Dominican Republic~ day 3

Today was our working day!  We had to wake up WAY early for Edgar to pick us up at 4:30am to drive to Boca Chica where the San Francisco Giants training facility is.  I wasn't really sure what to expect, but this is what I learned:

Baseball is like a religion in the Dominican Republic.  These Major League teams start aggressively scouting boys from South America and the Caribbean when they are just 12-13 years old.  When they are 16 years old, they bring them to the Dominican and start training them.  These young men eat, sleep and breathe baseball.  Each major league team has their own "academy" facility.  The boys live in a large dormitory lined with rows of bunk beds.  They practice every day and play games within the developmental league there.  The players continue on in hopes of making it to the minor league and potentially even the major league.

The Giants have 50-ish players here at the training facility.  Some of the young men have never received eye care.  Matt's job was to check their vision and get them the correction they need to help them on the field.  I got to be one of his lovely assistants, measuring pressures and being his scribe.  Very few of them spoke or understood English, which was difficult for me if I needed to communicate with them.  I just used simple commands like "mira," "abre sus ojos," and "aqui."  At first the guys were kinda unsure, but you could feel them relax once Matt started joking with them a bit.  We whipped through all the ball players by 8am.

They had a baseball game to play so we got a resort pass for the day and literally laid on the beach for HOURS.  We didn't pack our swimsuits that day so we just found some chairs under a canopy and sat.  I dozed while Matt watched a movie on his iPad.  We ate lunch at a place on the edge of the water called Boca Marina.  We ordered our fruity drinks, of course, and ordered a sampler platter with fish sticks (not the frozen kind!), shrimp, calamari, french fries and chicken.  We also ordered a salad, which was delicious and the most green food I'd seen since we'd been there!  We also had mozzarella patties with marinara.  I think we may have been the only ones there, everything was great!

Edgar came to take us back to the baseball complex so Matt could check a few more players again and get them fit for contact lenses.  There were just a few of them that needed minor correction but that tiny bit can make a big difference in accuracy for a pitcher or catcher.  I think most of them were in denial and resistant to the idea of contacts but seeing the smiles on their faces when they realized how much it helped was awesome.  Most of them were able to get the contacts out and put them back in with ease.  Professionals already!  Now, just hoping that they'll actually USE the contacts!

These boys made me feel short!

Matt with Anthony and Edgar

Once we got back to the hotel that evening, we took a stroll down to the grocery store to pick up some essentials like ice cream and Oreos!  We showered up, FaceTimed with the kids then crashed for the night.