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Lucky me, it was another Friday off (the final one). There’s no practice tomorrow, so the players were again allowed to leave the camp early to return to their homes. The schedule will get back to normal this coming week, when 40 or so more players will be checking in to the camp. All of the new players will be going to Tampa at the end of February, some for a month or so and some to stay and play minor league ball. Most have been to the U.S. before and have decent English language skills, so I’ll be able to do a lot more with them in class, focusing mainly on Content Based Instruction (CBI). In CBI, the focus is on the subject matter, rather than on the language itself. So, for the players with the higher English skills who have been to the U.S. before, I’m going to teach the historical aspects of baseball, including the race issue, the advent of Latin American players into the majors, the history of the Yankees and more.
For those advanced speakers of English who are going to the States at the end of February but who have not been there before, I’m going to emphasize situations, like going through airports, staying in a hotel, using public transportation, etc. For the guys who will be staying here for the Dominican Summer League, the language itself will be a primary concern in the classroom, mainly conversational English.
At any rate, I’ll have my hands full soon, with the occasional Friday off nothing but a remote dream. Not that I’m off today, of course–I did have office hours at the beach in Boca Chica while working on the upcoming week. One of the waiters at the establishment where I hold Weekend Office Hours told me that Robinson Cano, Melky Cabrera and another Major League Yankee player–probably Edwar Ramirez–had ambled down the beach just a few minutes before I arrived. If they had come back, I would have said hello to them and asked them if they knew whether or not the fans in New York City send off their baseball equipment trucks to Tampa with kisses. (For an explanation of this bizarre form of pagan idol worship, read the comments at the end of the previous post. Click on comments. By the way, OGM is one of the few people who post comments on the blog. Forgive her–she’s from Boston and is a very devout baseball and Red Sox fan. (Gag)  Feel free to post a comment, though, whoever you are, if the mood strikes you. Just click on “No Comments” or ” 2 Comments” or whatever at the end of any blog entry.)
I’ve finally finished posting the remaining Laos photos to the Gallery, so I should be adding Montana photos soon, as time permits. I’ll let you know.
Speaking of Laos, I read an article this morning about the continuing efforts to clear the country of unexploded bombs (UXO) left over from the Vietnam War. A short quote from the article:
“Laos is one of the most heavily bombed countries in the world, suffering from intense ground battles and aerial bombardment during the Indochina War.
More than 580,000 bombing missions resulted in more than two million tonnes of bombs being dropped during the 10 year period of conflict. About 30 percent of these did not explode on impact.”
Read the rest of it here. Very tragic and so completely immoral. More later.
With most of the players gone, the camp was unusually quiet this past weekend–no players, office staff or coaches and only a small group of housekeepers and ground crew. Unfortunately, with few people to feed, meals were sparse until Sunday dinner, by which time the players who went home were supposed to return. I looked in on breakfast Saturday morning and, as I suspected, the Blue Plate Special was Mystery-Meat-and-Cheese Sandwiches. I passed on it and didn’t hang around for lunch. Instead, I went to my weekend office and worked on upcoming lessons.
My Weekend Office:
Yes, I did go into Santo Domingo on Friday, but, no, I wasn’t able to change phone companies. I knew of one place in a supermarket close to where my apartment was, but they don’t sell the actual SIM cards, only the recharge cards. I’ll have to go back to the Capital in a few weeks and try to find a larger shop that has the SIM card I need.
I laid off jogging on Friday because the fields were too wet from a late Thursday afternoon rain shower. So, having rested a day, I was able to break my all-time jogging record on Saturday morning–1 hour, 17 minutes. What a Marathon Man I’m becoming.  Too bad none of the remaining players in camp were up to cheer me on, but with the day off, they were all sleeping. Deadbeats. More later.
I arrived back at the baseball camp near Boca Chica on Sunday morning, and it felt great to leave all the noise, pollution and chaos of Santo Domingo behind. I dropped my bags off at my room at the camp and took my taxi, which waited for me, into Boca Chica. I had to get a haircut and buy some REAL coffee for the Mr. Coffee machine in my room. (I’d been drinking Nescafe Instant for the last 6 weeks.  Of course, I could have done these tasks in S.D., but I needed an excuse to go to the beach!
I was happy to find that the multitude of young shoe-shine boys has doubled or tripled. I don’t wear dress shoes, but they can also clean tennis shoes, so they don’t have a reason to bypass me. I’m gonna have to start wearing flip-flops when I go into B.C., since I’m sure they would insist they could clean sandals, too. They’re cute kids, 7-9 years old, but they can be quite the pests when you’re in the town. I hardly ever see them on the beach; thus, another reason to spend time there, soaking up some sun, writing lesson plans and notes for the blog.
