Wednesday, January 9, 2008
In a final note, we finally settled on the name of our production company. From henceforth you are reading the Aguaguagua Productions website. LIterally it translates to waterbus, but the true meaning is very deep. Also we've been toying around with working titles. Hey all you people out there in interweb land, this is your chance to tell us what you think. We've settled on the working title "Live to Play, Play to Live." or for those polyglots out there, "Jugar para Vivir, Vivir para Jugar."
Some stills
Jon seems to have all our stories covered but I figured I´d still post a bunch of our stills from these past bunch of days.
We all had the chance to meet George Bell. There is a picture of him with Jon also, but out of principle I cannot post it (chill Jono).
We went through one of the poorer areas of La Romana to get some footage of the poverty. I have other stills of the poverty and conditions, but I thought this one is subtler while still expressing the same message.
Same idea... needs to be cropped a little
Jon filming a little street stick ball.
A glove and ball that got sooo much use that they were basically torn to pieces.
This field was in the middle of a giant field of trash in a very poor area. The people were incredible nice and let us talk to them, take a bunch of pictures, etc. All of their gloves and equipment they said were gifts from churches and other organizations in the area.
We had the awesome privelege to sit in on a Arizona Diamondbacks academy tryout. I´m pretty sure Jon took this shot-we ended up with a bunch of great stills of these pitchers throwing fire (16 year olds almost hitting 90 on the speed gun).
We have a less blurry shot of the three of us but I´m far too lazy to delete this one and upload the other. We had a great opportunity to interview Miggy Tejada for a minute or two and obviously found time for a picture. Very nice guy, totally jacked (suspiciously jacked?).
We all had the chance to meet George Bell. There is a picture of him with Jon also, but out of principle I cannot post it (chill Jono).
We went through one of the poorer areas of La Romana to get some footage of the poverty. I have other stills of the poverty and conditions, but I thought this one is subtler while still expressing the same message.
Same idea... needs to be cropped a little
Jon filming a little street stick ball.
A glove and ball that got sooo much use that they were basically torn to pieces.
This field was in the middle of a giant field of trash in a very poor area. The people were incredible nice and let us talk to them, take a bunch of pictures, etc. All of their gloves and equipment they said were gifts from churches and other organizations in the area.
We had the awesome privelege to sit in on a Arizona Diamondbacks academy tryout. I´m pretty sure Jon took this shot-we ended up with a bunch of great stills of these pitchers throwing fire (16 year olds almost hitting 90 on the speed gun).
We have a less blurry shot of the three of us but I´m far too lazy to delete this one and upload the other. We had a great opportunity to interview Miggy Tejada for a minute or two and obviously found time for a picture. Very nice guy, totally jacked (suspiciously jacked?).
An Aguaguagua Production
After the productive day we had chronicled in Josh's last post we needed a couple of days to cool off and do administrative stuff in Santo Domingo. We said goodbye to Oscar and Jacqueline who have gone above and beyond the calls of hospitality. We spent a day returning to Santo Domingo, updating the blog, and other mindless tasks. We finally got a chance to hook up our footage to a decent tv and see how some of it is going to end up looking. We'd been experimenting with a light filter that gives the image a very saturated yellow tint. It came out incredibly well. It wasnt all fun and games though. We spent a good two hours logging film (a tedious process that involves writing down the time codes and descriptions of every single shot). That night we got to interview the GM of the Estrellas Orientales, our adopted team. The Estrellas are the Dominican equivalent of the Cubs. They're the underdogs underdog, they haven't won the title since 1946. Jose Mallen took over as GM and partial owner last offseason, and after just barely making the playoffs, the Estrellas are now 2.5 games up on both Aguilas (Red Sox, won 7x in the last ten years) and Licey (Yankees, astronomical budget, no success). Jose was nice enough to come to our hostel/art gallery in the heart of Santo Domingo and give us a full hour long interview. He had a lot to say about the history and business of baseball. Always remember Jose's advice, "In baseball, anything can happen. The ball is round, but it comes in a square box."
