$1.00 Sunken Treasure 1/12/12

Today we are going to Catalina Island where unfortunately there will be no wine mixer and helicopter sales.  I'm really excited just at the chance that there might be surf.  I haven't been in so long. I'm writing this right now in the bus because we have like 2 hours to drive. Side note, we just passed Casa del Toyota haha. We got on the boat to go to Catalina and we met up with the other SCORE missionaries. I sat on the bow and hung out with some medical missionaries on the way.  We stopped about 100 yards from the shore and we jumped off the upper deck. We also had the option to snorkel which I partook in after I made sure the whole team jumped. I swam about 15 ft down to touch the bottom and got a piece of drift wood for Brady. We got on the boat and went to another part of the island where we took another boat to the beach. We got Wes to knock down a coconut and I cut it open. It was terrible. I then discovered you could buy them at a stand down the beach. Those were much better.

We hung out and snorkeled more and technically I found sunken treasure in the form of 35 pesos on the ocean floor.  After we ate on the island we hung out for a few more hours. We went back to the boat and encountered really rough seas on the way back to the main island. Those of us on the bow got soaked but it was still cool.  I never did get to surf, it was a lake out there.  In reality I didn't do much of anything but that was nice. We went to the SCORE hotel after dinner to learn more about SCORE. I might try to intern here sometime, this island has just been amazing all over. I love the way the Dominican people do things here, and I love what God is doing here.

Dominican League Baseball and Tourist Markets 1/11/12

I realized today that the potential that I saw in Haiti was basically what the Dominican is.  I learned this at this huge market place thing but more on that later.

We went to an orphanage in the morning and met all the kids there. These kids are the children of Dominican prostitutes who either don't want the kids or can't afford them.  They spoke very good English so there was virtually no language barrier.  There was a young horse there as well as a few dogs we had to dodge while playing but it was fun. It was the first time in probably 10 years that I have seriously played on a jungle gym.  The kids sang for us and played games.  I gave my testimony because of all the groups, I figured they would be able to relate to it the best. I basically told my story of how I used to pretty much fake being a christian for most of my life then found true salvation.

When we got done with that we ate lunch at a basketball court and played a few mind games. We then went to this market thing. There was mostly just a bunch of touristy stuff, a few knives and machetes, paintings ect. I bought a necklace for Jill and a bracelet for Tara. On the way out this guy was kinda hounding me so I talked to him in Spanish for a bit. Because I did this he offered me a  necklace for a dollar. I didn't really mind so I gave it to him.  We walked from there to an out door mall thing with a fountain in the middle of it. There were more pigeons there than anywhere I've ever seen in my life. I bought some corn and we fed them from our hands. It was there we discovered that both Kenny and Mitch don't like pigeons, so naturally we threw corn at them for quite some time.

After finally successfully catching a pigeon, I let him go and we went to some kind of heroes mosuleum where this tour guide told us about the heroes of the DR.  I asked if the Trinitarios were there but he said no.  We saw Christopher Colombus' son's house and a fort and a really old church taking pictures all the way.

After eating at the Dominican version of a KFC we went to a Dominican league baseball game where the Escongido Leons (lions) played the San Pedro Aguilas (eagles). It was a great game all around. Miguel Tejada and Hector Luna were on the Aguilas, and Julio Lugo and Fernando Tatis were on the Leons.  The atmosphere was just electric there was a full brass band playing during the whole game not just in between plays. The whole crowd was going crazy the whole time.  It was awesome. The mascot was probably my favorite part though. The mascot could break it down, the cardinals need to recruit that guy to be fredbird. Anyway the game was fantastic, the Leons were down 1-0 until the 8th when in a last ditch effort they put up 6 runs. The whole place went crazy.

