The Bateys

After six hours in a crowded bus jammed with people and suitcases I believed I was prepared for my change in living conditions. I was arriving from Santiago , a city of about one million people that has water problems and electricity problems but nothing like what I was to find in Batey 9. The moment of arrival in Batey 9 there is a distinct odor of urine. It was not just the smell though, almost instantly all of one’s senses are bombarded and assaulted.


The attack does not stop nor in my time in the batey area did I grow accustomed to that occurring. There is an assault that occurs on each and everyone of the senses and then some. It is easy to describe the things that happen to one due to the foul odors that collide with each other in one’s nostrils. Often when I think about assaults of odors it is easy to escape them be it walking past a garbage dumpster or pass the black smoke of a diesel engine in front of you. The comical way to visualize it is to think about the character “pig pen” in the Peanuts cartoons. He always has that dirty swirl around him. That is a simple way to describe what goes on in the batey area.


One of your senses is always being attacked. It may be that you can’t breathe, that you are being eaten alive by mosquitoes, the intense heat is causing you to sweat profusely as never before, there is dirt in your mouth even though you have not opened it in 15 minutes, or that you see things with your eyes that are just not “normal.” An example of that would be seeing a hog being slaughtered and dissected right before you. That is a full sensory filling event unto itself.


This is just the introduction to what it is like entering the batey area. In the coming days I am going to share more of the other senses that are assaulted sometimes without even knowing what has happened to you literally your life is changed.