Getting Started

So these past few weeks I've really started feeling like I live here (haha, sound familiar? I think I've said this before). I've traveled more, and I'm becoming more familiar (poco a poco) with the batey. For example, I found out that Banda (an older lady) is "married" (in the batey that mostly means "with" rather than an actual legal/religious bond-also, bond? My english is getting weird)--any way, Banda is married to the same man who is married to Berta. But you would never know because Berta and Banda are always together, and Banda seems to help Berta take care of her (nine) kids. I have no idea how this works, or where the "husband" lives. I don't know that I'll ever figure out the culture in the batey, but it's definitely interesting trying to put the pieces together. I'll start with the fun stuff, and then with work.

Paseos

A few weeks ago, Katie and I ventured into the Zona Colonial. The first time we went it seemed beautiful but pretty small, but upon going a second time we noticed so many side streets and beautiful buildings. I loved just relaxing there. Anyways, we stumbled upon the ruins of an old monastery earlier in the day (sans toursits), and we decided to walk past it later on our way home. On our way back, we noticed a stage and a big group of people around it. We decided to stay, and the streets filled up for three and a half hours of a concert (salsa, merengue). There was a dance floor and a lot of elegant older people going for it out there. Until then I had pretty much just been taking things as they came, but that was a moment when I realized that I live in the Caribbean. AND, even better, they hold this (FREE!) concert every Sunday! We're planning to go back this week. They kept giving shout-outs to regulars in the audience, and our goal is to become regulars. I'll keep you posted. ALSO, I put some more pictures on facebook (some from this concert) and the link from a couple of posts ago for the photo album still works if you're interested.

Another paseo that Katie and I went on (we just happened to be the only volunteers on these two particular occasions) was to a river up closer to the mountains. Some of our fellow teachers at the school are evangelical and invited us on the church paseo to this river. After finding out that this wasn't a baptism trip, we decided to go along. Minus swimming in our clothes (which actually wasn't even that bad) we had a really good time. This was not a place any tourist would go, so we were excited to have a genuine Dominican experience. We also ate crabs from the river, and I'm still here without amoebas so it was worth it. We swam and forded through the river for about an hour to get to a place that had music and dancing (that is, the non-evangelicals in the group). Also, all of the Dominicans kept asking us to teach them to swim and they kept saying Americans were good swimmers, so it took a while for me to convince them that they were asking the wrong person.

I live to work

School is getting better and better in the sense of finding what works for me as a teacher, although every day is completely new and full of surprises. This week and next I have a group of seven year olds, including Pepe, a child known for his lack of focus and trouble making. Yesterday, Pepe ripped the plastic coating off of one of the desks with his TEETH, and today I had to send (read: carry) him outside kicking and screaming, with a rusty nail in one hand and a rock in the other. Mary Alice, one of the sisters, mentioned something to me that helped put things into perspective a little bit: many of these kids would not be in normal schools in the states--they're unmanageable one-on-one, they could not function in a normal classroom setting. We refuse to give up on these kids, but at the same time it's helpful to think that it's not completely my lack of experience that's bringing out this crazed behavior in the kids.

In the afternoon, I've been placed to work with the older kids (around age 10). Most of the older kids come in the morning since they go to public school in the morning, but the third grade goes to school in the morning now----well, they would in theory, although the public school is under construction, so they STILL haven't started school. Ridiculous. Anyways, so instead of working with the little ones (ages 4-6) for what functions as a public school program, I'm working with the older ones. I love it because I get to work with the same kids every week, so I have good relationships with them (well, in their own way--many of these kids have attitude, but I know they love me haha). I love the little kids downstairs (SOOO cute) but I really enjoy teaching the older ones. I've started teaching them music (quarter notes, eight notes, etc.) and we've been doing rythm games which they really like. My goal is to get them making music this year! I've also started giving them mini social studies/geography/culture lessons. Our next visitor from the states is coming next week, and my plan is to send back a Flat Stanley (traveling doll) to take pictures so that my group can "travel." These kids live on an island and have never seen the ocean. I want to get them thinking a little beyond the batey, and let them know that even if they can't travel far for now, that they can escape through books and their imagination.........we'll see if it works. P.S. I'll be in touch with some of you about possibly taking some pictures with our doll! :)

