Bateys--Haitians in the Dominican Republic

Jason Rhodes reflects on our visit to a batey near Santo Domingo. Batey is a Taino word meaning "village". Nowadays the term is used for the company towns where the sugar cane cutters, or braceros, live. Cutting cane is done by hand, or rather by arm--the Spanish word for arm is brazo, leading to the moniker braceros. The braceros and their families, mostly Haitians, live a tenuous life, somewhat like migrant farm workers in the U.S. And similarly, they've come from a situation of even more economic desperation, back in Haiti, where the per capita GNP is less than a third that of the Dominican Republic

Jason write-- Here in the D.R. there are gauguas (mini buses), closer living quarters, and carros públicos (public cars) è forcing you to get *close* to your fellow man or woman è ANY man or woman. You don't have a choice about who sits (almost in your lap) with you in a carro público. And this, I believe, is a good thing for the most part. It breeds a certain kind of trust or companionship è there aren't the walls between people that are so evident in the U.S.

There are also bateys here in the D.R., where physical closeness is a way of life due to economic realities.Yesterday we went out to a non-government sponsored batey. We walked around and talked with the people living and working there. We saw, we smelled, we touched the rough hands of the men, women and children. A connection was made with the people of the batey.

It continued in the church. The games we played, the songs we sang, all created a common bond è especially between us and the children.. On SST the trick is to get below the crust into the place where you don't just see, but feel. Lico and Mateo knew how to get us to that point.

Our contacts, Lico and Mateo, work for DESCO--a community organization which seeks to do "integrated development" in over 70 bateys. Their work includes adult literacy, consciousness raising, preventative health, and loans for small businesses.