We got in really late and have an early morning tomorrow for Catalina, it should be a good time

Pick up games vs organized games 1/10/12

You will have to bare with me as I am currently writing this a day behind.  We woke up very late, as we did not have to go to a sugar cane village until 11:00.  When we got there they had a softball field that the sugar cane company uses for what I can only assume is a company softball team.  We goofed around with the kids for a minute but naturally we gravitated towards the ball field.  We played Americanos vs Dominicanos with our pitching staff in the field and our fielders (myself included) pitching. The kids playing were mostly 14-18 years old so it was a pretty good game that was taken really lightly by both sides as it was a pick up game.  When we weren't in the field, as well as those of us that weren't playing in the game, put on a little make shift clinic for the younger kids. There were kids that were barely old enough to speak Spanish at all let alone English, that were throwing the ball with perfect form and were bringing the heat for their age. After the game Kiko brought everyone together and gave a message. Truth be told he was preaching the gospel pretty hard, from what I could understand. I would like to think I understood 85% of his message but it's probably less than that.

I'll talk more about his lesson later on. We ate lunch and had a little down time before we went back in to Santo Domingo to play the local FCA chapter. I didn't know the FCA went down this far but I guess looking at it I don't know why they wouldn't. They were pretty good. We ended up beating them 4-0 though due to great pitching on our part and great hitting too.  I sat for the first half of the game like expected but when Scott went in to pitch I took Goldsmith's place at second. Scott asked coach to keep me in after he was done pitching instead of him going back out as planned because his arm wasn't feeling good. Truth be told none of ours are, suddenly starting throwing probably wasn't good for them but we've got a little time till the two-a-days start again and we need to start throwing.

Something that really bothered me during the game was this massive group of kids that would ask for whatever they saw us with. It wasn't a "hey could I have one of those" or "would it be alright if I could get that from you", they would say "hey you, give me the glove" or "hey my friend gimme the hat". At first I thought that it might just be the language barrier but it turned out the kids could speak pretty good English.  I gave some of my seeds away anyway even though I didn't feel good about doing it. I also gave away both jerseys and the hat that SCORE gave us but I gave them away after the game.  I kept telling the kids "despues al partido" which means after the game but none of them listened to me and would come back asking in 5 mins. There was one kid that never said "gimme gimme gimme" though so I found him and told him in Spanish, "because you never said gimme gimme gimme," and I gave him a bag of seeds. Hopefully I not only gave him seeds but also planted a seed inside his head.

After the game, Kiko gave the same message as before. He would start by pulling out a baseball or a tennis ball and saying "what is this" obviously in Spanish. The kids would say what it was and he would ask who wanted it. When a bunch of kids would raise their hands he would tell them "then take it" one kid would be the fastest and get the ball. After everyone sat down Kiko asked everyone how the kid got the ball.  Typical answers were that he took it, or that he grabbed it, but Kiko kept asking until someone said that he received it. He made it clear that that was how the kid got the ball, because Kiko allowed him to receive it. He then related that to our relationship with Christ. When he talked to the group that had gathered, you could tell how passionate he was. He gave everyone an opportunity to come to Christ, and one by one a bunch of people stepped forward.  After we prayed we all gave away our stuff, I felt better about giving it away after the game without a huge crowd asking for everything.

When we got back after dinner we went to the SCORE hotel in Boca Chica to meet up with everyone involved with a SCORE ministry down here. After making Wes a mannequin and some worship music we heard a message by a former fireman.  He compared being a Christian to being a fireman overall it was a pretty good message there was a touristy market after the message and I resisted buying a butterfly knife. Tomorrow we get to go to a Dominican ball game and I have no idea what to expect.

The best way to remove calluses from your heart is to put calluses on your knees 1/9/12

Today we played a team in the first pro stadium ever built in the DR.  It was in San Pedro where most of the Dominican baseball players come from. The field reminded me of pictures I've seen of the old Sportman's Park in St. Louis. It had a very similar layout with the dirt track to the mound and the bullpens in play just past the foul lines.

