July 29, we headed to stay in the capital (Herrera) for a bit with a friend from P.E.I, who has lived there for many, many years.
I also got to visit my batey Arroyo Indio where I had lived for 2 months. I started to cry, I love it there so much and all of the kids are so grown up now and there are a lot of new faces too.
The next day, I went to a conference on CODEVEME (Comunidad en Desarrollo Por una Vejez Mejor). If you are ever in Los Alcarrizos, visit these senior women. They are the most amazing, the youngest seniors you will ever meet in your entire life! They are the coolest
July 31st, I had the chance to work at this child care centre run by single mothers. It was the hardest job of my life, the kids were crazy!! There were about 30 of them, we had to feed all of them breakfast and lunch, we had to bathe them, change them and put them down for naps. Try doing that without knowing their names, the language very well and having no toys to occupy them with! AAAAaaaahhhh, I have great respect for those women!
In the noche, we headed off to San Cristobal to prepare the centre for the group of Canadians who were arriving in 2 days. We had some free time, so we HAD to go buy 2 Aventura cintas, so that we could introduce them to the group, hee, hee.... They hated us by the end of the trip and knew all the songs off by heart!!
The group was very cool and we did a lot of things liking visiting El Cacao and the coffee growers, different bateyes, a tour city, the senior women's group, free trade zones and CDD (Centro Dominicano de Desarollo). I hung out with them for a week until they went off to family placements.
Let's get back to my batey, I went to visit it again, and it seems that a lot of rich people had started to build around the batey and they bought the land where the people live and they can get kicked off at any time with no place to go! I couldn't believe it, it is so cruel, the people have to leave their home, their entire community, their entire life to start over in some barrio in the capital like capotillo, where there is drugs, crime, no space, it is just so awful and upsetting. This day was very hard to handle and the reality finally sunk in about the realities of life in the paradise of D.R. They live in a batey, where they have started to build a few opportunities for themselves and the next second everything is gone. What amazes me is the spirit of my friends, they just take one day at a time and live it as if it will be there last. They are still so happy and they make me so happy too.
My last 2 weeks to continue tomorrow.... Thanks for the patience with my not always exciting stories!!!!!!!!
Edited: due to a generalization