The following day we were stuck in Santo Domingo by rain. We kept waiting for it to let up so we could go get some atmospeheric b-roll, but it didn't give until after the sun was going down. Around that time we caught a guagua (bus) to La Romana. No near death experiences this time I am happy to report. When we arrived we were picked up by the famous Dr. Canela. Dr. Canela is an OBG who has a clinic in La Romana which might as well be renamed La Canela. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. Dr. Canela is a friend of a friend of Josh's father. It seems strange to constantly be relying on the kindness of strangers, but if it was good enough for Blanche Dubois its good enough for us. After picking us up the good Doctor took us on an extended tour of La Romana and Casa de Campo. Ross and I were sitting in the back seat having to pee like the dickens. Everytime we pulled into a neighbourhood we thought we were stopping for dinner or to drop our bags off, but as soon as we were ready to sprint out of the car to the nearest baño the docta docta would turn around and tell us about the next place we were going to drive around endlessly. The prize at the end was well worth it though. We pulled upto one of the most exclusive clubs in the country. When we walk in we are greeted by several guys one of whom is clearly a former pellotera. While we are all racking our brains trying to think of what Dominican players would now be in their 50's and at an exclusive country club Dr. Canela says "You recognize this man? This is George Bell." Although we've met a handful of major leaugers, and even some of our own favorite orioles, none of us have had moments of fandom like this. Shaking the former MVP's meaty hands the three of us were dumbfounded. None of us knew exactly what to say. Today we were getting gas and just happened to run into him again. We're hoping to get an interview tommorow. (Josh posted the picture without me in it just to piss me off) I was so eager to get to meeting George Bell I forgot one of our best stories of the trip. As we were walking into the club, Dr. Canela said hi to someone he knew and then turned to us and said something about when he was a kid. Thinking that he meant they had been friends since they were kids Josh pointed to me and said "us too." The Doc gave us a weird look and walked off without commenting. I was confused because the other man was at least thirty years younger than Dr. Canela. When we found out that the Doc was an OBGYN we realized that he said he delivered that man, not that they were friends from a young age. So, Josh basically told Dr. Canela that he delivered me... suddenly the funny face makes more sense.
Our time in La Romana has been very productive. Yesterday morning we headed out to the Toros stadium (La Romana's team. they missed the playoffs.) The GM is a good friend of Dr. Canela's and we had free reign to shoot the stadium and two seperate groups of kids who were practicising on smaller fields outside. We just happened to show up when a scout from the Cardinals academy was their recruiting and got some good interviews. We hired a taxista to drive us around all day again and had a really productive afternoon. We headed first to the local ballfields, but the kids were all at home eating lunch. We decided to get some shots of the poverty to use in the film. Ethically this is a section of the film we have been really struggling. As soon as we step out of the car and into a poor neighbourhood two things happen. First, we put ourselves in danger, and secondly, we change the dyanmic instantly. One shot we are constantly thriving after is a tour of a pueblo houes. We were close the other day when we made friends with the head of the village, but our spider senses went off and told us it would be too risky to go into the pueblo without a Dominican guide we trust. We tried a couple of different tactics to get the shots we wanted. After giving us a weird look when we said we wanted to go to a shanty town our driver took us there, stopped the car and let us out. To say that we felt uncomfortable is an understatement. We felt like animals in a cage. Everyone was coming out of their houses to stare at us, when we were trying to capture them in a natural state. Next we tried driving through and filming out the windows. We felt even worse about this at first because it felt like being on a safari. As we went on we became more comfortable and kids and families were waving to us and running after us to have their pictures taken. We still didn't have the authenticity we needed though. We knew we had to take a risk so we asked our driver to take us to someone he trusted. He brought us a mechanic shop and led us back through the flying sparks and sounds of souldering into a house made of metal panneling. The house had three rooms, a workroom lit by the only elicticity, stolen from the lines outside, a bedroom, with a matress made of straw covered by a sheet, and a bathroom out back made out of a chair with a hole and a bucket underneath. The man was kind enough to let us walk around his house and interview him. He lives on 500 pesos a day, which is about $15, and he was explaining that he is far better off than many of his neighbours.
From the shantytown we headed out to find some kids playing ball. On the way back to the local hangout we found four kids playing in the street using a stick and a nerf ball. They were playing a version of stickball that had two batters at a time and two bases. When someone hit the ball the two batters would run to the middle and start counting, then when the ball was fielded run to the opposite base. It was more like cricket than baseball, in that I will NEVER understand the rules. After this we went to the local field and found maybe 100 kids of all ages playing on three adjacent fields. The fields were shabby and covered in trash, but these kids were hitting line drives and turning double plays all the same.
That night we went to the Estrellas game with Dr. Canela and his son in law, Carlos. Carlos was driving (like a madman) and the three of us were crammed with all our equipment into the back seat. Carlos turns 180 degrees to talk to us with complete disregard to the road in front. "Do you like beer?" he says, and after the obvious response, "you want a beer?" We say we'll wait to the game (about an hour drive) but Carlos immediately swerves off the road and into a car wash/nightclub (a mystifying yet common dominican combination) and orders up four beers for the road. By now, everyone in the Estrellas organization knows us and we had free reign on the field. The highlight of the night was a brief interview with Miguel Tejada of the visiting Aguilas. We sat directly behind home plate and watched Estrellas increase their lead with a 7-2 victory.
This morning we woke up early to go to the Arizona Diamdbacks Academy tryout. This is a long post so, while this was an amazing day, I'll make it brief. We had permission to conduct interviews and tape the whole thing. That alone should end up comprising a whole chapter of our film. We were able to specifically follow two players around and check out on their success. it looks like we picked well because Junior Novoa, the DBacks head of Latin American scouting had them both pegged as guys hes going to seriously consider signing. See Josh's next post for some stills.