I started at second and played the whole game which probably means that I won't play next game but it's cool. I made a fielding error on a ground ball in the hole between myself and first base. I bobbled the ball and didn't throw it in time.  I also went 1 for 2 with a walk. I walked the first plate appearance, flew out to second on a broken bat, and then hit a line drive in the hole to get an easy single. I scored one of the only runs we got. The broken bat was my favorite one, a maple Old Hickory that I've had for about a year.

After the game we gave out bracelets again and Derek gave his testimony.  On the way out one of the guys we played took Wes' hat and gave him his. Marcott gave his to another kid and received the kid's hat. That was alright I guess but when we were driving away, they showed all the other kids what they got and it looked like they were teasing them.  It really made me question whether or not we were doing any good down here.

From there we ate lunch and drove to another sugar cane village that reminded me of Haiti. The bus wouldn't make it all the way there because of the mud but it wasn't a huge deal because we were able to walk the remaining distance. We carried bags of food to this incredibly poor village. When we got there we were led to an area to place the food. While we were waiting for the other guys to get there,  I took the time to look around the village. Their homes were made of rudimentary cement, corrugated metal, and wood. It looked to be a very small village and I only saw like 6 houses total. There were a few very skinny mules, goats, and chickens. They also had a couple dogs running around.  There were a few incredibly thin puppies and Sarah McGlaughlin's Arms Of the Angels started playing in my head. After a message from Kiko the people dispersed. One guy who was 85 years old invited us in to his house which was only about 8x8 feet and his Bed took up half of the room. In Haiti we never got to see the inside of the houses that we were helping, so this was a new experience for me. It was about 4:00 and the sun still had about an hour and a half to two hours left to go down but being that windows would compromise the structural integrity of the building, and there was no electricity for miles, it was almost pitch black in his house. I saw a video somewhere that showed a man who had figured out that water and bleach in a soda bottle will refract a ton of light. He has been going around southeast Asia installing them in places just like what we saw today. I told Kiko about it, hopefully that was the right combination, because that would improve the quality of life immensely. Here is the link to the youtube video, in case I ever find a way to get this to Kiko.

Bleach Water Light

We walked back to the bus and loaded up after that.  Wallace, the bus driver and Kiko started yelling "snake" and ran out of the bus. I bought it for a minute and jumped on the seat but then I realized it was Wallace yelling so I knew he was messing around.  We went to the Dominican version of Wal-Mart called Jumbo when we got back in to town. It's actually like Wal-Mart mixed with a mall because there were kiosks in the entrance, separate stores throughout and a few restaurants inside.  I got some kind of deep fried taco thing that was really good.

Outside I saw another magazine worthy car. It was a JDM Integra Type-R in championship white. I also saw a very good looking Toyota Altezza going the other way on the highway.  I wish the need for individuality in everything that exists here would make its way stateside, life just seems more exciting here. When we finally got back to the complex, there was another team here from Masters College somewhere in California. The team had a prayer meeting after that where we prayed for everything and everyone we've met down here. It's so easy to get desensitized to everything, I wish I could keep this feeling I have right now when I go back.  Wallace said something really interesting after the prayer meeting though.  He said that someone who works here told him the best way to remove calluses from your heart is to put calluses on your knees, which as he put it was the quote of the trip.

Blessed be the Nombre del Senior 1/8/12

We got up pretty early to ride in to Boca Chica to go to church. I really kind of expected it to be boring but I was pleasantly surprised. It was in the top floor of a school which had 5 stories.  When we got there, we were greeted by a Cuban woman who was very nice and very talkative. She was raised in the states so she could speak perfect English as well as Spanish and since I happened to be at the front of the line, we talked as she led us up the stairs.

