Sabana 'extras' | rachael

While in Sabana Grande we have had a multitude of other experiences in addition to construction. We have experienced different churches, visited a waterfall and spent a day doing construction in a poor, remote village called Altagracia.

Church here is quite a party. Monica has written about the church service on the street last Friday night: literally a street in the town square was shut down and packed out in front of a stage and a complete sound system (her blog is to be posted soon). I went along with Erica, Olivia, Amanda, Bethani, Jea, Monica, Erin, Sam, Rebecca, Nicole, Sophia and Greg. It was exciting to be surrounded by Christians who were not afraid to proclaim their beliefs in the street. We got there shortly after 8 and it was clear that the service had been going for a while already. Monica, Jea, Bethani, Sam and I stayed until the very end: 10:45. I have yet to find anything in the DR that goes quickly.

We have had the privilege of experiencing two different churches as well: Pierre’s church (on site at the base) and Pastor Max’ church. Pastor Max (or Big Max as we fondly refer to him and his slender 5 foot 2 frame) was hired by our Canadian Max (or Little Max as we fondly refer to him and his strong 6 ft 2 frame) to help mix during our weeks of construction. I requested that we attend his church and so this past Sunday evening we did! It is another batey church: a batey is a village/settlement that exists because of its origins as a sugar cane-cutting village. There is no industry - people exist and live. When entering batey churches, at least according to my experience, one side is reserved for men and the other side is for women. As such we followed their custom and sat gender-separated.

Church is exciting and loud. Folks go up, grab a mic or an instrument and jam. It often seems as though the louder and faster the better. The students soaked it up! Monica and Megan were in the second row jamming away. Sarah, Alex, Sierra, Olivia, Sam and others were vying for children to hold during the service. There was a lady sitting directly in front of me and she had a 1ish year old and a 4ish month old baby on her lap. At one point in the service I accidently brushed her shoulder. She looked at me and promptly handed over the 4ish month old. I didn’t mean to ask for him but I sure wasn’t sad with the result. All the girls around me were clearly jealous. I was okay with their jealousy.

Whenever a group goes to a batey church it is the expectation that they will sing a song or three. Sunday was no exception. Monica is the go-to person often and on this Sunday Dylan and Emily ably and passionately led on guitar. They’re an excited group who isn’t afraid to sing - and that is fantastic! It is difficult when you lead a group and they look awkward up front but, thankfully, that is not the case this year.

On Wednesday we worked as per usual. After our lunch break the students went back to work at 1. We got the groups going and Max appeared at 1:30 or so. Sierra, Sam, Thomas and Olivia had walked to Pierre’s house to finish digging the trench for his bathroom. Max and I decided we would go and visit the site. After a short visit we headed back to the base. On the way I said, “Max you look sluggish”. He sat down in the van and said he was. “It just wears on you, you know?” We talked about how the kids were working hard and were still producing even after ten days of construction. I slyly reminded him that we had talked about taking them to the local waterfall this afternoon. I had forgotten to talk to him about it that morning and after lunch Max was nowhere to be found. A/nyhow, I reminded him of what we had talked about on Sunday. He looked at me and said, “you’re right: they’ve worked hard. Let’s take them” and he parked outside the door to the base. “Now?” “Of course!” I walked through the gates and hollered in what I refer to as “dictator-mode” for all the kids to gather around. I was stern. It was fun. (I heard afterwards that many were quite scared). I said: “get everything cleaned up asap so you can go to a waterfall.” And I walked away. The reactions were priceless: “Are you serious? Are you being sarcastic? I’m so excited! A waterfall! No way!” Boy did they motor and clean up. Within 20 minutes the site was clean, kids were changed and we were on our way. I was again reminded of the fun in spontaneous surprises.

The waterfall is gorgeous. Erin and Alex were quite stoked to see knowledge they attained from their project in Earth and Space Science manifest itself in real life. They were fascinated by the waterfall and accompanying caves and I got a mini lesson on how it all works.