The following day we were stuck in Santo Domingo by rain. We kept waiting for it to let up so we could go get some atmospeheric b-roll, but it didn't give until after the sun was going down. Around that time we caught a guagua (bus) to La Romana. No near death experiences this time I am happy to report. When we arrived we were picked up by the famous Dr. Canela. Dr. Canela is an OBG who has a clinic in La Romana which might as well be renamed La Canela. He knows everybody and everybody knows him. Dr. Canela is a friend of a friend of Josh's father. It seems strange to constantly be relying on the kindness of strangers, but if it was good enough for Blanche Dubois its good enough for us. After picking us up the good Doctor took us on an extended tour of La Romana and Casa de Campo. Ross and I were sitting in the back seat having to pee like the dickens. Everytime we pulled into a neighbourhood we thought we were stopping for dinner or to drop our bags off, but as soon as we were ready to sprint out of the car to the nearest baño the docta docta would turn around and tell us about the next place we were going to drive around endlessly. The prize at the end was well worth it though. We pulled upto one of the most exclusive clubs in the country. When we walk in we are greeted by several guys one of whom is clearly a former pellotera. While we are all racking our brains trying to think of what Dominican players would now be in their 50's and at an exclusive country club Dr. Canela says "You recognize this man? This is George Bell." Although we've met a handful of major leaugers, and even some of our own favorite orioles, none of us have had moments of fandom like this. Shaking the former MVP's meaty hands the three of us were dumbfounded. None of us knew exactly what to say. Today we were getting gas and just happened to run into him again. We're hoping to get an interview tommorow. (Josh posted the picture without me in it just to piss me off) I was so eager to get to meeting George Bell I forgot one of our best stories of the trip. As we were walking into the club, Dr. Canela said hi to someone he knew and then turned to us and said something about when he was a kid. Thinking that he meant they had been friends since they were kids Josh pointed to me and said "us too." The Doc gave us a weird look and walked off without commenting. I was confused because the other man was at least thirty years younger than Dr. Canela. When we found out that the Doc was an OBGYN we realized that he said he delivered that man, not that they were friends from a young age. So, Josh basically told Dr. Canela that he delivered me... suddenly the funny face makes more sense.
Our time in La Romana has been very productive. Yesterday morning we headed out to the Toros stadium (La Romana's team. they missed the playoffs.) The GM is a good friend of Dr. Canela's and we had free reign to shoot the stadium and two seperate groups of kids who were practicising on smaller fields outside. We just happened to show up when a scout from the Cardinals academy was their recruiting and got some good interviews. We hired a taxista to drive us around all day again and had a really productive afternoon. We headed first to the local ballfields, but the kids were all at home eating lunch. We decided to get some shots of the poverty to use in the film. Ethically this is a section of the film we have been really struggling. As soon as we step out of the car and into a poor neighbourhood two things happen. First, we put ourselves in danger, and secondly, we change the dyanmic instantly. One shot we are constantly thriving after is a tour of a pueblo houes. We were close the other day when we made friends with the head of the village, but our spider senses went off and told us it would be too risky to go into the pueblo without a Dominican guide we trust. We tried a couple of different tactics to get the shots we wanted. After giving us a weird look when we said we wanted to go to a shanty town our driver took us there, stopped the car and let us out. To say that we felt uncomfortable is an understatement. We felt like animals in a cage. Everyone was coming out of their houses to stare at us, when we were trying to capture them in a natural state. Next we tried driving through and filming out the windows. We felt even worse about this at first because it felt like being on a safari. As we went on we became more comfortable and kids and families were waving to us and running after us to have their pictures taken. We still didn't have the authenticity we needed though. We knew we had to take a risk so we asked our driver to take us to someone he trusted. He brought us a mechanic shop and led us back through the flying sparks and sounds of souldering into a house made of metal panneling. The house had three rooms, a workroom lit by the only elicticity, stolen from the lines outside, a bedroom, with a matress made of straw covered by a sheet, and a bathroom out back made out of a chair with a hole and a bucket underneath. The man was kind enough to let us walk around his house and interview him. He lives on 500 pesos a day, which is about $15, and he was explaining that he is far better off than many of his neighbours.
From the shantytown we headed out to find some kids playing ball. On the way back to the local hangout we found four kids playing in the street using a stick and a nerf ball. They were playing a version of stickball that had two batters at a time and two bases. When someone hit the ball the two batters would run to the middle and start counting, then when the ball was fielded run to the opposite base. It was more like cricket than baseball, in that I will NEVER understand the rules. After this we went to the local field and found maybe 100 kids of all ages playing on three adjacent fields. The fields were shabby and covered in trash, but these kids were hitting line drives and turning double plays all the same.