The church's original building had burned down a few years ago and they were planning on moving in to their new building next year. My church is actually planning on doing the same thing at the same time next year so I thought that was cool.  She asked if any of us were fluent in Spanish and I told her that Buck was and that myself and Marcott could pretty much keep up. It turns out she asked that question to find out how many ear pieces we would need. They had this awesome little personal PA system that had an earphone attached to it and a translator would speak in to a mic in the tech room that went directly to the system. The actual sanctuary was a very modern, contemporary church with a two camera system, multiple HD flat screens hanging from the ceiling broadcasting the message as well as two projectors on either side of the stage. We got those PA system things and when the service started we turned them on and off we went. The music started with the song Blessed Be The Name, but it was in Spanish. The next song was a song by Hillsong that I've never heard, which was also in Spanish, and then was an old hymn in Spanish.  It was really cool, the message was about Paul being in jail while still spreading the message of Christ.

I actually didn't need the PA sys very much. When I got behind I would put the earphone up to my ear and I would be caught up. When the service was over we went back to the bus and encountered a few beggars on the street saying "digame algo" which means give me something. They followed us to the bus.  I have never experienced anything like that before and I didn't know how to react. We left soon after that. When we got back to the complex we had a light practice. I hit pretty well. After a shower and a swim with most of the guys, we made some bracelets and played this charades game thing. Tomorrow we play ball and then were going to a supermarket to buy food for a village. The only irk I have with it is that we weren't told to bring money for this. I only have like 800 pesos left which is like 20 bucks. I would have liked to have a little notice before coming, I would have brought way more money.  Anyway I need to save money for the market and the baseball game so we will see what happens.

New Adventures 1/7/12

We woke up this morning without an alarm, but with coach talking at a normal level that it was 7:30 and breakfast was ready. It was amazing, all of us were immediately awake simply because coach said something, no one was dragging or anything. I think we are trained to listen for his voice, apparently even in our sleep. We went to breakfast which was Dominican Frosted Flakes/Fruit Loops, croissant rolls, and toast. We went back to the military style dorm room that we are all staying at and got ready to go to a field somewhere to play a game against some Dominicans. After a short drive which included seeing these awesome oil drums with the Gulf and Casterol logos and colors, we got to the field which had an incredibly short fence all the way around and the craziest backstop I've ever seen.  It was basically 3/4 of a circle with the open part facing a mound which couldn't have been 60' 6" away. It seemed like 50' or shorter especially with these guys throwing.  Anyway it had a full cage around the outside and on top of a 4' concrete wall.  This meant that no matter where the ball went on a passed ball or wild pitch, it was gonna bounce full speed right at the batter.  It turned out the fence was so short because of a road that went behind the field and it was only a double if you hit it over. It was only 270' all the way around but it didn't count as a home run if you hit it over, it was only a double.  A home run consisted of hitting the fire station across the street on the left, or the church across the street on the right. Dead center was a grove of palm trees, and I assume you have to hit it over the trees to count as a home run.

Goldsmith started the game at second and when Scotty went in to pitch, he went to shortstop and I went in to second. The Dominicans didn't have metal bats so I thought we should use wood too, luckily I brought 4 down, and they lent us one. I studied how they played when I was on the bench and realized they threw way, way, way more fastballs than we did. Kenny noticed this too and was talking to some of the players about it.  Needless to say we had trouble hitting their heaters but surprisingly they had a few issues with our off speed guys. Kenny said that made sense because their coach said "American throw too many junk ball, Dominican throw too many fastball" and Kenny and I figured that was because in our baseball culture, it's acceptable to just get blown away at the plate but not to get your knees buckled. Here it must be the opposite. Don't get me wrong though, some of these guys had filthy stuff, as Scotty can attest to, but they were coming at us with 90mph+ bullets from 55' away.

When I got in the game in like the third or fourth, Scotty was the last out so I had to wait the whole order before I got to see pitching. The team we were playing had a no hitter and they switched pitchers every two innings. If I can say it again, they threw fast. When I finally got up to bat, I knew I was gonna see heat, so I went up thinking swing hard and fast. Amazingly the pitcher must have thrown a change up or something because it felt like a 77 mph meatball that I pulled over the third baseman's head just out of reach, scoring Siddle who reached on a walk and an overthrow. I got us our only run and to be honest I'm feeling pretty good even though I was the only one who got a hitable pitch.  I didn't really have much action in the field as all of the balls hit my way were placed perfectly so that neither Smith or I could get to them.

