Today was a very full day and everyone is tired and cranky as I write tonight's post. We started the day out with the usual Sunday routine of church where Melody taught the little kids to sing This Little Light of Mine and they performed it at the end to great applause. Following church we went for the usual after church lunch which consisted of.........chicken, yuca, rice, plantain and french fries. I can tell you that when we get home, we will not be eating chicken any time soon.
As soon as we got dropped off from lunch by Ken, we were immediately picked up by Corrina for our afternoon visits to some of Melody's students houses. The two we went to see today are Jenny and Sandra. These two are both married with kids of their own, but attend El Jordan to learn new things to bring money into the house. Sandra just moved out of the one room that her husband, 3 kids and her had been renting that shared a bathroom with 4 other families into their new house that they had been building for a while. Their new house is a simple 4 room brick house that her husband and his friends had worked on brick by brick as they could afford them over the last couple of years. Its very basic, but a HUGE step up for the family.
One of the biggest differences for them is to have an indoor kitchen. They still don't have running water in the house, so they still have only the one outdoor water tap but the kitchen is still a big step up for them. Melody spent lots of time with Sandra, so seeing their house and saying goodbye to Sandra was quite an emotional moment for them both.
We also got over to Jenny's new house which isn't finished as of yet, but any time they are not working, they are at the new house working on it. Jenny is the oldest student at El Jordan, and has been married for 18 years. Jenny says it is only in the last three years that her and her husband have really started to believe that they are worth anything in the world, and that any money they have is important and valuable to them and not to waste it. Jenny's husband is a welder, and the way the pay system works here is that they are paid 14 times a year. Once per month, and a second pay cheque at Christmas. The 14th pay cheque is almost another bonus cheque, but the way his company works is that they pay it out every 5th year for the past 5 years. That means that they get a big cheque once every 5 years. Instead of wasting it as they had in the past, they immediately paid for a plot of land. Ever since then, they have been buying building supplies every time they have any money and have been building their house ever since.
Its been two years of manual labor, but they now have a very small 4 room house almost ready to move into. It does not have an indoor kitchen or bathroom, but is a giant step up for this family. When we arrived, they were taking a break in the future living room. Here are some pictures of what two years of sweat will get you.
They only have a couple of things left to do before moving in, but they are not the cheapest items. They need to buy windows which will be single pane with wood frames, and they need to either cement the floor or tile it. After that they will be moved in and they are really looking forward to it. Right now, 6 of them live in one room the size of their new living room.
We finished up the visit, and made our way to meet Jorge, his son, Tonchi and Ken to go to the Clasico soccer game between Oriente and Blooming. I can honestly say I have never been to a sporting event with the atmosphere of this soccer game. One end of the stadium is painted blue for Blooming, the other end is painted Green for Oriente and the people who do not want to get trampled sit on the sides. We were on the sides, but they fans are rabid no matter where you sit in the stadium.
From the minute they enter the stadium until the time they leave, they are chanting, singing, banging drums or blasting off fireworks. On the way in, I had bought a Blooming flag to wave, but the police on the way in took my flag stick leaving me with only a flag. They took my flag stick, but you can take FIREWORKS and lighters in. Boy do they light fireworks. When the teams come out, the ends of the stadium light up like they are literally on fire and a giant smoke cloud goes over the field.
A couple of things worried me. The first is that the sections of the stadium are separated by chain link fence, and on top of the fence is barbed wire. I have seen the videos of the South American soccer riots that ended with people trampled or squashed on the fence, and that was the first thing that jumped to my mind. Didn't happen today however. The second thing that worried me was that they had police in full riot gear with helmets and shields every 20 feet along the side of the field. Again, we didn't need to worry, because they spent the whole time watching the game. Our officers would never go to a raiders game and just watch the game. They would watch the crowd the whole time. :)
The game was high spirited because the two teams hate each other, and two red cards were eventually given out. One to the Oriente goalie for a vicious elbow to the jaw on a player trying to head a ball, the other to a Blooming player who tried a slide tackle about 2 feet above the ball which resulted in the Oriente player going off on a stretcher and not returning. Oriente ended up winning the game 2-0 which made Logan happy since he was the only one really cheering for Oriente. The final goal was right in front of us and was a beautiful bicycle kick goal. Even though Blooming lost, we still exited the stadium blowing our Blooming horns. A good time was had by all.
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