That night we went to the Estrellas game with Dr. Canela and his son in law, Carlos. Carlos was driving (like a madman) and the three of us were crammed with all our equipment into the back seat. Carlos turns 180 degrees to talk to us with complete disregard to the road in front. "Do you like beer?" he says, and after the obvious response, "you want a beer?" We say we'll wait to the game (about an hour drive) but Carlos immediately swerves off the road and into a car wash/nightclub (a mystifying yet common dominican combination) and orders up four beers for the road. By now, everyone in the Estrellas organization knows us and we had free reign on the field. The highlight of the night was a brief interview with Miguel Tejada of the visiting Aguilas. We sat directly behind home plate and watched Estrellas increase their lead with a 7-2 victory.
This morning we woke up early to go to the Arizona Diamdbacks Academy tryout. This is a long post so, while this was an amazing day, I'll make it brief. We had permission to conduct interviews and tape the whole thing. That alone should end up comprising a whole chapter of our film. We were able to specifically follow two players around and check out on their success. it looks like we picked well because Junior Novoa, the DBacks head of Latin American scouting had them both pegged as guys hes going to seriously consider signing. See Josh's next post for some stills.
Monday, January 7, 2008
Some pics
Some of the little kids we spoke to in the pueblo.
One of the kids pitching in a shanty town outside of San Pedro.
This is where the kids hang out after games and practices to play dominoes, relax, and whatnot.
Us at the Kansas City Royals Academy. The guy between me and Ross is Luis Castillos Cousin.
The young kid on the right is a future pelotero. The winter league teams pick up these young future stars to hang out in the dugout, get them their bats, etc.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
A Quick Update
The last couple of days have been extremely productive. Don't have my camera with me right now so I can't upload any pictures, but we have really gotten some incredible footage. We went to the Licey Aguila game in Santo Domingo which is the equivalent of Yankees Sox. The only seats we could get were in the bleachers and costed 50 Pesos (a little more than a dollar). The cheap bleacher seats were perfectly fine in terms of the view, but there is a bit of a status difference sitting there over the "preferencia" seats for the wealthier people. Without a doubt, we were the first Americans to sit up there in a very very long time. It was still a great time and people kept begging us to root for their team (there were both Licey and Aguila fans since both teams are centered around Santo Domingo).
The next day we headed back to San Pedro to stay with Oscar and Jacquelina. Ross arrived today so now we have a third person working with us at all times, which makes life a lot easier. First place we went was back to the stadium in San Pedro where we greated with hugs by Ricardo, the head of security, and some of the other workers there. He got us our tickets so we wouldn't even have to wait in line and escorted us right to the field to start interviewing. This time we got to interview a lot of American players also to get another angle at the cultural changes. One of the coolest interviews was with Freddy Bynum, a guy who has a shot to be the Orioles' starting shortstop.
The game itself was great. Estrellas were down 2-0 most of the game but rallied in the 9th to win 3-2. The stadium exploded and people stayed around drinking and dancing in their seats until the stadium finally had to turn the lights out to get people to leave. The celebration moved to the street where everyone was chearing and going crazy. Las Estrellas are the Dominican version of this years Rockies. A couple weeks ago it didn't even look like they were going to be in the round robin playoff tournament but now they are in first place with a comfortable lead over Licey (the Dominican version of the Yankees... blech).
Our taxi driver on the way home was a nice guy who said he knew were all the acadamies were in the area. After a bit of negotiation we agreed on a price for him to be our chofer for the entire day. This guy loved our project and, in addition to driving us around, was very good at convincing security gaurds to let us into different academies. He would run up to anyone that looked involved with baseball and energetically get them to talk to us. All the kids were still home for vacation, but we were able to talk to a lot of trainers and get walking tours of a couple academies. We particularly had a great time at a Kansas City Royals' academy where Luis Castillo's (Mets 2B) cousin charismatically showed us around every room and told lots of fun stories and so on.
We also drove around Consuelo, a poor pueblo that is entirely dedicated to la pelota. We met scouts and other players and got some really valuable interviews. The neatest part of the day however was the drive home. We saw a couple kids in a shanty town just outside of San Pedro playing baseball and we jumped out to talk to them. Within minutes people were flooding onto the court from all directions to talk to the Americans. We got a lot of great footage and still shots of them playing. Ross disapeared for a while and we were starting to get a little worried when suddenly we saw him walking back with an older man and a giant stick of sugar cane. We stayed there interviewing people, chewing on the sugar cane, and having a generally amazing time. This was probably the most intense poverty we have seen yet and instead of being afraid we felt totally comfortable because everyone was just so happy that we were shedding light onto the lives that they lead in this area.
