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There are some very nice personal advantages to working here, among them, these. First, the camp is tranquil, despite all the baseball, and beautiful–quite isolated, surrounded by scrubland and forest, with lots of birds, woodpeckers and yellow thrushes especially, making their homes in the trees. Next, we’re only a 5-minute ride from a beautiful beach–swaying palms, turquoise waters, and gentle, cooling breezes. Finally, living at the camp 24/7 naturally leads to good friendships with many of the players. That’s also a downside. A number of players have been released lately, dropped from the academy and sent home, mainly due to lingering injuries that just never fully healed and negatively affected their performance. Some of these guys had become good friends, and when I found out they were leaving, I shed a tear or two. Three in particular, who were released in the past month, stand out.
First is Jean Paul Conde, a handsome and friendly 19-year old Venezuelan pitcher with a confident attitude. With his dashing good looks, he would have been a major celebrity if he had made the big leagues with the Yankees. Here’s a shot of a rental car with Jean Paul on the left, Richard Martinez in the middle and Nixton Perez outside the car (all from Venezuela), along with a few chicas that Jean Paul had attracted.
Then we lost Andres Varilla, an outspoken and high-strung Venezuelan. He is a good English speaker and we had more than a few discussions about Venezuelan and American politics. He plans on going to university and he’ll do well in whatever he decides to do. Here’s a photo of him (on the right) and Jean Paul with Reggie Jackson from November, 2006.
Finally, my favorite player was also released a short while ago. Juan Lopez, from Nicaragua, is such an easy-going, friendly 19-year old that no one could help but like him. He speaks decent English and helped me out in a few of my beginner classes. I was taken by surprise and stunned when I found out that his smile and optimism would no longer grace the camp. Here’s a photo of him (on the left) with Gabriel Tatis, a Dominican player.
Of course, I wished these guys well when they left, and I’m going to try to keep in contact with them vie email. Unfortunately, there are many more players who have become friends and whom I must leave in a few weeks. I never thought that would happen when I first took the job. It’s going to be a bittersweet departure from the D.R. More later.
My sometimes over-the-top brother thought it would be a good idea for the family to get together in Montana before I leave for Korea. He suggested that he would drive from Oregon to Great Falls around the time that I arrive there and, subsequently, he would rent a vehicle or two and pay for rooms at a hotel/motel near Glacier National Park, everything on him. Who am I to argue with that? 
He also emailed my brother in Texas to ask if he would be able to join in on the festivities. Yes, he can. The upshot, then, is that the family is having a reunion, the first time that all my brothers (minus one) and I and my mother and some assorted nieces will be together in a long time (since 1992, according to my Mom). I’m looking forward to the occasion.
Unfortunately, to the best of my knowledge only one of my brothers, the one still living in Montana, is a Yankee fan, but, also unfortunately, he’s a Republican fanboy. The Oregon brother, though having more progressive leanings, is, equally unfortunately, a Detroit Tiger fan. The Texas brother seems to be neutral, though I suspect he’s a closet Texas Stranger and Dallas Maverick aficionado. Me? I root for, besides the Yanks, . . . ? 
Anyway, it should be a great, but short, reunion. I want to be in Missoula on July 20th, so we’re probably going to have to leave early on the 19th, perhaps tour the park that day, stay overnight about an hour away, then get an early start on the 20th for the 3- to 4-hour drive to Missoula. Of course, the timetable will have to be flexible enough to take into account the intense traffic to the park, despite high gas prices. It’s not hard to understand why people will still drive long distances, paying $4 a gallon for fuel, to visit Glacier. It’s one of the most beautiful locations in the U.S. and the world.
My time here is certainly winding down rapidly–after this week, only 4 remain. I’m beginning to feel the pangs of leaving the baseball camp and the country. It’s been a fantastic experience, but something new beckons, just over the horizon. Ameliorating my sadness about leaving is the knowledge that it won’t be long before I get to return to Thailand and Laos, and, later, South Korea. And farther down the line? Well, who really knows? More later.
Well, my friend Nai has done it again or it’s been done to him or whatever. The guy just doesn’t have much luck at all, though I doubt luck has much to do with it. As you may recall, he was in a bad motorcycle accident a few months ago, and it has been only recently that he seemed fully-recovered. He had a bout with malaria recently, too. A week-and-a-half ago, he told me his mother was sick. She was in the small local hospital (woefully inadequate) next to his house, and he had been going over there to bring food to her and to sit with her. He had also been working in the Vientiane morning market, getting up at 2 a.m. to go there to sell rice, making a bit of money, becoming somewhat self-sufficient. (I gave him the money to get started in this.)
