Haitian Batey Visit

Darden Callaway:

Today we went to the town of Tomayo to visit a batey. Bateys are communities of Haitians who work on sugar cane plantations, and The Price of Sugar was filmed near the batey we visited. The peace corps worker, Allison, that lives in the batey we visited, organized activities for us, including a tour with some of the Haitian kids. When we first piled off of the bus, we stopped at the local school to use the bathroom. However, most of the kids had not seen more than a few foreigners, so our presence caused a lot of chaos! It was fun to get attacked by the kids who taught me a little Creole and showed me around their town. The batey was extremely indigent, and unlike any other community in the DR that I have visited. It was difficult because a lot of the kids who held my hand and talked to me had protruding bellies or other signs of malnutrition. When we visited the preschool, the teacher also said that one of the baby girls with me hadn't been coming to school recently. Still, a lot of the kids were very energetic and loved our cameras. They taught us how to eat sugar cane, and I got a pretty bad sunburn just from walking around! I am really grateful that we have been able to do so much with different Haitian communities on this trip, especially in light of the recent earthquake. It is so cool to be able to travel to different parts of the DR on this trip rather than staying in just one community. What a great opportunity!

Julia Haney:

Life on the Haitian bateys is incredibly different from the schools and communities we have visited thus far in the Dominican Republic. The vibrance of the people in batey ocho and their willingness to share their home with us took me by surprise. They proudly taught us how to eat sugar cane, sang with us, and eat showed us their preschool. Some of the mothers in the community made us all lunch, which we ate together with some of the girls from the batey. I loved hearing Allison, the Peace Corps volunteer, talk about the girls softball team, which was recently started in the neighborhood with the help of a Kids to Kids grant. The girls talked animatedly about their team as well and Allison told us about how the entire community goes to watch the girls play. It doesn't matter to them that the girls are just beginners, hundreds of people go to cheer them on and as Allison says, "The entire community parades around the batey if they win". I am so glad Kids to Kids sponsored a project for these people. With four little girls clutching onto my arms i found it exceptionally difficult to lift my feet back onto the bus. I didn't want to leave. I didn't want to forget their smiling faces. I could have spent weeks there, in that colorful and generous community.