After the game Smith gave his testimony and the guys gave a few of the Dominicans some bracelets that they made in Greenville. We left and went back to the complex to shower and eat lunch which was great and then we visited an orphanage outside of Santo Domingo.  We were gonna put on a baseball clinic for the kids but it rained and the field which was already trash to begin with was simply unplayable. We then went to a basketball court where 200+ kids were waiting for us. As soon as we got off the bus, we were rushed and basically claimed by a Dominican kid or two.  They would run up to us and ask to ride on our shoulders or back, or to swing them around. I decided that Adam had a great idea and decided to help him with it. We went over to an empty area and Adam broke off a tree branch. We used it as a bat and threw them some baseballs we brought along.  A Dominican kid came and wanted to pitch so Adam let him and we shagged flies. It was crazy these kids who were like 5 years old hit fantastically well with a tree branch. It must be in their blood down here.  We played for a long time and then went over to the basketball court where I took some more video and showed the kids.

One of the kids was clearly dramatizing disappointment when I refused to give him a dollar.  I've seen much more intense poverty than this however, and knew not to give him anything. In Haiti the orphanages were brutal, there were fully naked kids who quite literally had nothing, they would have been ecstatic to have what the Dominican kids have. They were asking for my Passion wristband and for my phone and money.  I did kind of want to give them money but I know that if I did then they would become that much more used to living off of hand outs and I couldn't do that. I will leave a bat and some sports stuff here though as well as spend most if not all of my Dominican money. I know how cold it sounds but the reason these kids are like this is because they've gotten what they want by doing it in the past.  There are a lot of people who would disagree with me but I stand by my reasoning.  I feel the same way about poverty stricken people in the states, I'll buy them food but I won't give them money.

Anyway, after playing with the kids an talking to a few of them, we loaded up on the bleachers and Kiko told them about Christ. I'm getting better with Spanish, in two days here I've completely reviewed Spanish I, II, and most of III still working on gerunds and past participles but it will be back soon. Suddenly I'm very thankful for my teachers' strenuous vocab learning schedule in high school, still not thankful for my Spanish IV teacher's rules and attitude but unfortunately I did learn a lot in her class.  After the orphanage we drove back over this awesome bridge and through fields of sugar cane.

I saw this awesome drag strip on the way down and coming back I saw that it was in the same complex as a full on race track.  I'm not sure what they race down here be it F1, GT cars, or what have you, but there really should be a stage of the WRC down here. The people definitely have the money and driving style to relate to the sport, much more so than Haiti. I have no doubt in my mind that these people would be as natural as the Scandinavians to rally driving.

The car culture down here is much more vibrant. I've seen a few awesome off road tuned trucks and SUVs and one magazine worthy Mitsubishi Lancer Evo. I'll try and take a picture of one tomorrow an send it in to SpeedHunters. There is much more affluence here than Haiti (probably because of the tourist industry) so naturally that is expressed in their cars. There are some pretty sketchy cars down here too but when they're good they're really good.

We came back and showered again then we went into down town Boca Chica to a pizza place called Napoli's Pizza which was a really good Brooklyn style pizza baked in a real wood fire brick oven. After seeing a few sweet cars on the roads we went back to the complex, I got beat in ping pong and checkers, and we have been laughing since we went to bed.

With or Without You 1/6/12

So I just arrived at the airport about a half hour before my teammates, the airport looks better since we left for Haiti but the scars are still there. My team showed up and we waited in line at the American Airlines desks for an hour just like last time. I don't understand why they tell us to be there three hours ahead of time and the workers aren't there till two hours. One of the TSA workers told us that there was an earthquake in the Dominican Republic last night but when we arrived, none of the locals seem alarmed so I figure it wasn't a big deal. We got on the plane to Miami without a hitch and then after a sandwich and what felt like a 15 minute wait in Miami we boarded the plane for the Dominican.  The flight was great and I got some beautiful footage of the ocean and a few islands and archipelagos.