A few days ago I called him to say hello, but his brother Pui answered Nai’s cell phone and said he was at the hospital with his mother. “OK, I call back tomorrow,” I told him. The next day he was at the hospital and the day after that. Finally, it hit me that he wasn’t seeing his mother, but, instead he was IN the hospital himself. I confirmed that with Pui. “Nai have accident?” “Yes,” Pui said, “Nai accident. Hospital Vientiane.”
Then I got an email from his father yesterday, written with the help of one of Nai’s English-speaking Lao friends. Apparently, Nai had been getting more and more tired from working the market that time of day, and, when he got up to go to the toilet and get ready to go into work again, he fell (fainted? passed out?) and smashed his head on the concrete floor. It sounds like he suffered a concussion, at least. I talked to him this morning, finally, and he was pretty much out of it, groggy with the medicine he’s taking and his head in a lot of pain. He said he might have to go to the hospital in Nong Khai, across the river in Thailand, maybe for a couple of weeks. His mother is also still very ill, apparently, and, of course, the family has no money to cover hospital, doctor and medicinal expenses. Guess who does? Yes, I was asked by the father, who is a very dignified old gentleman and not one to beg, if I could send a few thousand dollars to help the family. My finances lately are really hurting, but I couldn’t say no and let them suffer without medical care and medicine. I can hardly wait to get back there in July to say hello and see in person what’s going on with Nai and his family. I’m always happy to see them and they make me feel like part of their family. I’ll spend most of my time in Laos staying with them and save money by staying out of Vientiane hotels and guest houses. I just pray they’re all in good health soon.
Talking about my faltering finances, my mother told me that I had been getting calls the last few days from one of my credit card companies, telling me to call them about possible fraudulent use of the card. I thought it was probably just a response to my using it to purchase my plane ticket to Thailand, but, no, someone had been using the credit card number in California, mainly for small purchases at Target and McDonalds. How they got the number (and then made a fake card out of it) I don’t know. I’m sure it was nothing they found online, since I’m very careful about covering my tracks online and keeping my anti-virus, anti-spyware programs up to date. I used that particular card in Santo Domingo the past several weeks, at FedEx and at D’Luis Restaurant, a respectable, somewhat upscale establishment. Could someone there have copied my cc info and sold it? Possibly, I suppose. Anyway, the card was canceled and a new one is on the way to my Montana address.
In addition, I am now waiting for the other shoe to drop on my income taxes. The IRS told me it would take about 6-8 weeks to render a judgment on the fees and penalties I owe, and that’s right . . . about . . . now.
On a brighter note, we had some sunshine today. Only a couple hours worth, so far, but sunshine nevertheless. Also, in a follow up to my last post in which I was somewhat skeptical about the current state of affairs in the U.S., here’s a speech given by Pulitzer Prize-Winning reporter Chris Hedges. It pretty much sums up my feelings. It’s long, but give it a go if you’re interested. (And I’m sure many of you are not.  )
More later.
Here’s another news article about UXOs (Unexploded Ordinance), particularly cluster bombs, in Laos. Though the U.S. is one of the countries helping to clear Laos of these things, it’s still shameful that the U.S. dropped all these devices on Laos in the first place. What’s even more disgusting is that the U.S. government refused to sign a treaty Friday banning these horrors. Granted, China, Russia, Israel, India, Pakistan and Brazil also refused to sign, (WARNING–going on the soapbox) but it seems that the U.S. USED TO, at some distant time in the past, try to set a shining example of adhering to humanitarian ideals. I could be mistaken about that since recent history seems to show otherwise. Sometimes, I don’t recognize the USA anymore. It has become, in many ways, a totalitarian, war-mongering state, one that seems to be completely at odds with the beacon of light it could and should be. (OK, I’m off the soapbox.)
The weather has really been oppressive lately, enough so that it almost–almost–reminds me of Missoula in the winter–always cloudy, very little sunshine. We had enough rain a few days ago to render the warning tracks a bit muddy, but not unplayable. Still, what boring conditions for a tropical location, not to mention how clammy it’s been, with no breeze to speak of. Geez, I’m so tired of the weather that I’m thinking of leaving in several weeks.
It’s a bit tough (tongue firmly in cheek) sitting on the beach in Boca Chica under this unwanted cloud cover when you’ve got ants in your pants to go somewhere else. Being not that far from the airport, you can see all the larger international jets soaring into the sky, leaving for South America, Mexico, Europe, and other destinations. You wish you were on one of them and going to somewhere sunny, somewhere like, oh, . . . Thailand, for example.
Or Laos.
Or Korea.
Or Somewhere.
Soon.
More later. Especially if the sun comes out today. (And then I won’t want to go anywhere.) 
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