New Developments

Once I got here I decided that a good way to get to know people and the way things work in the batey was to teach some of the women to read. A lot of the women seem eager to have a relationship with us and also to be able to help their children succeed in school, so I am happy that I can serve them in this way. I'm starting out teaching four women, and the range of ability is incredible. My two most advanced in reading (Melania y Elizabeth) went to school for a couple of years, but one had a baby at fifteen and the other didn't have fare money to get to school so she stopped going. Guilena, who I met with for the first time today, is at a totally different place. She has seven children, has suffered a stroke, has brain damage, and I'm sure has endured a slew of other hardships that I haven't learned about yet. But she does live with the father of her child (who has a job!) so those are two things in her favor. Although she's lived in the D.R. for a while she speaks Spanish pretty poorly, so teaching her will bve a challenge in many, many ways. I started with some letter sounds today, and she does recognize some letters, but our lesson was so ridiculous today that I had to laugh. They only have one chair, so she sat on a bucket (which they refused to let me sit on). Her children were crowded around us, and she kept yelling at them for making fun of her (which they weren't) and she explained to me that she was embarrassed because they know how to read and she doesn't. Gathered behind us were some teenage girls who kept responding to my questions to Guilena. And to put the icing on the cake, Nana, the alcoholic mother of one of my kids, drunkenly explained that it would be helpful for her to stand by and help me. I tried to fend her off but, being difficult to reason with a drunk woman, I kept going with her commentary. By the end of our lesson all but her kids had left, and I made it clear to the crowds that next time we would be meeting alone. This gives you some insight into the amount of privacy people have living in the batey.

In addition to teaching the women, I was interested in doing some sort of catechism. Most of the people in the batey are evangelical, but we hold a liturgy every Sunday that gets about 15-20 people (about 3/4 kids). Anita, one of the sisters, expressed the need for a youth group. I originally was interested in teaching the younger kids, and youth group-y stuff never appealed to me before, but now I'm getting excited about it. I think there's (rightfully so) such an emphasis on giving this community tangible help (education, health care) that it's easy to forget about their spiritual needs, but I think it's just as important (although they are NOT mutually exclusive). There are about 10 youth who are "Catholic," so I've been talking to them and we're going to start next Tuesday. I want to feel out what they're interested in, but the goal is to give them a community of faith, a time to reflect, a safe place to share, an escape, hope for the future, and to realize their potential as leaders in the community. Haha that's a lot to hope for, but my only expectation for the first week is that kids show up. Please, please, pray for this group. I really have a feeling that it could do great things for them!

I know this is too long, but this would not be complete without mentioning the water situation in the batey. For more than three weeks, the batey has been without water. I don't understand that well how it works (well, no one really does), but the "bomba" or tank had water in it, but it wasn't getting up to the community so no one could access it. So this means that everyone had to go to the river (about a half hour walk--I've never been) to bathe, wash clothes, and get water for drinking and cooking. This has meant much lower attendance in school (because they're at the river cleaning/filling up buckets), but it actually doesn't mean much difference for health of the community, since the "street water" is filled with parasites anyways. Apparently the water came back this morning shortly, but it's gone again. This lack of water (let's not even talk about clean water) has really showed me how dehumanizing it is to be denied something so fundamental to life.

For us in Los Alcarrizos, the water comes about once a week (and on a really good day lasts for 24 hours), we fill up our buckets, take advantage of running water (although we don't have shower heads, but you'd be amazed by what an upgrade we consider water coming out of a spicket compared to bucket showers). In the batey, the water system is even more inconvenient because people don't have as many buckets as we do to keep water. Apparently (as with the electricity), this is the way it is because no one pays. No one pays because they know the government will give them light and water anyways, but because no one pays, the government only turns the water and light on sporadically and infrequently (about once a week for water and once-twice a day for electricity, although it's really hard to find a pattern here). For the record, we do pay for utilities, not that that makes a difference.

My apologies for the lengthiness. Thinking of you all :).

Pictures: I read Where the Wild Things Are with my kids, and I had the kids make crowns (Max was the King of the Monsters in the book, and had a crown). They thought of all sorts of creative ways to decorate them--without my help! I was so proud of them! (note: a lot of the kids here have trouble with arts and crafts/creative activities because they have very little self-confidence)
So I’ve obviously been busy and haven’t had as much time to post recently. We work hard here but I’ve been thoroughly enjoying it. A lot of little things have happened since I’ve written but below are some memories.

During Montessori time, when kids get to choose any activities to work on, they go straight for the language/reading activities, which is wonderful and our strength (literacy-focused). BUT we want to get the kids just as excited about science, math, and social studies as well. I decided to get Cristina to work on a map today (we have big map puzzles), and I had her spin the globe and pick a continent. I told her she could travel anywhere in the world, and she told me that was a lie. I explained that I would not lie to her and that we were about to go on a trip. She chose the Asia map (the worst aka hardest!) and I told her about different countries and she really enjoyed doing it. Afterwards I asked her if she liked to travel and she told me that she did, and that tomorrow she was going to travel again. It’s nice to see that the kids find escape in their time at school, and that some of the kids still have hope about their futures.