So, it’s back to work. Basically, I goofed off while I was in S.D., except for a couple of workshops I conducted earlier, which was not a problem because I get 20 working days off. The embassy didn’t have anything for me to do; it was holiday time and the schools were out, so I looked at the time as a vacation. Some of you have indicated that I’m on perpetual vacation. (And you know who you are.) Not so! //sarcasm on// I miss the foot-deep snow and sub-freezing temperatures of Montana winters. //sarcasm off//
Below are a couple of photos. As you can see, the view from my apartment in S.D. was less than ideal for photographing sunsets.
And one from the camp just last evening.
We’ve had sunny, dry weather lately, so the fields are no longer drenched, and I’m able to do my 5-times weekly jog around the four warning tracks, rather than the access road. I’m now punishing myself for more than an hour each session. :O My goal is to lose somewhere around 30 pounds before I leave the D.R. next July. So far, I’ve lost about 5. Of course, with all the calorie reducing running, I have to be moderate in my weekend excursions into Boca Chica. Too much Burger King food and other goodies pretty much negate all the hard work.
Classes are going ok, more or less. Since this is the short session, only 6 weeks, it’s difficult to sustain a logically progressive syllabus, so I’ve been “picking and choosing” what to teach. I’m trying to include as much culture (American) in the lessons as I can, stuff like tipping in restaurants and elsewhere, ordering food in restaurants, baseball history, and other cultural trappings. My lessons DO flow one into the next, but I’m not always sure of the connection of one to another–a lot of it is “seat of the pants” effort. When the long term begins again in February, I’ll start working from a more deliberate curriculum.
The kids (students, ballplayers), are, for the most part, ok. Like everything else, it seems, there is good and bad. A friend once told me that during your life, 80% of the people you meet will be neutral in their opinion of you, 10% will like you and 10% will dislike you. That seems to hold true about my students’ opinions of having to attend English class.
The large majority of them view the class as something they have to do, something they have to live with. They put in as much effort as I ask them to and no more, and they’re not too keen about going beyond what they receive in class–no extra studying or usage outside of the classroom.
A small minority, though, are firmly encamped on one of the other two sides.
There are those who’d rather drink poison than come to classes. This group might be physically present, but their minds are elsewhere and they refuse to participate. Either that or they are very disruptive, talking to others of like nature in Spanish about who knows what during class, resisting my best efforts at getting them to settle down and join in. There are times when I have to ask them to leave the room. At best they’re merely taking up space and at worst they are very disrespectful.
However, the other minority group more than makes up for them. These guys are the ones who sit up front, take notes, ask questions and generally motivate me to try to increase their numbers from the fence-straddlers. Outside of class, many of them ask me what can they do to increase their English skills. It’s very gratifying to work with this type of student.
Such is language teaching–it has its good and bad points. Overall, though, it is stimulating and satisfying, and, especially, working in and with other countries and cultures has been far beyond my expectations and dreams.
In a few short weeks I’ll be moving back into La Capital to work in much more academically-oriented environs. Meanwhile, earlier rumors had it that Brian Cashman and Felix Lopez would be visiting the camp tomorrow. Will they? I don’t know, but I’ll let you know when I know more later.
I went to Boca Chica earlier to make copies for my classes this coming week. I bought an umbrella and decided to walk to the beach. There were a few (fool?) hardy souls in the water, but most of the restaurants and bars lining the beach were closed. No wonder. The usually placid lagoon was being rocked by 10-15 foot waves crashing over the protective reef that lies a couple of hundred yards offshore. The surf was washing up the beach in places I had never before seen it occur. I suppose the height of the water was the result of a small storm surge propelled by the tropical depression, which is gradually moving to the north-west and toward a possibly fateful meeting with the denuded mountains of Haiti. Because that country has been almost completely deforested, the probability of mudslides and flash floods poses a severe threat to the population. Let’s hope that the impact and potential loss of life is minimal.
Here, we’ve had steady rain all day, punctuated by heavy downpours that have left the baseball fields like small lakes, and the probability of playing baseball tomorrow is slim. Even though the system is moving out of our neighborhood, we are still experiencing rain and wind. Tomorrow’s forecast calls for more of the same. I can only imagine what a hurricane making landfall here must be like. I’m enjoying the experience, but I don’t think I’d like to be around for something more intense. Mas tarde.
