men’s team, a 14-17 year old boys team, and a very large girls team (24 girls have showed up the last few practices).  We were able to get World Vision to donate five soccer balls, and the Department of Sports donated three more.  We have had three clean up days so far, removing large quantities of garbage, rocks, and glass from the field, and cutting back some of the thorn bush that grows all around the field.  (The thorns grow to about 2-4 inches long and are super sharp.  They completely tore apart one soccer ball.  They also go right through tennis shoes.)  We measured out a field that is about 90 yards by 50 yards, and have marked the field by using white gravel to make the lines.  We made goals using two sticks for the goal posts and a rope tied between them to make the top.   The field is still in very rough shape with lots of holes and glass and rocks, but it is a million times better than when we first started.

The men had their first game against the men from Batey 5 last Sunday.  Batey 5 has been a team for more than five years and most of the guys played soccer in Port au Prince the capital of Haiti, before they came here.  They were super good.  They showed up in soccer uniforms and cleats.  We wore white t-shirts and many of our guys were barefoot.  They really took us to town.  It was so bad that our fans clapped anytime we even got the ball past mid field.  Fortunately we only lost 4-0.

  I played as well, despite being about twice as old as everyone else.  About 5 minutes into the game I slipped and fell (no cleats) and cut my leg pretty good (4”long x 1/2”deep-lots of glass on the field).  I finished out the period, during which time just about all 100 people watching, one by one pointed out to me that I cut my leg.  “Daniel, cortaste tu pierna.” “Daniel, …” .  I couldn’t get to the hospital until the next day and they said it was too late to stitch it, so they used something else to close the wound instead.  No exercise for me for one week. 

Christmas was pretty low key here in Batey Isabela.  There were no Christmas trees or decorations anywhere.  Starting on the first of December, one of the evangelist churches would parade up and down the streets singing and playing drums, at four in the morning, every day.  On the 24^th, a different group celebrated several Voodoo gods (lwa) by singing, playing homemade instruments and parading down the streets.  The procession was lead by a decorated bull, followed by someone holding a picture of the lwa up high on a stick, and someone else carried the Dominican Republic flag.  At the main intersection they danced, and played music, and a man cracked a whip.

The family I am staying with celebrated Christmas on the 24^th by having a slightly nicer meal than usual that included cookies (first time I was served something sweet to eat.)  A relative also gave them a plate of food as a gift.    They did nothing special on the 25^th.  

Yesterday I was working with some boys cleaning up the side of the soccer field when a large group of children came running out onto the play (baseball field), yelling and following a boy on a bike dragging a dog tied by a rope around its neck.  Before I could say something, they began to stone the dog, and it soon stopped moving.  Apparently some woman passed judgment on the dog for stealing food, and she had the children carry out the sentence.   Sadly the children seemed to be enjoying themselves.  It was like a scene from Lord of the Flies.   Animals are kept for their usefulness, not for their companionship like in the U.S.

N’ap wè pita.   (“See you later” in Creole)    

Profe in the DR 05

Profe in the DR 05

Well it’s been about three and a half weeks since I swore in.  After only two days in my site, I ended up heading back to the capital to take Creole classes. Creole is the language they speak in Haiti, it’s a mix of French and African languages.  There are several Haitians living in Batey Isabela since the earthquake.  Just about everyone in the batey however is of Haitian decent, and so they speak Creole as well.  Unfortunately for me, they speak a version of Creole that is quite different.  It is a mix of Haitian Creole and Spanish.  So I am essentially trying to learn two new languages while at the same time improving my Spanish.  My poor brain is getting so confused that at times English or even Japanese comes out by mistake. 

 My Creole classes were going to be held in a nearby batey, but because tropical storm Thomas was on the way, and that batey was prone to flooding, they moved the classes to the capital.  The classes ended mid day Friday, but I couldn’t leave the capital until after the storm passed two days later because the streets were all flooded from all the rain.   When I got back to my site, I noticed that the storm had left large puddles of water all around the batey (which was soon followed by large numbers of mosquitoes, I have several flying around me as I type.)  It took about two weeks for everything to finally dry out.   (Mosquitoes decided to stay however.)

Peace Corps asks that during our first three months we live with a family.  This is to help us integrate ourselves better with the community.  The family Pérez is quite large.  Gustavo and his wife, Gustavo’s brother, Son’s Aumaris and Hector, daughter Augustina, and three grandsons and two granddaughters.  The house has five small bedrooms and one bathroom.

During my first three months I am also expected to get to know the people in the community, do a community diagnostic, and start only a few projects.  The community expressed desire for more organized sports for teenagers.  There already exists an informal baseball team, so I have been working at organizing one for soccer. 

So far, I have been merely playing soccer everyday with whomever shows up, to spark interest.   But already I can see that forming a team here will be far more work than doing so in the U.S.  The first day I invited a few 12-13 year old boys and girls to come out and play.  Pretty soon I had every little 5, 6, 7 year old out there as well,  then came a few teenagers on there motorcycles to check things out,  Then came a few older men leading their mules back from work, stopping to see what was going on,  everyone standing in the middle of the field, obstructing the game.   My second day started off with some of the same 12-13 year old boys and girls, but soon some older/bigger boys joined in, essentially chasing off all the girls.  (I tried to have just a girl only game, but no one showed up.  I plan to keep working on that.)  On my third day, I realized that many of the boys who were now playing soccer with me were from Haiti, and did not speak Spanish.  (Four days of Creole training did not quite get me to the point where I can tell them to stop pushing, let alone explain the difference between a corner kick and a goal kick.)  Last week, we had to move from where we had been playing because the baseball team wanted to use the field.  (I objected, but the rest of the guys playing soccer chose to move, after all there were a lot more baseball players and they had bats!)  Three days ago, we were playing when a big Hatian got angry at a younger/smaller Dominican, and wanted to kick him off his team.  All the teenagers were screaming at me in both Spanish and Creole and I couldn’t hear/understand a thing.  I finally told them how to resolve the problem but they didn’t listen to me.  It ended up with the smaller Dominican going to his house and coming back with a pistol.  He ended up pulling out the pistol while standing right next to me.  The big Haitian then ran over and tried to wrestle the pistol away from the smaller Domincan.  (at which point I decided it was a good time to leave.)  As you can see, forming teams here is no easy job.

