Profe in the DR 24
It gets dark around 7pm these days, and when there is no electricity in the evening there isn’t much to do. It’s hard to see by the lamp light, so I can’t read or study, and it’s hard to play cards or chess. The lamp also makes my house too hot. I often find myself sitting on my porch and watching people walk by in front of the house, just like so many other people here in the batey.
Sharing is a big part of the culture here. People share almost everything. It is very common to see a child with a sucker in his/her mouth take it out and give it to another child (who may then share it with a few others). If you stop by while someone is eating they will say “a buen tiempo” and offer you their food on their plate. People will often accept and use the same fork or spoon the person who offered was using. (You can politely refuse the offer by saying “buen provecho”.)
Sunday I rode my mt. bike for four hours. I headed up into the mountains and back. Deep in the mountains, I saw an old man tilling his field with two cows harnessed to the till. In the afternoon we determined the chess rankings. The kids write down who beat who for two weeks, then we go through that and determine who is number 1, etc. There are currently 31 kids participating in the rankings, and even more playing chess. Since we started doing rankings back in May, Juan Carlos has been number 1, but he finally lost his position to Adoni. Jaro who is ranked fourth, played 49 games in the two week period. In the evening I played volleyball, and after dark I had my usual houseful of kids playing chess. When you think of people playing chess, you usually think of people sitting quietly and moving the pieces. It’s not quite like that here. The way they play here, it’s more like a playground basketball game with all its trash talking, hoot and howling, and frequent arguments. (Nothing in this country seems to be done quietly.)
Monday morning while out for my morning ride, I came around a corner and met up with the largest bull I have seen so far in this country standing right in my path. He didn’t seem inclined to give right away, so I convinced him to leave with a couple of rocks thrown in his direction. Now that school has begun, I had to change the time of my English classes. The kids here either go to school in the morning from 8:30am to 12:00 or in the afternoon from 2pm to 5pm. I now teach the kids who go to school in the afternoon at 11:30am, and the kids who go to school in the morning at 2pm. I also have some kids who don’t go to school, and they like to come to both of my classes. Many of the kids who are in the higher grades are learning English at school, and come by all the time asking questions on how to pronounce something they learned that day.
Monday evening, after my English/Creole class with Emanuel, I had the first soccer practice for the winter league. We included two more bateys into the league this time. Since Blanco quit as coach, I am coaching the team myself this time. Blanco had so many problems with lack of discipline and respect that I have decided to work hard on teaching these concepts to the team. My plan is to make them a more coach-able team so that I can once again find someone from the community to coach them and that person will not have the same problems as Blanco. I am always working towards sustainability in my projects, and the only way to do so with soccer is to have someone from the community coaching the team.
Tuesday I had to go to Neyba in the morning. I had to download a form for a grant from my email. I also had forgotten my memory stick in the computer I was using there Thursday. I didn’t think there was much of a chance of recovering my memory stick, but when I arrived at the internet center, the owner was sitting outside and upon seeing me, quickly got up and went inside, and pulled my memory stick out of a drawer and handed it to me. I was very thankful he is an honest man. In the afternoon, I worked on the grant which is asking for money for transportation for the winter soccer league. It’s not like back home where everybody’s parents can just drive them over to the field, or there’s a school bus to take us there. We have to hire someone with a truck to get the kids to the other communities to play, and gas is expensive here. While I was trying to write, a million kids of all ages were playing cards, chess, or studying math flash cards in my house. During the day, lots of really young kids like to come in and play their own version of chess. They sit and play for long periods or time, seemingly following some sort of rules, although I can’t seem to figure them out. It seems their favorite part is capturing pieces, so that is how their games go, one piece capturing another until all the pieces are gone. I keep trying to teach them the real rules of chess, but they seem to prefer their own versions better.
Around 4pm, the national president of World Vision and a few other directors stopped by to discuss the lack of electricity for the computer lab they installed way back in January. The ten new HP computers they installed have been just sitting there collecting dust because they never connected the electricity up to the center. The WV president promised to have it connected within two weeks. He also promised to connect them to the internet, but didn’t say when. I used the opportunity to bring up the problems I was having in receiving any support from their local office. I have been asking for simple things like art supplies, and sports equipment for more than six months with no results. The person in charge of this kept promising me to get me them soon, but never came through, even though I have been helping him with his projects here. The WV president promised to get me these things and told me to go through the regional director from now on. I am really hoping that he makes good on his promises.
Tuesday evening we had a great soccer practice, we got a lot done and the kids enjoyed it. After Monday’s Practice I had to have a firm talk with one of my best players, Adoni, since he continuously didn’t want to do what the team was doing, and kept doing his own thing. I let him know that if he wanted to play, he had to be part of the team. Adoni is one of those guys who when you say up, he says down, so he said he wasn’t going to play anymore. I was pleased to see him show up on Tuesday, and I was even more pleased to see him participate just like everyone else.
Wednesday, I got out for an hour on the mt.bike, and then had my usual English classes. I continued working on the grant, and on making more materials for the English classes. Emanuel never showed up, so I didn’t have my English/Creole class with him. The majority of the kids showed up late for soccer, but the practice went well. Blanco came out to watch. I am hoping that he will decide to get involved with the team again. He seems to really like both the sport and the kids. He’s short tempered but probably about as good of a coach as I will find here.
Thursday morning my neighbor turned on his stereo full blast at 5:51am. When I mentioned something about the early hour of his music, he said it was OK because it was Christian music. Several of the Evangelical churches here like to play loud music, or sing and play drums while walking up and down the streets in the middle of the night or the very early morning (like 4am). They too seem to think it is OK to wake people up if its Christian music.
I spent the morning working on multiplication facts with teenagers and one twenty year old. After lunch I took Papito out for an hour and a half mt.bike ride. Soccer practice then chess.
Friday I was planning to go to Barahona but my plans got changed at the last moment. I had art club at 11:00. We have been drawing faces out of old magazines. Mistelin, a 12 year old boy who lives next door is getting quite good at drawing faces. His mother had one of his drawings hung up in her store yesterday. English class with Emanuel at 3pm, soccer at 5:30pm, chess at night.
Saturday I again rode my mt.bike up into the mountains, this time for 5 hours 15min. I enjoy the peace and quiet and solitude the mountains offer, a big switch from life in a batey. I then attended a meeting with the Sugar Consorcio about the soccer tournament they are putting on for the men’s teams. The captain of the men’s team from here was supposed to go, not me, but he never showed up, so they called me and asked if I could go instead. We started planning this tournament back in January, forever pushing back the date of the tournament. It was going to be Sunday but Sunday morning about 9am, I got a message saying we would have to push it back again.
I spent Sunday studying, got out on the bike for an hour, and just basically recovering from the week. Having kids in my house all the time, them forever arguing, fighting, all the noise, the negativity, the mess, etc. really wears you down. I decided that from now on we are no longer going to do activities in my house anymore. From now on we will do everything in the refugio. If World Vision connects the electricity like they are promising, then we can play chess there at night.
