Profe in the DR 19
Sunday June 26th, I headed into the capital. It was the end of a holiday weekend and all the busses were full. I had to wait three hours for one to stop, and then I had to stand for the first hour fifteen minutes. I saw the doctor about my finger on Monday. He wanted me to spend the week in the capital to do physical therapy but I wanted to get back to my site since I had work to do. I spent one extra day in the capital and went to therapy twice to learn what to do and am now doing my own therapy for my finger.
My English class Wednesday with the teenagers went great. I had so many kids show up that I had to turn some away. I think I will form a second class to accommodate everyone. Likewise the Deportes Para La Vida class went well. It’s a challenging group to teach. They are all the boys from the soccer team. But they seem to be learning a lot. Chess just keeps getting bigger and bigger. Every day someone new learns how to play. The kids play every chance they get. They were playing before and after the other classes. I had another English class with Emanuel, and then he taught me Creole. After that I headed to the play for soccer and ended the day with my house full of kids playing chess.
Thursday I headed to Neyba and called on World Vision. Every week I go to remind them of the things they promised to provide the kids, but still haven’t given us. Once again I came out empty handed. It seems to take forever for anything to happen there. We also tried to speak with the director about getting the electricity hooked up to the refugio where they installed the computers, but he was on vacation. While in Neyba, I used the internet and bought some food in the supermarket. I was excited to find that the supermarket has started to carry sliced ham. My world just got a little bit better. After returning to Isabel, I helped my counterpart work on his business plan, headed out for soccer, and then a house full of chess.
Friday morning we worked on the soccer field, getting it ready for Saturday’s game. After lunch we had another class of Deportes Para La Vida. At 3pm I was supposed to start a new English class for adults. They have been asking me for a while to start a class for them, however when I finally did, no one showed up. Emanuel couldn’t make his English class at 4pm, and so I studied Creole by myself. I then headed out to the play and worked on volleyball, and as always the day ended with chess. It is still quite difficult for me having my house full of noisy kids in the evening when I would prefer to relax, but I feel it is better that they are here playing chess, than walking around in the street at night, getting themselves in trouble.
I just read the book The Alchemist in Spanish. I enjoyed it and would recommend the book, assuming that it is just as good in English.
Saturday we waited for two hours for the boys and girls soccer team from Batey 9 to arrive, but they never showed up. Turns out the bus/truck that was going to take them here broke down.
Sunday the men’s soccer team from Batey 9 played the men’s team from here. Batey 9 won 4-0. I refereed the game. About halfway through the first half, men from my team called for a time out. They said they wanted to make a change. I told them to go ahead, change their players. However, they didn’t want to change players, they wanted to change referees. They felt that since I was from Isabela, I should be making calls that favored the Isabela team. I got a little upset with them, and let them know that under no circumstances would I cheat to help them win.
Monday it started to rain while I was teaching my first English class, and continued all day long. This cancelled all further classes and activities for the day, since Dominicans don’t usually do things in the rain, including go to school.
Tuesday I headed to Neyba for the day. I called on Word Vision, nothing. I went to the atm, supermarket, cellular shop to buy minutes, used the internet, had lunch, then stopped by the hardware store. I picked up 400 meters of nylon cord. We are going to try to make our own soccer nets since the ones we received from World Vision were only half the size of the goals.
Wednesday after a morning ride I taught two classes of English to teenagers, then made lunch, and taught another course of Deportes para la Vida. After that I had another English class, followed by my Creole class. ( I am now at the point I can say I have survival Creole.) We then worked on trying to get the water to drain out of the play, and smoothing out footprints in the mud while it is still soft. After Monday’s rain the play was full of water again.
The women here walk around carrying things on their heads, just like they do in
Haiti.
They will carry all sorts of things on their heads from bowls of bananas to large bags of charcoal, buckets of water to large bundles of clothes.
They can balance just about anything on the top of their head and walk with great posture and ease.
I am never surprised by how big a load they can carry on their head.
Yesterday however I did see something that struck me as a little odd.
A woman had a walking stick balanced perfectly on her head as she walked down the street.
Thursday Juan Carlos and I rode to Tamayo on bikes and brought back four bags of cal to chalk the soccer field for this Saturday’s game. The wind was so strong that it took us twice as long to go there as it did to return. I also worked with Jairo on his business plan. He seems to be working hard on it. There is a competition for the best business plan and Jairo is determined to win it. At 5:30pm we practiced/played soccer. About ¾ of the play was finally dry enough to play on.
Friday we finally started up the adult English class. We had been waiting since November for World Vision to make photocopies of the book we are going to use, then another week for the adults themselves to show up. Eight adults are currently in the class.
The soccer team spent the afternoon working on the play, filling in deep ruts that were full of mud and water. It’s going to be a long time before we finally get the play in decent shape. It is full of holes, ruts, and low places that fill up with water/mud after each rain, and we seem to never have more than one shovel, one rake, and one old wheelbarrow to work with. That and the fact that the kids seem to spend more time eating sugar cane than working.
Saturday it rained all morning. Everything including the play is flooded again, so we had to cancel the soccer game for today. I was planning to go on a two day bike ride with two other volunteers, but one got sick, and the other said his sight was too flooded to get out. I spent much of the day studying. Around 8pm, a small crowd gathered around a dog lying dead on the ground. Apparently one of the old men in the batey poisoned it. The lifespan of an animal here is not long. People marvel at the fact that my dog is 12 ½.
This morning we determined the chess rankings again. We do this every two weeks. We then post the results on my wall. Several changes in the top ten this week, but the boy on top continues to be ranked number one. He has now held that spot for ten weeks.
While we were working on the rankings, the mother of the family I stayed with for my first three months stopped by and told me she needed to talk to me as soon as possible. I quickly went to her house fearing that something was wrong with her family. She told me to sit down since she had something to tell me. It turns out she had a dream about me last night and in the dream I had been attacked and beat up by several hoodlums. She felt it very important to warn me to be careful. A lot of people here believe dreams to be foretellers of the future.
I spent several hours today cleaning everything in my house. Everything gets so dirty so fast here. Having your house constantly full of kids of all ages doesn’t help much either.
