Bryan College Womens Basketball - Wednesday
Today we spent the morning at an all girl’s orphanage. Essentially Dominican mothers are allowed to give up their children at any time. These orphans normally stay in the orphanage until they are 18 years old (because very few people want to adopt Dominican adolescents). Once they leave the orphanage, it is a difficult adjustment because the Dominican Republic is a third-world country and there are not enough good jobs and locations for 18 years old girls. SCORE International is trying to help with this by providing some training and education for these young ladies. Our players had a great time playing with these girls and young ladies. Half of our players got their hair braided by some of the older orphans. These young ladies are very talented. It would have cost our players $30-$40 in a hair salon for the same styles. Being down here in the DR really is making us aware of how blessed and fortunate we are.
This afternoon, we went back to the capital city of Santo Domingo to play another professional team. We lost by only a couple of points. We shot well again. However they were talented and had a “legendary” player named Theresa. In fact, the front of their jerseys said, “Theresa’s Team”. She essentially matched her age by scoring 42 points. Our players were in awe. She can really play…not just for an older lady, but for anybody!! We are playing well and having a good time. Hillary Tipton and Lauren Copeland gave their testimonies to the opposing team and the crowd at the game. An interesting side note to our game today was the chaos (non-violent) and craziness of the capital city with the upcoming presidential elections on Friday. It is like a huge block party in the entire city. Each candidate has very adamant supporters. Our girls have had some good laughs and has seen some interesting things. They are definately passionate about their elections.
—Jamy Bechler
