Anyone ever live in a 'bateye'?

jrf

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Jan 9, 2005
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Anyone on this board ever lived in a bateye or a comparable poor area?

I've been the AI route, the apartment route, hotel route and am really curious what it would be like to live within the poorer of those in the North.

Crazy idea I am sure but am wondering if anyone else has experienced it.
 
Sep 19, 2005
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yeah I was born in Louisville KY......does that count?

I also ate at a dog food specialist near the monument in Santiago..does that also count?

bad bob
 
A

apostropheman

Guest
yes, in a barrio in the south...but for vacations not really for "living"...yet
Anyone on this board ever lived in a bateye or a comparable poor area?

I've been the AI route, the apartment route, hotel route and am really curious what it would be like to live within the poorer of those in the North.

Crazy idea I am sure but am wondering if anyone else has experienced it.
do you speak spanish well? would you be by yourself?
 
Anyone on this board ever lived in a bateye or a comparable poor area?

I've been the AI route, the apartment route, hotel route and am really curious what it would be like to live within the poorer of those in the North.

Crazy idea I am sure but am wondering if anyone else has experienced it.

While your at it why not live with the homeless in the NYC transit system. Man some of you guys really are nuts on this board. Hey i never was on a cruise ship that sank, Wonder how that would be? Crazy a$$ people on this board.
 

Celt202

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May 22, 2004
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I spent a night in Guaricano 5 years ago in an alcohol related incident. It's not a "bateye" more like a bat cave, one of the rude Santo Domingo barrios.

I survived and wouldn't think of doing it again.

:surprised
 

Chip

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Jul 25, 2007
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It might not be classified as a batery but I lived with my inlaws in the campo in Moca and we had no regular running water or electricity but we did have an outhouse with a bathing room - we used a lot of candles and drank rainwater. The house has a concrete floor with wood construction and a corrugated metal roof. We slept with a mosquito net and whatever critter could fit through the rafters. See a couple of pictures below of the inside of a typical house in the country and the outside backyard.

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6tuwtuw.jpg
 

J D Sauser

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Nov 20, 2004
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That seems like another brand new business idea (after AZB's Hookerants)... Barrio experience tourism for spoiled kids from "developed" countries.

My kids slept in La Union... at their friends home. I don't consider La Union a Barrio yet, even less a Batey. But I was surprised how easily they adapted to occasional water and electricity service and the limited panoply of electronic entertainment... seems that "alegria", rio and such helped a great deal.
They also spent time in La Maranata, which is closer to being a Barrio.

I think that if you have the right contacts and now a) the language and lingo and b) have a handle on how to behave when exposed to or submerged into other cultures, it can be done quite safely or almost as safely as those who live there every day.

I don't know anybody in El Tablon, to mention an example, but if I would, they way I do know people, I would not hesitate to go there, eat there and sleep there... but knowing people to me is not like having a meet a cuerito last night.

LOVE those pictures above, btw.

... J-D.
 

NALs

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Jan 20, 2003
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While your at it why not live with the homeless in the NYC transit system. Man some of you guys really are nuts on this board. Hey i never was on a cruise ship that sank, Wonder how that would be? Crazy a$$ people on this board.
That was funny! :p

-NALs
 

Chris_NJ

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Dec 17, 2003
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In 2002 I went from Santiago with a friend of a friend of a friend to his mother's house out in Palo Verde to see Anthony Santos in concert. The house looked similar to the one in Chip's picture. Getting off the guagua on the road to Monte Cristi it felt like I had entered the Wild West. It was dusty and a whole cast of characters was gathered around the colmado. A dog that would have been better off dead was lying in the street. I swear that I saw tumbleweed blow by.

We then got on family member's motorcycles and headed back to the family's house. We had a little chicken/rice and a lot of tostones and fried cheese. Every house we visited we got our fill of fried cheese and tostones. Later in the evening it started to rain and all the dust became mud. Despite the poverty the whole town seemed to be at the concert.

The roads became almost impassable on the way home but we somehow made it to the family house around 4AM. I am not even sure of where I slept because my friend passed out in the one available bed and was instantly snoring loudly and could not be woken up.

In a few hours everyone was up and we started visting friends/relatives on the motorcycles again. We eventually made it to what felt like the end of the world - the beach in Monte Cristi. There were only about 2 families on the entire beach.
 