We got some great footage of tons and tons of little kids going up to the camera and saying their name, age, and what they want to be when they grow up. All but one of them said Pelotero (baseball player). Also, they all said that they want to do it to help their parents, family, pueblo, and their country. Later, we made one of the hardest decisions we've made all trip. They offered to show us around the shanty town so we could get what I imagine would have been really intense footage of the poverty in which they live. As nice as they were, though, our driver told us that it wasn't safe to go in there. He said even though they are nice, we would have no idea who else might be in there and with all our equipment we were easy targets. If we went in, he insisted, he would not follow us. We had already had such a productive day that I decided to err on the side of caution.
As poor as they were and as rich as we must have looked (3 cameras, tripods, etc) they never once asked for money. We've tried not to make a habit of giving to everyone because, bluntly, we can't afford it with the grant that we have. This time though there was no doubt in our mind that we had to leave something behind. We gave a 500 Peso not (about 15 dollars, which goes a long way) to the man who was playing baseball with all the kids. As I held his hand I told him that it was money for the kids, to buy them gloves, balls, bats and whatever they need. I am not too naive to know there is a chance that the money will just go to him, but he seemed like a good man and all I can do is trust that he is using the money the right way. The kids hugged us as we left and told us to come back as soon as we could.
After a long day of driving out in the country on dirt roads, the car that was more or less held together by tacky glue and duct tape finally gave in and broke down by the ocean. Quite luckily, we were able to safely take some good (albeit cheesy) footage of the sun setting over the ocean. Overall, it was a long exhausting day, but it was also probably the most productive day we had yet. Having Ross around has freed me up from paying attention to the mics and camera during the interview and now I just basically have conversations with people and let Jon and Ross take care of the filmy stuff. Jon and Ross's Spanish have also been improving a lot that they can understand most of the interviews and ask questions. So our interviews have been much more productive and we are getting much more genuine and energetic answers from people. At one point during an interview, a scout was explaining how the kids make their gloves out of milk cartons and as we made eye contact I smiled. Just by smiling, his energy in the conversation rose substantially.
In a couple hours we will be interviewing the owner of Las Estrellas who knows a lot about the history of Dominican baseball. So much for a quick post.... Had a lot to say. Hope everything is well with everyone else.
The next day we headed back to San Pedro to stay with Oscar and Jacquelina. Ross arrived today so now we have a third person working with us at all times, which makes life a lot easier. First place we went was back to the stadium in San Pedro where we greated with hugs by Ricardo, the head of security, and some of the other workers there. He got us our tickets so we wouldn't even have to wait in line and escorted us right to the field to start interviewing. This time we got to interview a lot of American players also to get another angle at the cultural changes. One of the coolest interviews was with Freddy Bynum, a guy who has a shot to be the Orioles' starting shortstop.
The game itself was great. Estrellas were down 2-0 most of the game but rallied in the 9th to win 3-2. The stadium exploded and people stayed around drinking and dancing in their seats until the stadium finally had to turn the lights out to get people to leave. The celebration moved to the street where everyone was chearing and going crazy. Las Estrellas are the Dominican version of this years Rockies. A couple weeks ago it didn't even look like they were going to be in the round robin playoff tournament but now they are in first place with a comfortable lead over Licey (the Dominican version of the Yankees... blech).
Our taxi driver on the way home was a nice guy who said he knew were all the acadamies were in the area. After a bit of negotiation we agreed on a price for him to be our chofer for the entire day. This guy loved our project and, in addition to driving us around, was very good at convincing security gaurds to let us into different academies. He would run up to anyone that looked involved with baseball and energetically get them to talk to us. All the kids were still home for vacation, but we were able to talk to a lot of trainers and get walking tours of a couple academies. We particularly had a great time at a Kansas City Royals' academy where Luis Castillo's (Mets 2B) cousin charismatically showed us around every room and told lots of fun stories and so on.
We also drove around Consuelo, a poor pueblo that is entirely dedicated to la pelota. We met scouts and other players and got some really valuable interviews. The neatest part of the day however was the drive home. We saw a couple kids in a shanty town just outside of San Pedro playing baseball and we jumped out to talk to them. Within minutes people were flooding onto the court from all directions to talk to the Americans. We got a lot of great footage and still shots of them playing. Ross disapeared for a while and we were starting to get a little worried when suddenly we saw him walking back with an older man and a giant stick of sugar cane. We stayed there interviewing people, chewing on the sugar cane, and having a generally amazing time. This was probably the most intense poverty we have seen yet and instead of being afraid we felt totally comfortable because everyone was just so happy that we were shedding light onto the lives that they lead in this area.
We got some great footage of tons and tons of little kids going up to the camera and saying their name, age, and what they want to be when they grow up. All but one of them said Pelotero (baseball player). Also, they all said that they want to do it to help their parents, family, pueblo, and their country. Later, we made one of the hardest decisions we've made all trip. They offered to show us around the shanty town so we could get what I imagine would have been really intense footage of the poverty in which they live. As nice as they were, though, our driver told us that it wasn't safe to go in there. He said even though they are nice, we would have no idea who else might be in there and with all our equipment we were easy targets. If we went in, he insisted, he would not follow us. We had already had such a productive day that I decided to err on the side of caution.
