Profe in the DR 18

Profe in the DR 18

Last week I had to see a specialist in the capital about my finger.  He told me to keep in immobilized for another ten days, but at least he didn’t put it in a cast again.

  Saturday the soccer team worked on the play.  After the last heavy rain, the play filled up with water and as people and animals walked through it, they left behind holes where they stepped, and pushed the mud up on the sides sticking out.  This dried hard (lots of clay in the soil) and was dangerous to play on.  The soccer team continued to work on the play, carrying dirt from just outside of the play and filling in the holes.  This took a long time since we only had one shovel, one rake, and one wheelbarrow.  They also picked up trash and tons of broken glass from the play.  Today we had are first home game of the co-ed summer league.  Our team played very well and won 1-0.   I refereed the game, and figured I ran more than the players did. 

I finally got out on my bike on Monday.  It had been a long time since I last rode.   I had to fix a few things on the bike, then various health problems (back spasms, dislocated finger, bad chest cold) kept me from riding.  I rode this morning with Aiden, another volunteer who just moved to Batey 1.  I got in 3 hours, and had two flat tires.

Yesterday was Día de Bañarse (bath day).  The kids all went down to the river and swam and splashed around.  Other kids were walking around pouring water on them selves. 

The teenagers showed up for English class on Wednesday, and came with friends.  The class doubled in size.

We had our second and third classes of Deportes para la Vida this week as well.  The boys don’t have a lot of patience but are learning quite a bit.

Lately more girls have been coming to learn and play chess.  My house is always full of kids playing.

One of our volleyballs came apart and the other has several holes in it, leaving us with nothing to play with.  I am trying to get some more volleyballs and a net.

I have been trying to teach the kids how to type, but the lack of electricity is making this difficult.  World Vision installed ten new computers in our community center, but there isn’t any electricity ever to use them.  The transformer from the street blew out five years ago and has never been replaced, so the only electricity for the community center comes when a neighbor chooses to run his generator (which is not that often since gas costs money.)

It’s been getting hotter at night and it’s been hard to get to sleep.  I finally got smart and use a bottle of cold water to help cool me down.  I place it on my chest or under my neck. 

Profe in the DR 17

Profe in the DR 17

Saturday we had our first co-ed soccer game with Batey 5.  We loaded 13 girls and 11 boys in the back of a small pickup and headed over.  The game scheduled for 3pm began a little after 4pm, which is on time for here.  It was hot and dusty, and we didn’t have enough water.  (The home team was in charge of providing water.)  Their field was full of glass and many of the players were barefoot.  Our team dominated the first half, but discipline broke down in the second half with all the forwards and center line playing back with the defense instead of their positions.  The only score came on a free kick, after one of our girls touched the ball with her hands.  By the way our kids cheered and sang on the way home, you would have never guessed they had lost. 

All in all the game was a success.  The boys and girls played well together.  The girls from the other team seemed to have outplayed their boys.  There were complaints from both sides that some of the kids weren’t between the ages of 12-17, but in a country where so many don’t have birth certificates, it is hard to prove.  The game between the other two teams in the league was successful as well.  Batey 9 beat Batey 7 five to zero.  Our next game is June 25^th against Batey 7.

Sunday morning I worked with Jairo (my project partner), helping him write a business plan.  He is starting a business producing and selling cleaning products.  He took a course and learned how to make bleach, shampoo, pinesol, and several other cleaning products.  In the afternoon we played volleyball again.  There was a huge crowd gathered, and we played for hours.  Once again, I insisted that they play mixed with three guys and three girls to each side. 

Monday no one showed up for English class in the morning, although my house was full of kids playing chess.  (Its always full of kids playing chess.)  In the afternoon we started the first course of Deportes para la Vida with the boys from the soccer team.  Deportes para la Vida is a program to teach about HIV and AIDS using sports to do so.  It started in Africa with professional soccer players under the name Grassroots Soccer.  At 3pm I taught another English class, and then had my Creole class.  At five, I headed for the play where they were practicing baseball, soccer, and Jairo had decided to play volleyball again.  Since Blanco was working with the soccer team and Profet with the baseball team, I decided to help Jario with volleyball.  We are discussing the possibility of forming a small league just with in the batey.  After dark, my house was full of kids playing chess again until 10pm when I kicked them all out.    