No, I’m not suffering. But, our little area of low pressure has blown up into a tropical depression, soon-to-be Tropical Storm Noel, then Hurricane Noel. At least that’s the current prediction. Overnight we had a steady, but not heavy, rainfall, and on the field nearest my room, the warning track and part of the outfield grass are under water. Play between the various teams in the Instructional League was supposed to start tomorrow, but I’d guess that’s going to be delayed a day or two. At the moment the intensity has picked up a bit. There have been no thunderstorms or heavy winds, and it looks like the system will be long gone from our neck of the woods by the time it attains tropical storm strength. I have to go into Boca Chica today to make some copies for this coming week’s classes, but I certainly won’t be taking a motorcycle taxi! More later.
Thought I’d better check in with a few jottings of goings on here and elsewhere.
We’ve got a nice mix of players right now, comprised mostly of Dominicans, but with several Venezuelans and a few Nicaraguans, Panamanians and Mexicans. We’ve also got two kids from Brazil, and, for a few weeks, a couple of guys from Holland. At the end of next week, 8 players from the U.S. are coming down to work out with the regulars. All in all, a pretty interesting mix.
After being shut down for 6 weeks, the camp seems to be having more than its share of problems. First, the generators were acting up, leaving us without electricity and internet for the better part of a few days. Once that was taken care of, the water pressure started acting up, meaning we were without water for half of last weekend. The maintenance crew thought they fixed it, but we’ve been dry for most of today, again. They’re still working on it and I think I just heard a trickle coming out of my bathroom faucet.
Then, earlier today, one of the grounds crew was working underneath a front loader when the large bucket assembly in the front fell on top of him, mashing up his back pretty bad. I didn’t see it happen, but everyone is very worried about him; he’s now in a hospital in Santo Domingo. We’ll definitely keep him in our thoughts.
We’ve also been having quite a bit of rain lately, mainly very intense, early afternoon showers. Sunday, though, it rained off and on for most of the day, frequently heavily. I took a beat-up old taxi into Boca Chica around 2 p.m. and it started raining hard enough to obscure our view through the windshield; however, that wasn’t the worst of it–the driver’s wipers didn’t work too well and his heater was inoperable, so that the inside fogging of the windows pretty much shot vision all to heck. Luckily, we managed to make it into B.C. without getting slammed into by one of the heavy trucks which frequents the highway in these parts.
I see that the Red Sox have pulled off another unbelievable comeback to put themselves into the World Series against the Rockies. I guess that’s ok, because how many people would have watched a Cleveland-Denver Series anyway? (Not that a whole lot are going to stay up late watching Boston-Denver either.)
I hear through the grapevine that Brian Cashman, General Manager of the Big Club, and a few other VIPs might be coming down sometime this fall. I’d love to meet Cashman, who I think has been one of the most competent people in the front office over the last 10 years. More later.
Only a few more weeks remain until I leave the D.R. for a few months. I don’t have that many classes left to teach, so I’m kind of treading water, so to speak, with a few of the classes. I’ve been using a textbook with them, adapting it to be more relevant to young, Latin American baseball players and augmenting it with my own materials. We’re at the end of a chapter and I don’t want to start a new one, knowing that we wouldn’t finish it before I leave, so I have to come up with some other suitable material for a while. One of the universities, UNIBE, from Santo Domingo, is coming here to give a few workshops, such as communication skills, financial management, conflict resolution and others to the players, and the week of July 2-6 belongs to them. Effectively, then, I only have next week left to teach.
I witnessed a pretty bad motorcycle accident last Sunday. One guy pulled away from the curb and smacked into an oncoming ‘cyclist, who had the right of way. One fellow got up ok, but the other stayed down, holding his leg and obviously in quite a bit of pain. He was eventually transported away in an ambulance, which had to part the large crowd of onlookers to get to him. I was in a market across the street when it happened.
The Yankee and Bomber squads have seen an unbelievable amount of action this week. Remember I posted about all the rainouts? Well, they’ve been making them up this week. Monday through Thursday, the Yanks are playing 4 (!) doubleheaders in a row and the Bombers are playing 3, having only one game to play yesterday. The games are only 7 innings each, but with the early morning workout from about 7:30 to 9, that’s still a lot of time on the field. Yesterday, the Yanks, the away team, didn’t get back to the campus until 4 p.m. Obviously, getting them to come to classes is a chore, and they’ll be ready for a break this weekend.
