By Elisa Melville, Alison Deweerd, Eric Hoogland
What a day today was… filled with equal parts experience and travel! We woke up in Batey Neueve (Village 9) after having arrived the night before. To prepare for the day, we had warm coffee in the bright morning sun, saying “Hola, buenos dias!” to the locals walking past who responded just as eagerly back to us with kind smiles. For breakfast we ate homemade bread rolls with fried eggs and fresh fruit and discussed day 1 of our GO ministries devotional we received: the importance of prayer. We met Yasniel who used to live in Batey Neueve but now works for GO Ministries in Santiago. We took a walk with him and John through the Batey because it was dark when we arrived last night. Now, we could see the incredible view of sugarcane fields with huge beautiful mountains overlooking them.
There are several Bateys (villages) throughout this remote region where sugarcane is grown and harvested. We walked around the town where we saw lots of different kinds of houses: some made of palm tree bark, some made of metal sheets, and others made of cement blocks. We got to go inside a very kind woman’s house named Josefina, and John explained to us how her house was a part of the building that used to be dorms for sugarcane farmers, and since it was one big building all the sounds carry through the houses. Walking through the town was really such a unique experience for all of us that we will never forget.
After this, we did a demonstration of the Sawyer water filters with a group of people from the Batey as well as other towns surrounding it. Paulo spoke to them in Spanish while Maddie demonstrated for the people to see. Paulo threw in a handful of dirt into the bucket to show that the filter really does work, and Jake took a sip of it afterward. We were able to distribute over 50 buckets and all of the filters we brought with us to the community members, allowing them to practice on their buckets to make sure they knew how to install the filter.
While this distribution was happening, some of the team went to play with the children who had gathered in the street. We brought bubbles, Jolly Ranchers, suckers, chalk, balls, and jump ropes and played with them. While many of us couldn’t speak much Spanish to them, they didn’t care – they were happy we wanted to play with them – and that’s just what we did!
Despite whatever material needs one person or the next may have, everyone in Batey Nueve approached us with such joy and patience, knowing what we were there for and wanting us to feel welcomed. It was such a beautiful experience.
After all this we ate lunch and packed up the bus to go home- another 6 hour car ride with each other that we spent playing games with each other like charades, Jeopardy, categories, name that tune, you name it – we probably played it. We got back around 7 pm and had dinner and cake to celebrate Brady’s 22nd birthday!! We played basketball outside and after cleaning up from the long day, debriefed about our God sightings and Paulo and Eric were able to share their stories with the group. We finished the night with more games. What a wonderful day of community, new experiences, learning, and joy. We are so excited for the rest of the week!
