Major League Baseball Heaven

So if you guys don’t know (or haven’t walked into our family room at my house), I’m a big baseball fan. While I was in Ecuador, the only sport people cared about was soccer and the national hero was a speed-walker. My Ecuador experience was great, but could have been better if there was baseball.

So now I’m in the Dominican Republic. They love baseball here. Not only is it the national sport, but it’s really the only sport people value here. In that regard, I fit in quite well. I saw on the Esperanza website about a month before I came down that Jose Reyes, one of the best shortstops in the big leagues, worked with Esperanza to build a youth baseball field.

Norberto, the director of the Puerto Plata branch of Esperanza and also the guy I share an apartment with, has some MLB connections (kinda). First of all, Esperanza was started by Dave Valle, a former player in the majors who played for about 12 years. His son actually lived where I live now last fall and is a pretty sweet guy.

Since Esperanza’s main goal is to help people, people like giving money to us, and especially some wealthy businessmen. Norberto told me that one time on a HOPE trip (where donors from Esperanza’s partner HOPE come down and check out what we’re doing) a group had the owner of a pretty big bank and also the guy who was the co-owner of the Texas Rangers with George W. Bush (that was the rumor).

Norberto is from San Pedro, which is where Sammy Sosa and a lot of other players are from. He said that his dad played softball with Sosa’s brothers and went to school with Robinson Cano (of the Yankees) as well as George Bell’s sons. Apparently he even ate dinner at Alfonso Soriano’s house when Soriano helped out with Esperanza (scroll all the way to the bottom of this link), but Soriano was out of the country (Norberto said he met his mom). Felix Pie (the guy the Cubs just traded) lives right by the Esperanza office in San Pedro, used to date one of Norberto’s friends.

My hope is to meet a player or two and get a picture with them. We shall see what and who the next three months bring my way.

Some cool things I hope to do while here (besides meet some baseball players):
-meet the kid I sponsor with Compassion International and volunteer with them
-go to Haiti on a HOPE Trip
-find a gym and work out a few of times a week
-keep improving my Spanish
-contribute a lot at work

Stuff I would appreciate prayer for:
-That I could make a difference here spiritually and contribute at work
-to really grow as a person here
-that I could also find direction in life after I'm done here

First week in La Republica Dominicana

My first week has been an interesting one. I flew into Santo Domingo last Tuesday and worked at the Santo Domingo office on Thursday and Friday (Wednesday was a holiday; I went to the beach with some coworkers and got pretty burnt which is ironic because earlier in the week while I was at Taylor, I got frostbite).

The organization I am with here is Esperanza International, which is a sister-organization and partner of HOPE International. They both give out small loans to people who cannot get loans anywhere else. As the old saying goes, “You need to have money to make money” and that is why many poor people are stuck in poverty; they have the skills to run a successful business just not the means of investing in it.

I will work extensively with Kiva, an organization that funds many microfinance companies by being a central location for people to see stories of clients and donate money. My position has a lot of freedom to it which means I will be able to help in a variety of ways and also means that I need to be proactive in looking for ways to contribute.

Right now I am in Puerto Plata which is on the northern coast. From my apartment that I share with the Esperanza branch director, I can see the mountains and the ocean. I can actually only see the ocean from part of the roof, but hey that counts, right? This weekend a bunch of Esperanza people came up from Santiago and Santo Domingo to hang out with us. Just down the road there are 27 waterfalls fairly close together that you can hike up and then jump down. This picture I got online because our cameras would have gotten soaked if we took them along. Notice the tour guide at the top! It was really awesome but also exhausting.


Puerto Plata is pretty small. A good way to get around is by motoconcho which is just a motorcycle taxi. On my first ride, we were going to the cable car that goes up to the nearest mountain for a view of the whole city (it actually was closed due to rain). We were still waiting for Krista to come (she went to TU with me and works in Santiago) and while we were all on our motoconchos I saw Krista walking down the street and motioned for her to follow us. After a little running around she finally met up with us.

My apartment situation is the best of the other interns I have talked to. I share a two-bedroom apartment with the branch manager from my office and it is pretty nice. A 5 minute motoconcho ride will get me to a pretty cool beach, and a 45 minute ride will get me to an awesome beach.

Some things you can pray for me to do are to find ways to make a significant contribution with the company I’m with, that I would find some good consistent fellowship while I’m here, that I would make the most of relationships and free time while I’m here, and also to be a light wherever I go.

Until next time,

Kevin

Know therefore that the LORD your God is God; he is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love him and keep his commands.

Deuteronomy 7:9