Sep 19, 2005
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you know out in Mao I have been in some really really poor sections...NO it wasnt like the areas all around the rivers in the cities( they are REALY REALLY BAD), but this place was poor all wood houses mostly and tin roofs, BUT, the roads all had nice cement sidewalks!!( even though the roads were dirt)

must have been some huelga!! huh?

bad bob
 

Chris

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Oct 21, 2002
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There are many students and others that come down on humanitarian, medical or religious missions that live in bateyes for part or the whole of their stay. One organization in Licey has it as a requirement that anyone coming down from the University that they are affiliated with, lives in the campo or in a bateye, depending where they're working.

So, no, I've never lived in a bateye, but yes, I know a few who did. Usually they come out of the experience wiser people (at least for a little bit of time).

And yes, laurapasinifan, in Mao there are many houses still with mud floors. I went for a meeting with some 'dignitaries' there, and the meeting house had a mud floor, it was raining and we had to 'dodge' the rain coming through the roof, all while meeting. That's why Dominicans are so loud I think. I could not hear myself think with the noise of the rain on the tin roof! ;)

Hillbilly's house in Punta Rucia sometimes turn into the campo. Reminds me of the 'naked volunteer' story .. where tadpoles came out of the shower. She was beautiful! And very naked! And screaming! And tadpoles were wriggling all over her!
 
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Chirimoya

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Dec 9, 2002
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While your at it why not live with the homeless in the NYC transit system. Man some of you guys really are nuts on this board. Hey i never was on a cruise ship that sank, Wonder how that would be? Crazy a$$ people on this board.
Yes, because perish the thought that someone might go and live in a batey and do good work there.

jrf, several posters here have at some time stayed at bateyes, doing missionary, development, Peace Corps type work. Not sure if any of them are active posters though. Meredith is one who springs to mind.
I've visited plenty, and lived in batey-like conditions but not in an actual batey.

Chris, we posted simultaneously AND said more or less the same thing. Which one of us is the sock puppet?
 

LatinoRican

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Apr 11, 2004
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A "batey" is simply a plot of level ground either in front or in back of a house where people get together. Although the term is usually used when speaking of rural areas, it does not necessarily mean that the people living in these areas are poor. Before Columbus, the native tribes that inhabited the Antilles celebrated their ceremonies in their "bateyes" which probably was the space in the center of their villages, thus the name.
 

Chris

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Chris, we posted simultaneously AND said more or less the same thing. Which one of us is the sock puppet?

A conspiracy indeed ;) You taught me well!

LatinoRican, in the DR a Bateye is usually the place where sugar cane workers live and is synonymous with deplorable human conditions. The traditional meaning of the word changes a little locally.
 

jrf

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Jan 9, 2005
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I have stayed in the 'cheap hotel' in Los Charimicos (200 pesos a day) and visit the bateyes many times and have friends from there.

Love the funny posts though.

But to live there or to stay there is a different thing. My Spanish is fairly good and am learning Creole as well.
It is something I want to experience. We have been helping the Haitians the last four years and know many of the Haitians as well as many of the Dominican families there.

Not new being in the bateyes but living that way as an experience for a month or so would be new.
 

tflea

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Jun 11, 2006
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Suggestion

Contact some of the Peace Corps volunteers, many of whom do 2 years in those conditions. They can be reached through the US Embassy in SDQ.
 

A.Hidalgo

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Apr 28, 2006
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jrf
One of our linguist specialist, the very dear Norma Rose grew up in a Batey. PM her, I am sure she is a wealth of information.

London, I grew up in a batey. A sugar cane plantation has cranes (gr?as) permanently placed in some areas because they only do specific jobs; so, people call the areas where those machines are found, "la gr?a". A sugar cane plantation is more than the batey (where most workers reside); it includes also all the cane fields.Throughout those cane fields there are clearings with housing (mostly shacks), there are rivers, large grazing areas, etc. But the entire plantation receives the name of the sugar mill (i.e.:Ingenio Col?n, Ingenio Consuelo, Catarey, La Romana). Therefore, people have the need to create names with which to identify other areas.
Hope this helps.
Norma
 
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johne

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Jun 28, 2003
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Chip

They might live in a bateye but those ladies in the picture look like they haven't missed any meals lately.