Learning from the Batey

First off I need to give a shout out to Jacob's mom. Thanks for reading! I think you and my mom would get along, she's straight Oregonian.

As for the title, this past weekend I visited a Batey. For those of you who aren't up on your Dominican history (not that I was before I got here, so don't worry) a Batey is a migrant village of Haitian sugar cane harvesters. These small villages date back several decades (don't quote me on time structure) and used to be used solely for the cane season. These days, and for the past few decades, the Bateyes have been year round villages. Since the inception, Bateyes have been some of the most abject poverty in this country, and still are. The Batey I visited hasn't cut cane in around two to three years--thus, nobody really works.

I wish I had pictures to convey to you the disparity in wealth between Bateyes and other communities in this country, or even your own community at home. But for the entire four days I was there I felt inappropriate taking pictures as though I was some campy tourist documenting another persons despair to show off to my friends to say "Look what a good person I am. I visited these people." As you can probably gather from that statement, the Batey was eye opening and life changing. These people have next to nothing. Haitians are second and sometimes third class citizens. Even though many generations may have been born in the Dominican Republic they still identify as Haitians...Haitians with no homeland. Many don't want to go back because Haiti is rife with more problems than they even have living here. Hunger is rampant, and I am exhausted.

But, there is hope.

Brianna, the volunteer I visited is amazing. She is clearly and unconditionally loved by her community. Even though she has problems with people not showing up to planned meetings or activities, there are people young and old who learn from her every day and obviously want a better life for themselves. She works with teenage boys and girls in the areas of health and some english, though in a very informal setting. She works with young mothers helping them to finish something we all take so for granted: the 8th grade. We celebrated her 23rd birthday yesterday and even though I have a couple years on her, she is so much stronger than I could ever hope to be. She finds hope in the hopeless, and stays strong even with the amount of dame (give me) going on. There are organizations that roll through that we here in the Peace Corps have dubbed "charity tourists" people whose heart is in the right place, but their resources aren't. Poor people aren't victims, and they aren't helped by straight handouts--don't worry, I'm not getting all conservative on you guys, but in a community such as this, when people come in and give give give, the work ethic goes goes goes. For generations people have waited for the dame rather than finding happiness. Brianna is helping people learn so they can make better lives for themselves. As Peace Corps volunteers we're trained to give motivation and sustainability rather than material things--part of this is because we're pretty darn poor too, but also because we're only here for two years, and hopefully people will live for decades beyond our leaving. They don't need handouts, they need development.

On a lighter note, the half hour ride on the back of a motorcycle (with helmet!!!) was frightening but I lived. And yeseterday we celebrated Brianna's birthday at La Playa Juandolio which is beautiful, but now, I'm beautifully red.

We head to community based training this week in another part of the country, and word on the street is that internet access is even better than here. I'll believe it when I see it, but I'll be sure to send updates from the "cold" part of the country, and hopefully post more pics!