As poor as they were and as rich as we must have looked (3 cameras, tripods, etc) they never once asked for money. We've tried not to make a habit of giving to everyone because, bluntly, we can't afford it with the grant that we have. This time though there was no doubt in our mind that we had to leave something behind. We gave a 500 Peso not (about 15 dollars, which goes a long way) to the man who was playing baseball with all the kids. As I held his hand I told him that it was money for the kids, to buy them gloves, balls, bats and whatever they need. I am not too naive to know there is a chance that the money will just go to him, but he seemed like a good man and all I can do is trust that he is using the money the right way. The kids hugged us as we left and told us to come back as soon as we could.
After a long day of driving out in the country on dirt roads, the car that was more or less held together by tacky glue and duct tape finally gave in and broke down by the ocean. Quite luckily, we were able to safely take some good (albeit cheesy) footage of the sun setting over the ocean. Overall, it was a long exhausting day, but it was also probably the most productive day we had yet. Having Ross around has freed me up from paying attention to the mics and camera during the interview and now I just basically have conversations with people and let Jon and Ross take care of the filmy stuff. Jon and Ross's Spanish have also been improving a lot that they can understand most of the interviews and ask questions. So our interviews have been much more productive and we are getting much more genuine and energetic answers from people. At one point during an interview, a scout was explaining how the kids make their gloves out of milk cartons and as we made eye contact I smiled. Just by smiling, his energy in the conversation rose substantially.
In a couple hours we will be interviewing the owner of Las Estrellas who knows a lot about the history of Dominican baseball. So much for a quick post.... Had a lot to say. Hope everything is well with everyone else.
Thursday, January 3, 2008
An incredible day
We woke up in the morning with no plan at all except to show up at the baseball stadium in San Pedro and hope we can meet some fans, get some interviews, and see what happens. We ended up making friends with all the security gaurds who loved the ideas behind our project and let us into the stadium to take some good footage of th stadium. We ran into a trainer for the Orioles (primarly Tejada) and they let us walk onto the field and interview him on the pitching mound. He was incredibly nice and had worked for years in the academy system, so he had a lot of interesting stuff to say.
On our way out of the stadium we saw a big group of kids playings baseball in the street, literally on the same street that Sammy Sosa played on when he was little. Their baseball was a basically a ball of felt, and they had one glove for the pitcher that they shared between the ten (or so) of them. They were incredibly nice and we got some great footage of them too. As we left they asked for one big picture. Jon screamed at them "Que es su equipo favorito?!?!" (What is your favorite team?) and they all chanted a few times over "Las Estrellas Orientales". It was a neat moment.
This website blurred the picture a bit, but we got some really great shots of these kids.
They told us to come to the game 4 hours early so that we could see batting practice and maybe get a chance to meet a few players. They ended up acting as personal guides showing us around the field while all the players warmed up. We interviewed Daniel Cabrera, Fernando Tatis, Pedro Lopez, and many many many more baseball players all of whome came from the streets through the academy system. We had quite a bit of trouble making connections making calls through offices in the US, but here everyone is your friend and they were all just happy to help out. Jon and I were also obviously psyched to interview Daniel Cabrera (who is a giant by the way) since we´ve both been following his career for years. He is an incredibly nice guy. When we first met him he was too busy but he actually came and found us later in the seats so that we could get the interview done.
This is me interviewing Pedro Lopez, a Blue Jays 2B/SS Prospect.The game was also incredible. Las Estrellas won 4-3 with a game winning hit in the 8th inning. The crowd showed a level of energy that only compares to the Real Madrid game I went to in Spain. The crowd goes crazy with every third out the pitcher gets and any base or walk that their team gets. Any big play anyone around us would give us five our grab our arm in excitement. The vendors served Roncitos (little Rum drinks), giant pieces of Dominican Cheese, Haitian Creole dishes. Not exactly Beer and Peanuts. We sat right behind home plate, but also walked around a bunch to get a feel for what it was like in other parts of the stadium.
This all felt very wonderful, but it really topped off nicely this morning when by sheer coincidence the Las Estrellas team bus drove by Jon and me waiting at a bus stop and they all stopped to wave hello, recognizing us from the night before. Their top security guy, who also runs a charity for young poor kids playing baseball in San Pedro, was jumping up and down to get our attention. DCab and Pedro Lopez both were waving out the window at us.
