So I have been trying to go every other day and sorry I missed a day but that just means that this time around you get to read about three great days of adventure!! Hope your ready. Anyways so last time I left you we were on our way to having a great time on Sunday at the beach. Well...that is exactly what it was. A nice relaxing and enjoyable time at the beach. Once again the Dominican beach did not fail us with its beauty, clear water, and white sand. We were also able to enjoy some very wonderful food ranging from grilled barbecue chicken to grilled plantans. It was all very wonderful. Although soon after the beach myself along with many others had realized that even with the applying and reapplying of sunscreen the sun had gotten us pretty good. So after 8 or 9 hours we came out with a good time, a little too much sun, and very ready to go to bed. The last part left us open to a little less than energetic Monday.
Monday was a day that seemed to climax thus far as the day of reflection. We headed back to the Batey in the morning to find that first it looked the same as we left it on Friday. At first I think there was great dissapointment and almost anger as we had thought that the people of the Batey would work on the wall over the weekend while we were gone. This was releived though as we found out that the only pipe supplying water to the community had in some way broke over the weekend leaving them unable to get any work accomplished in our absence. We did though continue getting to work doing what has become a very routine police of the grounds for garbage and then getting ready to make any more progress on the actual wall. Which was able to take some actual form as Monday the first few rows of brick were beginning to be layed. The only problem with this is that only the trained of the community could do this. Leaving our job to mixing mortar for the project. This was a job that takes maybe 3 to 4 people to accomplish but since there are 13 of us we tried to cram up to 6 or 7 of us around this pile to help mix. This left the rest of us kind of observing and reflecting. We all seemed to have a wide range of opinions and feelings but I will atleast let you in on mine.
I had at this point just felt very useless. I was looking for something to do and could find absolutely nothing. Which in ways was good because I could see that I wasn´t necessarily needed like we had thought and that the community members were very capable if not more capable than me to take care of the tasks that were to be done. On the otherside though I had came here to work and do more than just be a white man bringing in money to fund a project. So after I had gotten to this point I had started wondering if there was a point to me actually being here and would I have been just productive to just have tried to wire money to help support the project. I guess at this point I don´t still have all the answers to the questions to what had gone on in my head on monday. I do know that I was able to get over it and have a happier Tuesday which I will get to later.
After a bit of a ciesta and lunch we had one more task of the day. Arianda was giving a speech at a psuedo city meeting and we were going along to show our support and help where or showcase some of here organizations wear. The meeting itself seemed very productive minus some technical difficulties. The meeting was part of the reason blogging didn´t happen yesterday because this computer had been used and wasn´t set back up until today.
But as I had said before Tuesday has proven as a much better day for me personally. I have kind of just excepted that this project may not be one that we can all at once help along in leaps in bounds. So with that in mind I was able to try and focus on helping or experiencing the Batey in a different manner. I started out the day similar to most of Monday, but soon found myself involved in my second game of Batey Baseball. It is generally the same as regular baseball although there are only 3 bases instead of 4 and any building is in play. Anyways, I find it a great way to experience how the youth works as I can´t entirely communicate with the them with words this is one way that we can communicate through the lingo of sport.
Right now I just hope my high note of feelings can carry on and as well with the rest of the group so we can finish out the rest of this week and get on the plane feeling very good about what we have done down here. Until next time keep us in your thoughts and prayers!!! Adios!!
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