I found out that there is also supposed to be another concert at the Boca Chica beach this weekend, along with the one I mentioned that is taking place just down the road east of here. So, the players will have plenty of opportunities to spend their recent paychecks and to let off a little steam. I hope they don’t go overboard. Most of the Dominican players will go to their various cities for the weekend, but the foreign guys will hang around the area.
I just submitted a few photos to the online international photography magazine Lens Culture. They’re doing a project to get 1000 photos of Buddha submitted to them and put online. I sent them 5 of my Thailand and Laos photos, but they won’t be able to get to them for a few months, since they’re swamped with submissions.
Also, if you’ll recall, I posted a while back that the Current cable network had filmed here and the show would air sometime around the middle of June. Unfortunately, someone didn’t pay the bill and we’ve been without cable television since June 1st, so I can’t tell you if the show has been on or not. More later.
The team was finally able to get in a game at the home field yesterday, hosting, and losing, to the Kansas City Royals club. That stopped the streak at 5 unplayed games here. Unfortunately, the Mets ended the Big Club’s streak at 9 wins. Time to start a new one.
I uploaded more of the Boca Chica photos to the Photo Gallery, if anyone’s interested. They’re in the Dominican Republic section.
I’ve got lots to keep me occupied until I fly out of here on July 11th. I think this weekend I might do a practice pack to see how much room I might have for souvenirs to bring back. I’m going to leave a lot of stuff behind, since I’ll be returning in October. As I wrote in a previous post, I also have a lot of paperwork to complete, and I have some workshops to conduct up in Samana as soon as I come back, so I have to work on those before I leave.
The players finally get their first paycheck today–I hope they don’t go crazy in Boca Chica, but I’m not too worried; they’re a pretty good bunch of guys. It’s odd how the pay system works. Some of them have been here since the camp reopened in February, but none of them get paid until they actually start playing the Dominican Summer League games. Many of them have been without ample amounts of money for quite a while now. Like I said, I hope they don’t go overboard in Boca Chica. Most of the foreign players (Venezuelans, Panamanians, etc.), I hear, are waiting for next weekend, when there is a big concert just down the road.
Speaking of foreign players, the Yanks just signed a Brazilian tryout player, Michael Souza. That seems unusual, since Brazil is known more for its great passion for football (that’s soccer to you norteamericanos) than for turning out baseball players. In fact, I don’t recall there ever being a Brazilian player in the majors. I’ll have to check. (In fact, that’s your homework assignment–find me a Brazilian born player who was in the majors.) More later.
Again, we had some heavy showers over night and again, for the 5th straight game, the team won’t be playing here today. It looks like the bus is fired up, so perhaps the away game might be played. Now, though, the skies are clear and sunny, so let’s hope good weather is here to stay.
As promised, I finally took some photos of Boca Chica, most of which I’ll post to the Photo Gallery. But, here are some for your perusal.
Here’s a scene along the main road in the town, Avenida Duarte. There’s lots of these places where you can buy a large variety of paintings. I don’t know how much of them are mass produced. I saw a guy painting one once and the canvas had all the outlines of the various elements already drawn in, much like a Paint-by-Number kit. Still, they’re pretty. The canvas rolls up easily for traveling, so if I have enough room in my baggage, I might bring a few back.
Here’s a shot along the beach. It’s unusual in that there are very few people here, even though it’s a Saturday.
Maybe everyone was at the Harley-Davidson festival that day. Here’s one of the bikes–lots of nice looking ones.
Here’s a view from my usual hangout, under the palm trees. This is the best part of the beach, in my opinion. Everything here, food and drink, is a bit expensive, but you’re really paying for the ambience.
Finally, we haven’t had too many good sunrises or sunsets lately, but this one was kind of nice. The white dot in the upper middle of the photo is Venus.
Also, I forgot to mention (and I hope I don’t jinx them) that the Big Club has now won 8 in a row and cut the Red Sox lead to 8 1/2 games.
Breaking News!
Ok, it’s not that breathtaking, but since I started writing this, the Diamondbacks bus came to the camp. At first I thought that they were going to try to play a game here, but, looking out my bathroom window, I see that the Yankee team is boarding the bus. Obviously, the Arizona club, which was supposed to play here today, sent their bus to pick up the Yanks and take them to the Diamondback field, which must have missed all the rain. Our bus, in the meantime, is transporting the Bombers to the regularly scheduled away field (haven’t looked to see who they are playing). Obviously, our camp lay right under the path of the bands of rain clouds that have been passing through the area, but some of the other camps were spared.
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