October 23rd, 2008: Visiting my new community

I arrived in Batey Las Pajas in the afternoon, after a long ride in a small bus along the coast, up into the sugar canes, and along a shaky, half rock, half dirt road. One of the first things I saw was the school, painted yellow as are all Dominican schools, surrounded by houses. One of my project partners (who I will be working with in the future, and who brought me from the capital to the batey) told me my house would be right in front of the school. My bags were brought on motorcycle around the road over to my house and then I was brought over to the house.
My house is a green, wooden house with a little porch. When I arrived two older women were sitting outside in plastic chairs, watching the people pass. I was immediately hugged and kissed by both of them, and introduced to one as my new host mother--the other quickly added that she lived in the houses next door and I could also consider her my mother. I then met two of my host sisters, a 17 year old and an 11 year old, who showed me the house. The house is simple, but has everything neccesary; it has electricity when available, a faucet in the back for water, cement floors, and a place to bathe as well as a latrine out back.
I spent the five days in my community getting to know the area and the community members. The batey gets a lot of support from churches in Canada, as well as a church in Colorado. Thanks to these churches, the community now has electricity and water faucets, as well as several different after school programs and many other programs to support the youth in the community. The people are very friendly; every time I was introduced to someone they got up and offered me their chair, telling me to sit down and chat.
The batey itself has four different “barrios,” and I have heard estimatesof between 250 and 350 houses total. It has a makeshift baseball field, four churches, a school, two after school centers and lots of little “colmados” (kiosk type stores). When walking around, greeting others, it is not uncommon to trip over a chicken, see a goat, or have to move out of the way for a herd of cows that are coming down the street. Outside of the batey there are field of sugar cane, open fields, and plots of land growing beans, yucca, plantains and plenty of fruit trees. Several times I was able to go into the hills with some of the kids and it was amazing to see all the open space and sugar cane that's out there. Not only was I able to walk around in the sugar cane, but several times I could be found walking along, chewing the sugar cane happily, not thinking of the disappointment of both my dentist and I at my next appointment.
When I left on Sunday morning, I knew I had been placed in the right spot. I am in a place where the people want to work together to improve their community; there are several strong NGOs working in the area that I can learn from and help progress, and best of all, there are a ton of enthusiastic youth who want to hang out and learn from me. I can't wait to return!