We brought some locals with us: Pierre’s daughters Rogelia, Evelin and Lisa (who’s 3) as well as a family friend: Rosa. Last year the boys in the group taught Solomon how to swim (Pierre’s son). This year it was the girl’s turn. Monica was the human taxi: one of the locals would beckon and Monica would swim them across the pond to the fall. While under the fall a group of folks all contributed to teaching the three girls how to swim. It was a beautiful sight! It was fun for our 17 year old girls to teach girls older than them how to swim. Our kids were shocked at first that they weren’t able to swim but once they realized that access to water is not commonplace here (they are not super close to the ocean, transportation to the ocean is a luxury and people here don’t have pools) they understood and graciously taught the skill.

Last Saturday the group had a special treat (as referred to in Jordan’s blog): we were able to do some construction off-site in a remote batey village called Altagracia. The 2011 and 2012 groups have also frequented this village so that’s pretty exciting. During our first week here Max was with another work team from Ontario and their project was to add two more classrooms to the town school (last year’s team painted the other two classrooms). We came to back fill the second classroom and, for the first time in my five years of Dominican construction, we had to create the fill. We had to pick-axe the ground. Max had hired locals to stucco and mix and pour the floor but they graciously “allowed” us to help them mix as well. There was only enough work for half of the group at best so the other half, when not working, was given the job to “play and engage” in the village. Interestingly enough not being able to work and having to engage was difficult for some. Not surprisingly it was a cake-walk for others (see Jordan’s blog).

Houses in the village

House in the village

House in the village with a man livin' the DR life

Thomas and Jordan started the mountain (hill) climbing adventure but others soon followed when they also had time off. Megan and Alex and others found a cow skull on their adventure. There were trees and cows to dodge and barbed wire to avoid but, all in all, each one that made it up said the view was worth all the adversity.

An interesting and new adventure of this year was seeing coffee be made from ‘scratch’. Max talked with one of the locals who had been drying beans and was ready to turn it into coffee. He came to get us when it was time. A whole slew of us piled in to see this phenomenon. We walked by his beans drying on the road as we entered his small cookhouse. His wife, who seemed to be nearly blind, was roasting the beans over an open fire. As we were all in the cookhouse I pointed out the challenges in cooking with an open fire - you can’t push a couple of buttons to increase or decrease the temperature. I also pointed out the dishes in the kitchen - a broken serving platter, few cups, one pan. The kids seemed to realize that this was a real kitchen. These were the family’s kitchen possessions. Stark but true.

Mama kept roasting the beans. When she was done she cooled them in a pan after which dad took to “grinding” them with a mortar and pestle. He kept a constant, steady rhythm where he didn’t ever miss a beat - even while changing hands. Impressive is an understatement.

After he was finished mama made some coffee for us. It was a little sweeter than many of us are used to: a third a cup of raw sugar with 2/3 coffee. I thought it was a taste of heaven.

Another Altagracia tradition is a baseball game. There is a coach in the village who takes the sport very seriously and is always ready to organize a game against our teams. This year was no different. We played a solid, legitimate game. We got smoked. But I’m pretty sure we had fun. We even had the Dominican version of the seventh inning stretch - folks galloping through the field on horseback in the middle of the game! (sidebar: Don and I were talking about how it is super interesting that kids these days don’t know how to play baseball. For both of us it was a staple growing up but it seems to be a forgotten sport nowadays).

A picture from the 2014 trip...take a look a the coach in this picture and in the next picture (striped shirt)

A picture from 2012 (with Elizabeth - Zabe- Nyhof-Young). Check out the coach's attire :D

All in all - it was a day thoroughly enjoyed by the kids. They got to complete a little bit of work as well as a little bit of baseball, hill climbing, adventure seeking, water-retrieving, coffee-making and horseback riding. Many students accomplished some of their trip goals today and for that they, and I, are thankful.