Hispaniola has a distinct smell. When I was in Haiti I thought it was a combination of diesel, manure, and trash but here in the DR it smells exactly the same. This part of the island has less manure and trash so I guess it's the island it's self. We came out of the plane through the tunnel this time instead of on the tarmac like in Haiti, though part of the airport looked severely damaged. The smell hit me as soon as I got to the terminal and all the memories of Haiti came rushing back. After baggage claim, I switched my money out for Dominican pesos, $30 is just short of 1000 pesos... I didn't know this and I think I may have too much but it's ok I like foreign currency.

The DR seems less mountainous than Haiti and there are infinitely more trees.  The people seem slightly less friendly but I guess that is what more money and affluence does. There are the same awesome off road vehicles with more cars and one or two awesome dune buggies.  Once out in the beautiful Dominican sun we met up with our guide Kiko and the guy who runs the sports complex were staying at named Gus.  We also loaded up in what might be the exact same Toyota Coaster that we had in Haiti and a little Nissan van thing that I need to find the name of. I think it was a Nissan Sunny.  Naturally I avoided the Coaster in favor of the smaller more fun vehicle hoping for some off road fun but we only got in a little light off-roading on a flat dirt road.  Kiko also brought along two medical missionaries from Alabama and Georgia who I talked to for a bit. They saw my Passion wristband and apparently both had gone last year.

I'll talk about Passion in a separate post because there's too much to say here but basically the theme was Freedom and the fact that there are 27million slaves in the world today (the most in human history) be they sex slaves, indentured servants, or what have you. With that fresh on my mind it was hard not to notice the one or two women in, let's say revealing clothes on the side of a road as we went to the sports facility.

When we got here I was astounded. There are 3 beautiful baseball diamonds with perfect (albeit a bit hard) dirt, soft Bermuda grass, and consistent lips. There's a weight room, a soccer field, a basketball court, two tennis courts and a pool.  All of this just outside Santo Domingo which in the poverty department is just a couple notches above Port Au Prince.

We had a little practice on one of the fields to kind of get ready for our game tomorrow.  I'm not sure if I'm ready but we're gonna find out.  It felt really good to get to play some ball again and although I'm a little out of shape I think I did pretty well for not playing in months.

We had dinner after practice which was a metric ton of spaghetti. Evidently the sports complex decided we were carb loading before our game tomorrow which is probably not a terrible idea. Before, during, and after dinner there was some kind of service going on in an assembly hall thing opposite the cafeteria. Robbie and I decided to go over and check it out. It turned out to be a church service for what looked like about 75-100 high school students. Seeing the Hispanic version of church camp was pretty cool, they were singing songs that I understood most of the words to and the feel was pretty contemporary despite the fact that it was "cowboy night" and they all dressed the part.  The rest of the team followed us a few minutes later and eventually the whole team was standing in the back. Obviously the people who were running the thing took notice of the 25 Americans in the back of the room and invited us to sit down, they even provided 4 translators for us. I kept up with the worship team but when the pastor started going he went so fast I lost him every other thought. Luckily the translators caught me up. He gave a message that Tom had given before about living a life that is worth writing about or a life that's worth making a movie about, living for something bigger than one's self. It seemed like it was the last night of the camp because at the end the pastor asked the kids if any of them wanted to accept Christ, but they may do camp differently down here.  A lot of them stood up so apparently the message got to them. I'm glad to see the affirmation that God is working down here with or without us and we are just coming along for the ride.

Sorry for this being late but I don't have internet access here. It's only 9:10 here now, 7:10 back home but I'm bushed we get up at 7 tomorrow so hopefully 10 hrs of sleep will do me good. I can't wait to see what God does tomorrow.