This is long, but it has a message for people who are thinking about being
a part of this program in the future.
So, I am going to
write about Sabana Grande, which is our second base. Yes, I know other people
wrote about Sabana Grande already, but I am still going to write about Sabana.
Why? Cause I love it! More than anyone else. However, this is not a blog post
about construction that we only did for three days because it's boring and at
least three other people already wrote about it. The two main themes of this
blog post are the family and how basketball helped me to interact and to make
friends. By the way, we were in Sabana for only six days which is really short
but we are going back for about two weeks. This is before that two weeks but I
decided to write it now.
Allow me to explain now.
In Sabana, we stay with a family who is living in the missionary base. There is
the parents, Pierre and Alaina, two sons, Salomon and Juan, four daughters,
Rogelia, Evelin, Lisa who is a four year old girl, and the four months old
baby, Elizauris. Other than the two youngest girls, they are twenty to fourteen
years old, pretty much they are our age. At first, I was no different than
others. At the very first day in Sabana, I did not talk to any of them.
However, I could find the connection with them really easily. It was
basketball. I thought it was amazing how sports bond people together even if we
cannot communicate each others. Their two sons and I became friends right away
especially with the older one name, Salomon. He is an eighteen years old guy
who started driving his truck when he was twelve, and he drives motorcycles to.
In the Dominican Republic, a lot of people drive motorcycles, especially when
they are young.
At siesta, I asked Rachael about going with Solomon to buy a basketball. On the way, people just
stared at me or hissed at me because I am an asian. If you are asian and you
been here, you would know my feeling, it just sucks. They don't used to see
asian people so they find it interesting to see Asians and they call me Chino
which means Chinese. I am not feeling upset just because they call me Chinese. What
Chinese means for them is Asian, it is different than calling Canadians
Americanos. Just think about it, you are on street, random people call you
Asian and stare at you. Most of you wouldn't understand since most of us are
dutch but it sucks.
When Solomon and
I got to the store, we found a
basketball. The thing was, the woman at the shop and Solomon talked in Spanish
and the price got more expensive and Solomon told me to just buy, I was
confused but it is just way it works in the DR. They deal price and never show
how much money you got. It is okay unless it is my money. After we got back,
everyone was jealous that I got to spend time with Solomon. I felt bad but I made my bestfriend so everything is
good.
Since we were not there for a long
time, there was not enough time to make memories with all the family members.
However, the last night in Sabana was the best night I ever had in DR. In the
kitchen, Brian and the ladies were talking like forever. Solomon and I were
talking about the group of last year. At one point, I decided to go into the
kitchen, and they were really interested in me. They were really interested on
learning Korean and I taught them and Brian some Korean. At that point, I did not
know who was their mother so I pointed at a lady to Solomon, asking if she was his mom. People started laughing
out loud. Apparently, I asked if his sister, who is only two years older than
him, if she was his mom. His older sister's name is Rogelia. She was confused
and told me that she is his sister but I kept bugging her calling her his mom.
She hated me so bad but now she loves me so it is okay. After that night, I
became like one of their family. I call their mom, mama, and we feel
comfortable together. I can just feel the love coming from them.
In Sabana, I made friends
other than the family. It was basically the same pattern how I always made
friends here. We have a basketball court right at the base ; we made a
backboard this year, me and Derek. People would just come and hang out or play
basketball with our ball. I usually play with them, and not a lot of the
guys play basketball except for me. I made some friends mainly two guys name
Diegre and Momo. They are not their real names but they just told me that its
their name because I do not understand their name. Diegre means Pineapple and
momo, I do not know what it means. They always laugh at me, just think about
how I call someone pineapple. Since we played ball together, I see him in our
base sometimes, I guess that's because they go to the school right beside and
they are kind of friends with the family. I would hang out with them sometimes
and play basketball. It is just so great that there is no barrier between
sports; basketball. We have different experience of life, different culture,
they are not used to see Asians often, and we speak different languages and we
are not good at the each other's languages. It would be hard to talk to them
randomly but because of basketball it's not even akward and since we are
friends I can talk to them. Here is the thing, everytime I made friends, it
started with basketball unless I teach them. If you are coming or thinking
about coming here next year or in the future, I highly recomand you to play
basketball-learn how to play basketball. It is so worth playing basketball,
plus it will help you interacting people here so much. The most important thing
that you cannot forget is you need to have your funny reactions. You break the
ice right away. When they get blocked or ankle breaker, I just start bashing at
them and we would all laugh. You would get to play basketball more than
baseball or soccer, trust me.
For the people who are thinking about to be part of this program, do not be afraid to do things and do not be
afraid to talk to people here and PLAY BASKETBALL it is so worth! TALK TO THE
FAMILY IN SABANA!
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