Profe in the DR 40

Profe in the DR 40

6-15-2012

Today is Kaori and my 14^th wedding anniversary.  I really wish I was with her to celebrate it.  

Working on getting ready for the new summer soccer league.  We are adding Batey 8 to the league and on Friday Nicole and I went there to make sure their teams are ready.  The boy’s team has been practicing but the girl’s team is still not together.  We spoke with the coaches and hopefully motivated them to get the girls team up and running.  Girl’s teams are harder to form since girls have to help work around the house more than boys, and some girls won’ t be able to get permission to play.  They are also harder to keep going since they will often lose a couple of key girls to early marriage and then the team falls apart.

The boys here had there first workday on the field of the new league.  We worked on picking up glass (It is mind blowing just how much glass is embedded in our soccer field!), cutting back thornbush and burning it.  We will continue to work on the play every Sunday until the end of the league (end of August). 

I had left a half opened package of re-hydration salts in my food bin figuring nothing would touch it since it wasn’t food.  I merely just folded over the top of the foil envelope twice and called it good.  Yesterday after a baking hot hour and a half mt.bike ride in the sun, I unfolded the foil envelope and poured its contents into a cup, but instead of white fine salts coming out; small roach like bugs came out instead.  I guess I wasn’t the only one in need of re-hydrating.   (It has been quite hot and dry lately.)

On Tuesday I was in the capital.  On my way out, my bus was passed by another bus on the busy 6-8 lane 27 de Febrero.  As the bus flew by, I noticed that there was a man in a wheelchair hanging on to the back bumper behind the bus.  I watched the bus until it was out of site, and the man was still hanging on last I saw of him.  It was definitely one of the crazier things I have seen in a while (and I have seen a lot of crazy things here!)

I forgot to tuck my mosquito net in last night and had a cockroach try to crawl in bed with me.  Its pillow talk just wasn’t that good so I had to kick it out of bed.  (Then smash it!)

I just walked into my bathroom now and discovered that ants had built a nest in the base of my toilet.  I have been suspecting this for some time now as I keep finding dead, drowned ants in the toilet bowl, but never new where the nest was.  Just now there were hundreds of ants coming out from where the base of the toilet hits the cement floor.  Once again I called on chemical weaponry and blasted them with nerve gas.  Luckily you can buy that in spray cans (AKA- Insecticide.)

6-17-2012

Last night around 9pm, two pickup trucks full of about 25-30 policemen in bullet proof vests and carrying automatic rifles came barreling into the batey, quickly passing by my house.  People’s reaction to them was quite interesting.  Upon seeing the police, many people ran away, fearing trouble.  Once they left, everyone came back out and was talking excitedly about them for some time.   It is rare to see police in the batey, especially in such force.  According to my project partner, they were going after people selling drugs and arrested 3 people.  It seems that drugs are becoming a bigger and bigger problem in the bateys with more and more people selling and using.  Just more evidence of how important my work here with the youth is.

6-29-2012

Saturday we had the first games of the new soccer league.  I was a little worried that the Sugar Consorcio wasn’t going to come through with the transportation, but the old school bus showed up 15 minutes early.  The soccer field in Batey 9 was all messed up after the latest rain.  A bunch of cows got onto the field while it was muddy and tore it all up, and then it dried that way, full of large hoof prints.   Since it wasn’t safe to play on, we took all the kids to Batey 8 and used their soccer field.  With the new summer soccer league, we have separated the genders.  No more mixed teams.  The girls wanted their own teams because the boys didn’t pass them the ball enough.  Both teams play the same day in the same place, first the girls, then the boys.   Isabela’s girls team had 13 girls ready to play, but Batey 9 unfortunately only had 4, so we divided Isabela in two and added two girls from Batey 9 to each side and played a game like that.  Spectators from Batey 8 were impressed with the level of play.  After the girls finished, the boys had their game.  This was a battle between the two strongest teams in the league and it was a great game.  Unfortunately, by the end of the game, not a single goal had been scored, and it ended in a tie. 

            Batey 8 did manage to get a girls team together, and traveled to Batey 5 to play.  Both the boys and the girls teams lost, but you would never have guessed so by the way they were cheering and singing as the bus pulled back in to Batey 8. 

            The players in Batey 7 are all Seventh Day Adventists and can not play on Saturdays, so their game against Batey Cuchilla was Sunday.  The cell tower nearby my house isn’t working again so I haven’t had any cell phone service for the last week, and haven’t heard who won.

            The European Cup has been going on the last couple of weeks, and the games have been televised on local channels.  This has been the first time since I have been here that the kids have had a chance to watch soccer on local TV.  They have been enjoying watching the games, and have been slowly learning the names of different countries in Europe.  They have all been rooting for Spain (wise choice) and are looking forward to Sunday’s game, as Spain and Italy play for the cup.  Hopefully there will be electricity in the afternoon so we can watch the game.