The most important part of all these stories is sort of hidden. The man whose house we stayed at, who drove us to the game, who spent 7 hours with us at the stadium during practice and the game was a stranger just a couple days ago. The men who showed us around the stadium and introduced us to coaches, players, American scouts, etc were complete strangers. This entire project has only succeeded so far because of the kindness and trust we have recieved from complete strangers. While we obviously are still cautious about crime, getting taken advantage of and whatnot, we have learned also that there is a lot of goodness in Dominican people (see Jon´s last post) and that people here are truly eager to become good friends with everyone they meet.
Buena gente...
Sorry to all our devoted readers for the prolonged absence. We spent the past two days in San Pedro De Macoris, a small town about an hour from Santo Domingo that is the undisputed baseball capital of the island. We got back to the big city, and internet access about an hour ago. So, lemme catch you guys up.
Feliz año nuevo! And what a new year it was. We spent the 31st in Santo Domingo planning the week ahead and resting up for the the evening. Come nightfall we made our way down to the harbor where the festivities were going on. We were joined by 4 american students from William and Mary who are in the country working on a medical clinic in one of the poorest pueblos in Santo Domingo. Interestingly enough the party doesn´t start until well after midnight. Dominicans stay at home with their families to ring in the new year, and only then go out to party. Likewise, we waited til half past midnight to start our fiesta. When we arrived at the center of la zona colonidad, in the shadow of Christopher Columbus´house we found dozens of bands playing on street corners, and mergengue blairing out of every shop. The dominicans, already an overtly happy and friendly people were in full celebration. Every stranger we would pass would pat us on the back and yell Feliz año nuevo! We quickly picked up on the custom and wound our way through the streets spreading new year cheer at the top of our lungs. At the center of it all was a huge stage set up in the central plaza. Unfortunately we arrived just as the band was taking a break. We took the opportunity as a chance to grab some Ron and Cerveza and headed down to the sea shore. It only took about ten minutes for the cops to come along and usher us back towards the masses, but in that time we watched the moon rise, almost fell in the water, and got sand permanently stuck in our shoes. From the rocks we followed our ears to the nearest source of Merengue. It was an open air bar on the main oceanside street packed with locals. We found a table and then introduced ourselves to every person in the bar with a Feliz año Nuevo and a hug. After a little more ron and a lot more cerveza our feet took over. The locals were happy to teach us some merengue moves and we did our best, some better than others...(I think I probably stepped on one of our American friends feet more often than I didn´t. Josh on the other hand was dancing with everyone in sight. When one partner would leave he would aproach another total stranger until he´d made his way around the whole room.)
We finally made it back to our hostel at around six in the morning.
The euphoria of new years was quickly matched with the all encompassing fear of the next night. Our plan was to make our way to Boca Chica to stay with our friends Oscar and Jacqueline. After a realy slow start in the morning we caught a guagua (bus) around five headed for the town about an hour away. Little did we know that they don´t actually live in Boca Chica. We took the guagua to the last stop and were suprised to find that not only was there not a station, there were no payphones, or taxis. In the middle of a slum on the outskirts of Santo Domingo carrying two bags full of camera equipment is not how you want to spend your time. IT only increased our worries that everyone was being so nice to us. In the past couple days we had heard stories of taxis taking people out to fields and making them walk back naked. We didn´t want to walk back naked, especially because we didn´t know where back was... We were hopelessly and utterly lost, and even Josh´s fluent spanish seemed unable to save us. People kept telling us to wait here and there, and get on this guagua and then not to get on this guagua. Finally one man took us by the arm and pulled us across the street. As soon as we got there he walked us on another guagua, said something to the driver we couldn´t understand, pushed us on the guagua and got on behind us. We got on and immediately noticed that we were the only ones there. Thats it, we were getting robbed and left naked in a sugar field. Goodbye Camera, goodbye passports, goodbye dignity. Our fears were made worse when the guagua pulled over on the side of the road with noone there in the middle of nowhere and the man told us to get off. We hesitated but he kept repeating it until we did. We get off, resigned to our fate and just being happy that its warm enough outside to walk back naked. The man whisks us off behind the guagua and much to our suprise and jubilation another one pulls up behind it. We get on the bus and the man asks us for 200 pesos (six bucks), which, our clothes still intact we were happy to comply. When we get on the next bus our fears instantly drift away. There is almost no room because the bus is packed so full of children. We end up sitting in the aisles and Josh is immediately drawn into a conversation with a girl about our age. Seeing the worry on Josh´s face she says, "Don´t worry, we are christians, we are good people." The girl let us use her cell phone and helped us find our way and get in contact with Oscar. Pretty soon the young kids on the back of the bus started to sing and their voices whisked away any last sinews of fear hanging on. We had gone from thinking we were going to die to being celebrities in a minute flat. Everyone wanted to talk to us and ask us questions about the US. Josh was asked over and over if he goes to church. When he responded that he was Jewish jaws hit the floor. Not only had they never seen a jew before, but they only knew they existed from the bible. When the driver let us no it was time to get off we were sad to go. Not only had the church group saved our lives (at least in our eyes) but they made us so happy to be doing what were doing. As we stepped down off the bus Josh turned around, threw his arms us rock star style and screamed FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Immediately hands and little heads flew out the bus windows to say goodbye and wish us luck. Oscar arrived to pick us up several minutes later.