Profe in the DR 04

Profe in the DR 04 

I finished my training and swore-in as an official U.S. Peace Corps volunteer on Wednesday, Oct. 27^th.  On Friday we had a meeting of all PC volunteers in the country to talk about cholera.  There is a cholera outbreak in Haiti now and it is expected to come this way.  This is a result of so many people left homeless in Haiti after the earthquake.  I had cholera when I was a PC volunteer in Guatemala, so I was asked to speak about my experience in front of all 200 people at the meeting.  (Talking in front of large groups makes me nervous.)

  Saturday morning I left the capital and headed 4 hours by bus to my site, Batey Isabela.   Like I mentioned before, a batey is a small community that was formed by the sugar companies in the 1920’s to house sugar cane workers.   The workers were treated practically like slaves.  They were forced to work all the time, and were paid almost nothing.  Guards walked around to make sure all the men were out in the sugar cane fields working.  Even children were forced to work, unless they could find a place to hide.  The sugar company ran this batey up until 1998.  Things have improved a little since then, but bateys are still some of the poorest communities here in the DR, with very high rates of unemployment.

Batey Isabela has a population of 7000+ people (and a lot of goats!)  There are houses here made of mud and palm branches, palm wood with corrugated metal roofs, and cement block houses.  There are also a few dorm style houses from way back.  The streets are dirt and rock.  The batey is shaped like a rectangle with all the houses crowded one next to the other.  There are very few trees, and almost nothing else growing here.  There are goats and chickens roaming around everywhere, and dogs and pigs lying about. 

 

The house of the family I am staying with for the next 3 months.  The walls are made out of palm tree wood, including the walls inside of the house.  The house has 4 bedrooms and one bathroom.  There are 13 people plus me living here.

My room, the bed is up on blocks to avoid moisture that comes up through the cement floor.  I have a mosquito net over my bed.  There is no dresser so I put my clothes on the chair.  The room was too small to take a better picture of it. 

This is the elementary school.  It only goes up to 7^th grade.  Students either go in the morning or in the afternoon.  That way they can use the same building for twice the number of students.  Classes are overcrowded with 40-50 students in each class.  There are not enough desks, and the teachers don’t have any materials.  There is nothing hanging up on the walls, no books to read, and no lights

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

Profe in the DR 02

Profe in DR 02

Hola GTA,

After three weeks in the capital, the Youth Development training group moved to the town of Constanza for the next five weeks of our training.  Constanza is located in a valley in the mountains near the center of the country.  Its cooler here and very beautiful.  The town is surrounded on all sides by mountains, and is famous for growing flowers and vegetables.  My host family here is very small, just two people, a 51 year old mother and her 34 year old daughter.  However they have lots of family and relatives who come over to visit all the time.  The electricity and water do not run all the time but at least they seem to stick to a schedule.

Last Sunday a few of us rode up in the back of a pickup into the mountains and stopped by a waterfall.  My friend and I swam in the water but it was absolutely freezing.  Colder than Lake Superior!

Aftewards we stopped by a house in the mountains and had lunch.

To be continued...

Profe in the DR 01

Hola GTA,

As I mentioned back in June, I joined the United States Peace Corps and am now in the Dominican Republic.  I arrived August 19^th and have now been here for five weeks.  In order to become a Peace Corps Volunteer you first have to pass ten weeks of training, and I am currently halfway done.  After that I will serve for two years as a volunteer in the DR.  I am in the youth development program which means I will work with groups of young people in all sorts of projects, promoting education, leadership, self-esteem, healthy life choices, physical fitness, etc.  I would like to share with you a little bit of my experience so far.

            We spent our first three weeks in the capital Santo Domingo, which has a population of about two and a half million.  It was very hot and humid and I seemed to be sweating all the time, quite a switch from Northern Michigan.  We had training from 8am until 5pm weekdays and 8am -2pm on Saturdays.  We learned about the history, culture and geography of the DR, how to stay healthy and safe, how to use local transportation, what to expect as volunteers, and of course Spanish. 

           

While in the capital, we stayed with host families.  My host family was composed of four people, a 71 year old great-grandmother, a 50 something grandmother, a 27 year old friend of the family, and an 11 year old great-grandson.  The house was nice, and was located about 15 minutes walking distance from the training center.

During the first three weeks we also individually spent four days visiting a current volunteer to experience a little bit of the life of a volunteer.  I went to a city called Nagua on the northern coast to visit a 23 year old volunteer named Jacob White.  I got to see some of his projects and then on the weekend we went to the beach one day and then swimming in a laguna (sinkhole) the next.  Both were incredibly beautiful, but the laguna had a rope to swing off of into the water and was far more fun.  I must have launched myself off that rope a hundred times.

To be continued…