Profe in the DR 16

Profe in the DR 16

The new hurricane season is upon us, the first system pasted over Haiti and my site bringing six days of rain.  Currently the sun is out but there is water everywhere.  It will be some time until things dry out.  All the rain increases the dangers of cholera in the area, not to mention dengue and malaria.  Cases of all three have been increasing in the country.

            I was lucky; I was in the capital for half of the time it was raining.  I had a three day conference on mobilizing marginalized populations.  The conference was held at the Quality hotel on the east side of the capital.  It was the first time in six months I showered with hot water.  The conference started early in the morning and ran until after ten each night.  Could have used a little more sleep.

            My right hand is still in a cast, and I have a pretty good chest cold going on.  It’s hard to stay healthy here.  My system is under attack far more than normal here, and sleep is often hard to come by.  One neighbor has his music blasting until late at night; the other cranks his up early in the morning.  When deafening music isn’t robbing me of my z’s, the dogs, motorcycles, people yelling are.

            Gitana, (the volunteer in Batey 7) and I have put together a small soccer league during summer vacation.  Only four bateys are involved.  We managed to get a grant to cover transportation, and buy 2 soccer balls for each team.   We decided to make the league co-ed, mostly since we didn’t have the money to create both a boy’s league and a girl’s league.  A co-ed sport is something new here.  I have worked on the guys to get them to behave better around the girls, but the girls are still apprehensive to practice with the boys.  Tomorrow is our first game; I can only hope all goes well.     

                    

Profe in the DR 15

Profe in the DR 15

Friday I went to Neyba, to download several important work related emails.  It was about 11am as I entered the internet center and was told to come back at 2pm when the power came back on.  Apparently their inversora (battery backup) wasn’t working.   I bought a few things, talked with a few folks, had lunch, and then spent the rest of the time reading a book in Spanish in the park.  I returned to the internet center around 2:15 to find that it was still closed for lunch.  It wasn’t until after 3pm when someone finally came back, and another 15 minutes to get the computers all up and running.  I rushed through what I needed to do, then caught an old and extremely slow van, arriving in Batey 5 about an hour later.  Gitana (volunteer in Batey 7) was already there.  The two of us then waited an hour for Cameron (volunteer in Batey 9) and Elias (soccer coach in Batey 5).  The four of us then knocked out the final plans for a summer co-ed soccer league.  Co-ed sports are something new here so we decided to keep the league small the first time, only four teams. 

Saturday I started a new English class with several teenagers.  They had been showing such interest, trying to read anything with English written on it, that I felt compelled to teach them.  In the afternoon, after a little sumo wrestling, I taught a large group of teenagers how to play volleyball.  We cut two long wooden poles and hung a rope between them for a net, and marked out the court drawing lines in the dirt.  Despite their arguments, I got them to play co-ed, three girls and three boys to each team.  We played for about two hours, a new team replacing which ever team lost. 

We have been recording who wins in chess, and Sunday morning we went over the record of the week prior and determined the top ten players.  We then posted this list on the wall.  The kids are pretty excited about this, and are already working on trying to improve their lot for next week. 

