Bateye Montecoca and Carlos

Today brought us back to Bateye Montecoca for more work cementing floors. By day's end, we had successfully improved two houses, both inhabited by women in the community. The first house we worked in is inhabited by a woman named Lucy who has lived in Bateye Montecoca for the better part of twenty years. Lucy does not work and is supported by her four oldest children (she has eight in total). In the afternoon, we worked in a three room house that is inhabited by eight people, including a 72 year old woman who sadly went blind 16 years ago. In her lifetime, she has had 14 children but sadly, only 5 are living. She is completely reliant on her children for support and one of her sons lives next door and cuts cane day in and day out to provide for them. These stories were both difficult to hear, yet inspired us in the work that we completed today. Tomorrow promises to be an equally powerful experience as we will venture to Bateye Punta Fuerte and Bateye Margarita to tour each respective community and gain further insight into life in this region.

Lucy

Lucy's house - she lives here with four of her children

Inside the house as the project gets started

Finished project

As we continue to work in the bateyes, we are constantly moved by the many life stories we are told. Our Rustic Pathways guides include two men who are from the Dominican Republic, Jackson who hails from the northeast part of the country and Carlos, who was born in Haiti and moved to the DR with his family at a young age. Both are incredible guides who have been vital to making our trip so amazing. They are our translators and navigators throughout this country and we had the opportunity last night to learn a bit more about Carlos' life. Kimmy and Emily had this to share about that experience:

Last night we had the pleasure of hearing our friend Carlos tell us his story. Carlos is not that much older than most of us on this trip. At eighteen, he has lived a life that we cannot even fathom. Carlos’ family moved to the Dominican Republic from Haiti when he was four years old. His father came to work in the sugarcane fields with the hopes of a prosperous future for his family. Unfortunately, while working in the cane fields he suffered from an injury that permanently blinded him. As the oldest of his three siblings, Carlos was next in line for the burdensome role of family breadwinner. At age twelve, he dropped out of the fifth grade to cut sugarcane. Carlos has trouble reflecting on the time he spent in the fields. He described cutting cane as “work for animals.” His daily schedule consisted of rising at three in the morning when the air was cool to work for the next eight hours, cutting as much as he could before the sun began to beat down upon him. Carlos continued to cut for the next two years until he was diagnosed with a heart condition that prohibited him from performing hard labor. Devastated, Carlos needed to figure out a new way to support his parents and pay for his two younger brothers’ schooling. He then stumbled upon the Volunteer Center in Consuelo and began to do odd jobs around the facility. Here, Rustic Pathways found him and hired him to be a translator and local expert for the groups of volunteers working in the DR. As volunteers, we all thought Carlos to be a man much older than he really is. In fact, we were shocked to realize that he is young enough to be a senior at Western Reserve Academy. Wise and mature, Carlos possesses natural leadership skills which led us to believe that his age might fall somewhere around thirty, not eighteen. Carlos has a wife and two children and has had to grow up much faster than the average kid in America. He has a fifth grade education, but with his natural persistence he has managed to learn two new languages (English and Italian) along with the three other languages he grew up speaking: French, Spanish, and Creole. Carlos’s story touched our heart and has inspired us to help him pursue a higher education. Because it is so unlike anything we have encountered in our privileged lives, the honest and emotional tale of his past left us deeply humbled. The plan of visiting his bateye in Margarita tomorrow fills us with excitement. We eagerly await the chance to meet his family and get to know this courageous young man even better. Until next time…

Kimmy and Emily, '15

Kendall also wanted to share his thoughts about the past few days. 

I had always taken my hardwood floors and carpeted areas around my house for granted, and I never truly felt as though they matter that much. When people mention the idea of comfort I think of pillows, something to drink, and the warmth all around my house. I never thought though, that the cement underneath the carpet matter just as much if not more. After seeing some of the homes in Bateye Montecoca I saw that it’s not only a lack of food or the backbreaking labor that is a general issue, but the value of a being able to walk into your home and not have the entire place covered in mud or ants! This comfort that we feel in every grain of carpeting or the smooth touch of a tile is something many of these homes don’t have and I am proud to have helped these three homes today make one step closer to that comfort.

Kendall,  ‘16

It is also worth noting that Kendall, along with many other students, have been doing their best to communicate in Spanish with community members. Kendall connected with one young man in particular, striking up a nice friendship over the course of the past two days:

We will welcome additional guest bloggers tomorrow night, including a few of our Rustic Pathways guides who want to share their perspective on this past week. It is hard to believe that our trip is starting to near the end but I know the group will continue to relish every minute of our last two days here in the DR. In closing, I wanted to leave everyone with a few pictures from Bateye Montecoca and the surrounding sugar cane fields. Buenas noches!

Clothes drying on a fence in Montecoca

Life in Montecoca

Montecoca with the sugar cane fields in the background

Sugar cane as far as the eye can see