The Dominican Republic Day One with the Y

So now that I've been in Haii a few days, my time in the Dominican Republic seems like it was a year ago. I have some great travel companions, from Florida, Tennessee, Minnesota, New Mexico, Chicago, Des Moines. The first night, we were all nervous about venturing out on our own and how to manage the water and what can we eat, and what do we do when people ask us for money. . . and of course there's the whole getting to know you thing but we're all family now. In fact, we are discussing now how our leader, Antonio, is the youngest of us. There are three younger than me.
So the DR YMCA is led by Andres. A jolly man who draws small children like a magnet and leads the Y with a passion and desire to serve and better his country. He has gone to every effort to make sure we are taken care of and comfortable. His leadership is led with passion and vision but not so much organization. The big problem in the Dominican is that there isn't enough public education, so the Y is in place to meet the community need through schooling. But most of the families can't afford the $5 per month for the half day of school on weekdays so the schools loose money. So he's trying to develop ways to earn an income by building a new facility in a middle class neighborhood that will provide a fitness area and aerobics.
So, we went to the main Y, it has a classroom, a computer lab with computers that were probably used in the US 20 years ago. A Technical school to teach adults skills needed to work in restaurant services, beauty salon, fixing computers, electrical. Then we went to talk to the president of the DR Lawyers Association, and he talked to us about the history of the DR and Haiti. And there is just so much there that I am totally unaware of. We've heard so many different perspectives here from some really really smart people. The DR and Haiti don't really get along. Yet Andres was one of the first to support the Haiti Y after the earthquake. Haiti was the 1st independent nation from a slave revolt and they never want to be enslaved again- this affects their relationship with us and with every foreign country. We went through the whole history about the dictators in the past that behaved like Hitler with killing off of certain ethnicities and people who opposed them. Currently, the biggest challenges facing the island (a bird with two wings) involve migration, as the Haitians migrate to the DR, they aren't citizens so they take the benefits of the country but don't pay taxes because they don't have citizenship, even if they are born here. This drains the DR. There is no leadership here because the leaders were all killed off during the dictatorship so there is a void of leadership. I think it is definitely something we should all become more aware of. . . I mean I had no idea that there was a genocide going on here just a few decades ago. And this affects all of us, as we learned yesterday, you can't choose your neighbors, we have to work together like it or not. Of course, this is the girl who doesn't watch TV or follow the news.
We traveled to another neighborhood within Santo Domingo to visit a Y facility that has several classrooms, a computer lab with absolutely no working computers, a playground on the roof, a health clinic area, and a preschool. The children sang and prayed and ate lunch with us. They are all taught core values. We communicate through gestures and we take their photos and show them to them on our digital screens and they love it! They are all clean and dressed in uniforms but Ray told us that they're putting their best foot forward for us. The preschool is for single mothers- mothers from Haiti, husbands in jail, domestic violence while they work as street vendors.
We visited the new Y site. He wants it done in 3 months, they work by hand. He has amazing vision for this place. It was a huge beach house with a view of the ocean and they are building onto it a gym, aerobics, a medical clinic (that's the other thing, they provide medical check ups for their students) 8 classrooms, computer lab, kitchen. . so many dreams and not a lot of cash. It would be like us starting building a building without the money to finish. They don't want to borrow money because they come from a history of bankruptcy. After seeing the Haitian men that work in the sun laboring over the construction site for under $3 an hour, we went to the navy social club and sat by the beach and drank beer. That is one of the main things I am going to take away from this trip- the amazing discrepancy between those who have money and those who don't. And the beer in the Dominican Republic, by the way, is el Presidente. And I like it. We also had wine. I totally thought I wouldn't drink alcohol my entire time here - because of expense and the malaria pills-and I've had a drink every day. Mainly because of my generous family members here. I've also learned that females should not pour their own wine. Huh.
We went to a traditional Dominican Republic food buffet. I danced with a Dominican Republican man. He kept having to put his hands on my hips and say side-to-side No! Meringue. We have been eating very well in both countries. I'm probably gaining weight. I remember clear back on that night, sitting by the pool discussing Baby Doc (Duvalier) and our fears about going to Haiti. Ha! There is no need to fear Haiti.