In the afternoon I taught several boys how to play football (futbol Americano).  We played the school playground version with two hand touch and two receptions for a first down.  They seemed to think it was ok, but it didn’t quite grab them.  Afterwards we played soccer.  My team didn’t have a lot of talent so I was trying to make up for it by playing harder myself.  After about an hour of play, while going hard after a loose ball at mid-field, a player from the other team who was also going after the ball, tripped up right in front of me, and I went down hard, tripping over his legs.  When I came to my feet, I noticed that the little finger on my right hand was bent sideways at a 45 degree angle from the second knuckle down.  It looked pretty strange to say the least.  I promptly grabbed my stuff and headed back to my house.  On seeing my finger, little kids started following me, telling everyone we passed about my finger.  Upon arriving at my house I called the PC doctor.  Outside my house half the batey had gathered, either out of concern or to simply see my messed up finger.  Since it was already 6:00pm on a Sunday There were no busses to anywhere that would have an x-ray machine, so the doctor and I decided I would go in the morning on the first bus which passes by around 3am, getting me to the capital around 7am.

This morning I was up at 2am and in the capital by 6:30am.  The PC doctor Borianna took me to the emergency room and stayed with me for the four hours it took to get my finger x-rayed and fixed.  (I would have waited even longer had she not been there.)   The bone was completely dislocated at the second knuckle and I broke a ligament but I didn’t break any bones.  It was a French doctor who worked on me.  He made a partial plaster cast going up the right side of my hand and half my forearm.  He then wrapped it in an ace bandage to hold it in place.  I am so glad he did not make it a full cast.  With all the heat, dirt, and bugs here that would have been awful.  I have to keep the cast on for about 15 days.  

Profe in the DR 14

Profe in the DR 14

Friday morning I had to go to the capital.  Like always I hired a motoconcho  (motorcycle taxi) to drive me the mile out to the bus stop in front of Batey 2.  We were just about at the stop when we saw the Neyba bus go flying by.  My motorconcho driver then sped on trying to catch the bus.  He succeeded several miles down the road.  I got on the bus and settled down for what I thought was going to be my normal 4 ½ hour ride into the capital.  About 15 minutes later, as we were pulling into the town of Tamayo, we were met by a group of 20-30 people blocking the road and not letting the bus pass.  They were all yelling, and making threats, and someone hit the side of the bus twice.  The bus driver jumped out and started arguing with them.  The people on the bus didn’t know what to do, about half got off, the other half stayed.  I was trying to decide what to do when the driver came back and said he was turning the bus around.  We went back to the crossroad next to Batey 4, and were soon met by another Neyba bus.  We got off the bus and waited while people discussed (and I mean yelled) what they should do.  A third Neyba bus showed up, and there was talk that the police were coming, and we would be able to get by, so we got back on the bus.  My motorconcho driver had come by to drop someone else off in Batey 4, and he came over to the bus and advised me to get off the bus and go to Barahona and catch a bus going from there to the capital instead.  He said that would be much safer.  (A police presence here does not guarantee safety.)  So I got on one of the old vans that go to Barahona along with several other people with the same idea, and we headed south (instead of east) and completely avoided Tamayo.  About 20 minutes down the road we got off at a crossroad and waited for a Barahona bus to pass by.  I arrived at the capital about an hour and a half late for my meeting.  I later heard that the mayors of the two towns, Neyba and Tamayo are fighting and that was why Neyba busses were not being allowed to pass. 

I had originally planned to go to the capital the day before, but the Neyba busses were on strike because they wanted the other half of the road into Neyba fixed.  (The government fixed one side of the road then stopped.)  There have been a lot of strikes lately.  People have been striking over lack of water, lack of electricity, and the rising gas prices.  Strikes here usually involve people burning tires to block the road, and lots of yelling and threatening.  They often turn violent, and people are often killed. 

Friday and Saturday I spent in the capital.  I am part of a group that is re-writing a manual for the Chicas Brillantes (girls group) program.  I returned safely Saturday evening.  The Neyba bus went around the town of Tamayo, taking the same route I took Friday morning to go into the capital.

You have to be very patient as a volunteer and roll with the punches.  I have several new programs I have been trying to start, two since March, that I have to keep moving back the start date for one reason or another.  Sunday I was going to start an English class with a group of teenagers, but only one teenage boy showed up.  Wednesday I was planning to start up the program Deportes Para La Vida, but one of the two young men who are going to help me with the program had to go to the capital.  His mother is in the hospital.  I also have been trying for a long time to start a math tutoring program and re-start the art club.  Things happen much slower here, and you just have to get used to it. 

