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.