Although our mornings are run like school, they only supplement the public school that the children receive, so the kids are not required or forced to be there (although they come willingly and are excited to be there). SO if they behave badly, we send them home (this happens with at LEAST 5 (out of 80) kids per day). This sounds harsh, but the kids have no concept of discipline (besides getting beaten) and are pretty free to roam wild outside of school, so it is really important for them to understand that the school has different rules. Near the end of the day last Thursday, one of my girls, Delana (age 11), was giving me attitude and not listening. Up until then (we had been together for two weeks) she had worked hard and I could tell that she really liked me, but I had been warned that she had an attitude so I wasn’t surprised when it surfaced. To make it clear that I would not put up with it, I told her that she had to leave (after having given her a warning). She burst into tears (keep in mind by 11 years old these kids are pretty tough) immediately and said that if she went home early her mom would beat her (for having behaved badly). The sad thing is that this is considered more responsible parenting in the batey (versus the neglect that many of the kids “receive”). I calmed her down and explained that I didn’t want that to happen to her and for that reason I would let her stay (but without giving her game time that the kids have at the end). But I explained to her that that was why it was so important to behave well, so that she wouldn’t get sent home early. This is one of the many wake-up calls I’ve had to how sensitive we have to be to these kids’ situations. It’s actually been helpful to keep in mind, because there are so many potentially frustrating situations that happen every other minute, but when I think about what the kids’ lives are like outside of their 3 hours with us, it’s hard to get mad or exasperated at them.

During sharing time, Eliana shared that her six year-old brother got drunk from drinking beer……

An older woman (Gloria Aleluya) who lives in the batey does some cleaning for the school. She only speaks Creole, and a few words in spanish. Our interactions go something like this: Me: “Gloria Aleluya!” Gloria Aleluya: “Aleluya! Aleluya!” I’m now not sure if that is her actual name, or if they just call her that because she says it all the time. Either way, she’s very cute. I really want to learn Creole, and a lot of the women have been happy to teach me a few words, so I’m hoping to pick some of the basics up by the end of this year!

Dominican men. This is a gross generalization, and I want to make it clear that we have met several very nice Dominican men, BUT many of those same nice guys do not take marriage or children seriously. Most of the unmarried men we know have kids, and many of the married men we know have been unfaithful (i.e. neighbor had an affair with another neighbor the same age as his daughter, a married friend has a son half a year older than his son with his wife, our very religious friend and her husband both have children from before they were married). This happens around the world, but it seems to be EVERYWHERE here. Anyhow, the point is that we were at the 50th birthday party for our friend’s dad, and our friend gave a toast. She said, “I want to thank everyone for coming on behalf of (she names her siblings), and any other brothers or sisters that might be out here tonight.” Everyone burst into laughter and APPLAUSE. Oh, Lord. It’s just accepted here.

Last weekend we finally got out of Santo Domingo for a break. We were invited by family friends of Leah to stay in their house in Santiago (in the North, second biggest city in the country). It was nice just to get away, and we also went to the beach for the day (the water was WARM; it was perfect!). What’s even more exciting was that the family sent their driver to pick us up and drop us off again (it’s a 2 ½ hour trip). I’m amazed at the generosity that people continue to show to us. The driver even had us over to his house for lunch. I really will never forget the generosity (time, food, patience) that the Dominicans have shown us.

On that note I cannot forget (thankfully!) how privileged I am to be here. I of course realized off the bat how privileged I have been my whole life as an American, a college graduate, etc. etc., in comparison to the people here, but I have been even more amazed by how privileged I am to be able to work where I work, for a number of reasons. One, these people really are the poorest of the poor. They are Haitians, from the poorest county in the western hemisphere, who come with hope to this country only to find they are heavily discriminated against and therefore only marginally have better opportunities to find work (I still don’t know too much about this, some may argue that they don’t have an advantage being here). So in that sense I feel privileged to get to share my time with people who really are God’s people. But what’s really crazy is that I have the privilege just to walk into their community, and that there is already a foundation laid for them to trust me and love me back. This is only possible because of one of the sisters who came here on her own fourteen years ago. When she first tried to break into the community, she dealt with plenty of mistrust and discomfort, but now when the people in the batey see us, they know that we are truly there to serve them and their children—to try to give them a better education, and give them a few hours a day filled with love, hope, and (almost equally important) a snack.

That’s all for now. I am thinking of and praying for all of you back home. Please keep our community and our kids in your prayers.