I reached into my coin pocket of my jeans the other day and felt something that wasn’t a coin in there.  It turned out to be a strange looking hard shelled bug about an inch long, ¼ of an inch wide. 

Chess club continues to be a big success.  More and more kids are learning how to play and several adults as well.  Some of the kids have gotten very good.   We decided to record who beat who so we can rank the top ten each week. 

We have had a few wrinkles with soccer, but have been ironing them out.  A large number of boys decided that they want to play baseball as well.  Blanco the boy’s soccer coach didn’t want them to play two sports and hasn’t been showing up much to work with the boys lately.  The girls also lost the majority of their players to softball.  I told them I see no reason they can’t play both sports, especially since summer vacation starts in a week.  I have been working with the baseball/softball coach to avoid schedule clashes. 

Gitana, the volunteer in Batey 7 and I are currently planning a soccer league for the summer vacation between four teams.  We are planning to make it a co-ed league which is something new here.  I will let you know how it goes.  The last two days I have had the girls and boys practice together, but the girls are hesitant to join in.

It rained a lot last night and this morning everything is slightly flooded again.  Its always mud or dust, mud or dust around here.

Profe in the DR 13

Profe in the DR 13

I had a meeting with other volunteers two weeks ago.  We spent the night at the beach house in Bahoruco (see photo on FB), which used to be another volunteer’s site.  There were nine of us so several of us just had floor space on a sloping cement slab.  It rained at night and water dripped down from the tin roof above.  The beach was ok, the locals have been selling off the rocks on the beach so the beach was actually kind of sandy (at least until they sell off the sand.)  The waves were strong but not as bad as San Rafael which is further up the road.  And any beach is better than the dust/mud of my site.

I had left my cleats which were full of mud near my back door to dry, when I got back the next day, I noticed there were a lot of ants walking all over them.  When I picked them up, millions of ants swarmed all over the shoes.  Turns out they had built a nest in my shoes in the one day I was gone. 

I had several meetings in the capital and was there from last Tuesday until last Friday.  I was planning to stay longer and maybe go to the beach or something, but I got itchy to get back to my site.

 I spent Saturday helping make metal soccer goals.  We worked on them at the sugar mill in Barahona.  The sugar company provided the materials and welding equipment for the goals, and later delivered the finished goals to my batey.   (That evening I was the first to score in our new goals.)  We still need nets, but I am hoping I can get those from World Vision.     

Right now is mango season.  Everyone is eating mangos.  The kids walk around with mango on their face.  And roadside tables are full of mangos for sale.  Apparently it is also fly season.  They tell me that the flies always come during mango season.

Monday I got a call at 7:30am from the sugar company; they were sending a grater out to smooth out our soccer field, and wanted me to tell them what I wanted done.  I had asked for this while I was making the soccer goals on Saturday, but hadn’t thought they would come out anytime soon.  Our soccer field is now in much better shape.  Later in the day, I participated in the newly formed education committee.   They are working with World Vision to start up a pre-school class.   I also convinced them to work on trying to get eighth grade and high school offered here in the batey (our school only goes up to seventh grade).  My idea is to offer those classes at night using the existing school.   This is a long term project as we would have to get it all approved by the ministry of education, and that could take forever.  I am aiming for the 2012-2013 school year.

Yesterday I went to the World Vision office in Galvan and got nets for our soccer goals. (yeah!)   I also went to Batey 9 to get some t-shirts that the volunteer who lives there had brought back from the capital for me.   The road into batey 9 is very rocky and bumpy and I was bouncing all over the place on the back of the motorcycle.  Later in the day when I was playing soccer I suddenly got some muscle spasms in my back.  I called the PC doctor but it was too late to get to a pharmacy so I had to wait until this morning. 

