Welcome to Guaymate

A blog post by Melissa. I'm officially into my second week with 180 Degrees (http://180grados.info/en/our-work/) in Guaymate. I take a "guagua" or small bus for 45 minutes out of La Romana each day to get to the 180 Degrees office. The environment in Guaymate is absolutely stunning. There are acres upon acres of canefields with a backdrop of rolling hills, lush greenery and tropical fruit trees. The air here is cooler and fresher than La Romana.

Photo from 180 Degrees facebook site.

But if you scratch just a little bit beyond its beautiful surface, Guaymate has a darker side. The children born in the bateys to Haitian parents identify themselves as Dominicans, although they are not recognized by the government or by other Dominicans as such. As Adam had described in his blog about the protest in Santo Domingo, having the proper documentation in the DR is a big deal. Without documents, youth (ages 30 and younger) of Haitian parents are unable to go to high school or university. This makes it very difficult to get out of the intergenerational cycle of working in the canefields.

I have been out in the bateys for most of my time and staff are introducing me to the locals. I really stand out, since white folks rarely visit this part of the DR. One infant was frightened of me because he hadn't seen a white person before. The cane workers, live in their communities provided by the sugar plantation as long as they are working in the fields. They are paid enough money to buy some, but not all of their food. They are indentured servants. Yet, the residents tell me that the conditions in the bateys are better than the living conditions in Haiti.

In each batey, the population ranges anywhere from a couple hundred to 800 people, depending on whether they are cutting cane or not. They access water from 2-3 taps that are centrally located in the community. The community members bring buckets of this water into their homes for all their needs since there is no plumbing. The water is not safe to drink and they must somehow treat the water (boil, filter or treat with chlorine) or buy bottled water. All of these options are expensive and since families usually cannot afford it, they drink contaminated water and diarrhea, dehydration and malnutrition are common.



Here a young woman fills up water containers for her family from this batey's tap. Photo from 180 Degrees staff. 

When I was talking with one of the staff at 180 Degrees he said that he thought if the owner of the plantation was aware of the living conditions, he would help them immediately. Unfortunately, I think the owners of the plantations are well aware of the living conditions and benefit greatly from their cheap source of labor. A "good" cane worker can cut two tons of cane in one day. Cane workers are paid $2.25 (American dollars) per ton they cut. The next harvest will be in November.


Men harvest cane by hand with machetes and load the cane into mule wagons. Men work as long as they are physically able. This is a picture of a man from the 180 Degrees website. He is over 60 years old. The resiliency of human beings is unbelievable at times. Many cane workers have lost toes and fingers from years of working with a machete.