What's a batey? A batey is a community where sugarcane grows and is picked to be processed. They are some of the poorest communities in the Dominican Republic and consist of mainly Haitian inhabitants. Tio google is your friend if you would like to learn more about the history of bateys in the DR. For now, lemme tell you about my batey and my project.
I'm living in the south in a batey 5 miles west of the bay of Neiba and about 20 minutes north of the city of Barahona. If you look at a map, you will see the city of Barahona. Just north of that is Jaquimeyes and I live about 2 km north of Jaquimeyes. Bombita is surrounded by cane fields and awesome mountains. If you saw my pics and post about my volunteer visit, ya tu sabes how beautiful the south is. Bombita consists of about 1500 inhabitants and around 300 houses. The river and beach are both close by and thank the lawd so is my dear friend Kate. She's living just down the road in Pescaderia. I live in a cute little house. When water comes, there's running water. My bathroom is inside, which is also really nice. The electricity schedule is spuratic but is here maybe half of the time. Learning Haitian Creole is next on my peace corps bucket list (more in this list to come), as just about everyone here speaks Spanish and creole.
I have two project partners or "sidekicks" as my friend Rafael calls them, Celida and Yasmirys (Mimi). They are the two leaders of my project, which coincidentally is the bomb. The batey is called Bombita because the community pumps water from the river into reservoirs to irrigate the sugarcane. In these reservoirs you will find my project. I am working with a group of 19 women who grow and cultivate tilapia fish for retail sale. This business is no small thang. They have 16 "jaulas" or hatcheries which are square floating docks with netting in the center to hold the fish. The fish are fed in 2 shifts each day and monitored constantly. The entire project is staffed by the women's group. My role here will be to assist them with expanding their market and increasing sales, marketing and profitability. I have to admit I am pretty excited to continue working in the agriculture industry (shout out #2 to my poultry industry people!!) and I'm going to see if I can get involved in some egg production projects in local towns and bateys.
Mimi says I could not have arrives at a better time, and definitely agree. The president of the Dominican Republic was in my site back in February as a result of a government loan that my women's group received to expand their business. THE president. That's a pretty big deal. During this visit various incredible things began. I the 300 houses here only about half have bathrooms with toilets. Now, anyone who wants a bathroom with a toilet is entitled to one. They are also building a high school and a basketball court, which are both needed. My host mother Maricusa gives a literacy class on her front porch 3 times a week for 2 hours to women in the community who want to learn to read and write. Unlike most bateys, they are paving all of the streets. Super awesome bonus? My batey has cell phone service 24/7 AND wifi for about $5 a month. I'm either going to get my iPhone up and running with Claro (local service provider) or tune into that wifi. Either way I am about to be dialed in at just about all times, hooray for technology and more frequent blog posts!
Maybe the second coolest part about this project (after the association of women) is the foundation that supports it. Fundación Central Barahona is the community development arm of the sugarcane company, which works to improve living conditions in the communities that grow sugarcane. They provide funding, transportation and basically whatever these women need for their project. In fact, the foundation solicited me for my community as well as Kate for hers. Since she and I were solicited by the same foundation and live so close, we are going to be able to do a lot together as volunteers. On Friday for example, we were on the radio in Barahona talking about peace corps and what we will be doing as volunteers. The hour-long program is funded by the foundation and focuses on development in the sugarcane regions.
Let's get serious here for a hot minute because I know sometimes one might think that a blog is just a happy lampshade for a very dim lightbulb. This is not the case here people and I'm trying to be as honest as possible. Want the truth? There is nothing that makes me smile bigger or feel more at home than bachata music blaring from the speakers of an outdoor bat, the sun shining just about all of the time and the warm welcome I've received from everyone I have met. It does not suck that there is cold beer and beautiful turquoise water and white sand beaches readily available. It's official, I love this country.
On the other hand, I know the next 2 years are not going to be easy and I think that's a given. However I do find that it's the people and communities who have the very least are the ones that give the most. The people who have been given absolutely no opportunities in life are the ones who are willing to help you with whatever you might need and support as many people as possible with almost nothing. If that's not hope, I don't know what is.
Besitos, Kaley
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