Feliz año nuevo! And what a new year it was. We spent the 31st in Santo Domingo planning the week ahead and resting up for the the evening. Come nightfall we made our way down to the harbor where the festivities were going on. We were joined by 4 american students from William and Mary who are in the country working on a medical clinic in one of the poorest pueblos in Santo Domingo. Interestingly enough the party doesn´t start until well after midnight. Dominicans stay at home with their families to ring in the new year, and only then go out to party. Likewise, we waited til half past midnight to start our fiesta. When we arrived at the center of la zona colonidad, in the shadow of Christopher Columbus´house we found dozens of bands playing on street corners, and mergengue blairing out of every shop. The dominicans, already an overtly happy and friendly people were in full celebration. Every stranger we would pass would pat us on the back and yell Feliz año nuevo! We quickly picked up on the custom and wound our way through the streets spreading new year cheer at the top of our lungs. At the center of it all was a huge stage set up in the central plaza. Unfortunately we arrived just as the band was taking a break. We took the opportunity as a chance to grab some Ron and Cerveza and headed down to the sea shore. It only took about ten minutes for the cops to come along and usher us back towards the masses, but in that time we watched the moon rise, almost fell in the water, and got sand permanently stuck in our shoes. From the rocks we followed our ears to the nearest source of Merengue. It was an open air bar on the main oceanside street packed with locals. We found a table and then introduced ourselves to every person in the bar with a Feliz año Nuevo and a hug. After a little more ron and a lot more cerveza our feet took over. The locals were happy to teach us some merengue moves and we did our best, some better than others...(I think I probably stepped on one of our American friends feet more often than I didn´t. Josh on the other hand was dancing with everyone in sight. When one partner would leave he would aproach another total stranger until he´d made his way around the whole room.)
We finally made it back to our hostel at around six in the morning.
The euphoria of new years was quickly matched with the all encompassing fear of the next night. Our plan was to make our way to Boca Chica to stay with our friends Oscar and Jacqueline. After a realy slow start in the morning we caught a guagua (bus) around five headed for the town about an hour away. Little did we know that they don´t actually live in Boca Chica. We took the guagua to the last stop and were suprised to find that not only was there not a station, there were no payphones, or taxis. In the middle of a slum on the outskirts of Santo Domingo carrying two bags full of camera equipment is not how you want to spend your time. IT only increased our worries that everyone was being so nice to us. In the past couple days we had heard stories of taxis taking people out to fields and making them walk back naked. We didn´t want to walk back naked, especially because we didn´t know where back was... We were hopelessly and utterly lost, and even Josh´s fluent spanish seemed unable to save us. People kept telling us to wait here and there, and get on this guagua and then not to get on this guagua. Finally one man took us by the arm and pulled us across the street. As soon as we got there he walked us on another guagua, said something to the driver we couldn´t understand, pushed us on the guagua and got on behind us. We got on and immediately noticed that we were the only ones there. Thats it, we were getting robbed and left naked in a sugar field. Goodbye Camera, goodbye passports, goodbye dignity. Our fears were made worse when the guagua pulled over on the side of the road with noone there in the middle of nowhere and the man told us to get off. We hesitated but he kept repeating it until we did. We get off, resigned to our fate and just being happy that its warm enough outside to walk back naked. The man whisks us off behind the guagua and much to our suprise and jubilation another one pulls up behind it. We get on the bus and the man asks us for 200 pesos (six bucks), which, our clothes still intact we were happy to comply. When we get on the next bus our fears instantly drift away. There is almost no room because the bus is packed so full of children. We end up sitting in the aisles and Josh is immediately drawn into a conversation with a girl about our age. Seeing the worry on Josh´s face she says, "Don´t worry, we are christians, we are good people." The girl let us use her cell phone and helped us find our way and get in contact with Oscar. Pretty soon the young kids on the back of the bus started to sing and their voices whisked away any last sinews of fear hanging on. We had gone from thinking we were going to die to being celebrities in a minute flat. Everyone wanted to talk to us and ask us questions about the US. Josh was asked over and over if he goes to church. When he responded that he was Jewish jaws hit the floor. Not only had they never seen a jew before, but they only knew they existed from the bible. When the driver let us no it was time to get off we were sad to go. Not only had the church group saved our lives (at least in our eyes) but they made us so happy to be doing what were doing. As we stepped down off the bus Josh turned around, threw his arms us rock star style and screamed FELIZ AÑO NUEVO! Immediately hands and little heads flew out the bus windows to say goodbye and wish us luck. Oscar arrived to pick us up several minutes later.
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