This morning however, I couldn’t get out of bed.  Every time I tried, I got a terrible spasm that shot a jolt of pain through my body, taking my breath away, and making it impossible to move.  One time I got all caught up in my mosquito net and could get out.  I had to move the net and myself little by little to set myself free.   (It all would have been quite comical if it hadn’t hurt so much.)   I had my cell phone next to me, but for some reason the new cell tower must not be working as my phone kept switching between no service and one bar.   I eventually was able to call my friend and asked him to come help, but wasn’t sure how he was going to get in since all the doors were bolted from the inside.  I decided to try one more time to get out of bed and slowly wiggled myself around to get myself in a different position and slowly (with lots of pain) got myself to a seated position from which I eventually was able to get on my feet.  I got the doors open and then went back to my bed as I was exhausted from the effort.  More than an hour had passed since I first tried to get out of bed.   My friend then went off to the pharmacy and picked up the medications.  They kicked in after a half hour and I could move around a lot better.  I`m guessing all the lifting of the heavy soccer goals on Saturday was what set my back off, the motorcycle ride just added to it.

Today marks nine months in country, what a great way to celebrate it, being trapped in my own bed.

Profe in the DR 12

Profe in the DR 12

I attended a meeting the other day about documentation.  A group out of Chile was doing surveys about un-documented people living in the DR and the problems they encounter.  The DR is one of the few countries in the world that does not recognize citizenship of someone for simply being born in the country.  According to the current law, your mother has to be a citizen.  The law seems to have been made to keep children of Haitians born in the country from becoming citizens.  However, there is an ever-growing amount of Dominicans who are undocumented because somewhere along the line someone did not register the birth of child.  If a mother does not have documentation, then none of her children can get documentation either.  Without documentation, not only can one not vote, but you can’t obtain legal documents, such as certificates of marriage or death, or register for high school or college.  In the bateys this is big problem since most of the people who live here have Haitian heritage.  Also, most people here are born at home and not in a hospital.  Lack of money to travel to a location to register a child, discrimination, and corruption are other obstacles to obtaining documentation. 

Saturday I was in Bahorona with my project partner when we decided to check out the beach at San Rafael about 20 kilometers away.  Neither of us had ever been there before and it is probably one of the closest beaches to us (about an hour and ¼ away.)  The beach is rocky and made up of very fine black gravel.  It is surrounded by mountains that come down sharply to the ocean.   The water is very blue and it is quite beautiful.  The waves however, break on the shore with great power, and toss you about pretty good.  It was very difficult entering and exiting the ocean.  The waves would knock me over, then the undertow would prevent me from getting to my feet, then I would get hit by another large wave again.  Once I finally got past the break, it was ok, but I couldn’t touch the bottom anymore and so I couldn’t stay out forever.  I then had to run the gauntlet again to get ashore.  Still, it was nice to be at the beach, and it was extremely beautiful.

Sunday the boys soccer coach (a 53 year old Haitian man) got upset with the boys and quit.  He was upset over the lack of respect the boys showed him.  He said they treat him as if he were one of them, and are always arguing with him.   I convinced him to stay on as coach, and we came up with some changes for the team.

On Monday I held a meeting with the boy’s soccer team, and we discussed some new rules and what is respect, and why it is important.  While we were talking it began to rain pretty good.  Although we were under a roof, we were still slowly getting wet.  When the meeting ended, I convinced the boys to go out and play soccer in the rain.  (Doing anything in the rain is not normal in the DR; they don’t even go to school if it is raining.)    We played for about an hour and a half in the rain, mud, and very flooded field (There were places where the water was more than a foot deep.)  Every one was slipping and sliding around, and falling down.  It was a blast.  Several of the boys cut their feet on glass, but they were having too much fun to care.  Afterwards, we all ran to my house and I took a photo (posted on FB).  Of course everyone in the batey thought we were crazy.

With all the rain, the batey was looking pretty flooded.   Today there are still large puddles and tons of mud everywhere.