VOA – CONNECT
EPISODE #108 
AIR DATE 02 07, 2020 
TRANSCRIPT 
DRAFT

OPEN  ((VO/NAT)) 
((Banner)) 
More Than a Game
((SOT))  
((Marisol Jimenez, Work to Ride))  
This program has made me a better person, I feel like I’ve learned more teamwork and 
also learned more responsibility.  
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner))
Magical Realism
((SOT))
((Jorge Yanes, Magical Realism Artist))  
My painting, really, they just don’t have titles. That’s the idea.  Whoever looks at it, let 
the viewer, whatever they can take out of that painting, that’s what it’s about.   
((Animation Transition)) 
((Banner)) 
Life in a Ghost Town
((SOT))
(((Audrey Voloshenko, Kief Resient)) 
I call it a village. It’s a village to me. It’s not really a ghost town, they just say that.   
((Open Animation))  
 
 
BLOCK A 
 
 
((INNER CITY POLO))   
 
((Banner: More than a Game)) 
((Reporter/Camera: June Soh)) 
((Map: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania))    
((Main characters: 2 females 
((Sub characters: 1 female)) 
((NATS))
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride))                                     
I didn’t start it off knowing what polo was or thinking that I will be playing it.  So, just 
being able to play it’s changed my life.  My name is Marisol Jimenez. I am 14 years old.  
And I joined Work to Ride when I was seven. 
((Carmen Pagan, Marisol’s Mother))                                             
What child from the inner city youth has the opportunity to play polo. That's unheard of.  
It's is a big thing for her to be able to ride horses and play polo. Polo is a rich man’s 
sport.   
((Carmen Pagan, Marisol’s Mother))  
When Marisol was a year old, I went to prison for selling drugs. I was incarcerated for 
five years. And then upon my release, I wanted something different for myself and I 
wanted something different for my children. So I found the Work to Ride program.
((NAT)) ((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride)) 
Drop the shoulder just a little bit more, Mo.
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride)) 
The Work to Ride program basically started with an idea that I had about using horses 
and youth combining those two to make a difference in the lives of children.
Our facility, Chamonix Equestrian Center, is located in Philadelphia. And it is bordered 
on two of the most crime-ridden neighborhoods here in Philadelphia. One is North 
Philadelphia and one is West Philadelphia. We have children that come from those 
neighborhoods.
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride))    
Being in the program has kept me away from a lot of stuff like getting involved in drugs 
and gang related things that usually happen in the street.  When I come to the barn, I’m 
always very happy.  I’m usually excited, usually ready to ride.
((NAT))
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride)) 
The horses that we use in the program are donated. The kids in the Work to Ride 
program are primarily responsible for taking care of horses.  On any given day, they're 
responsible for chores, cleaning up the stables, taking care of any medical needs that 
any of the horses may have.  It’s a big responsibility. 
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride)) 
It is a lot of work to do.  But all the work like is contributing to the one important thing is 
taking care of the horse.  And if take care of the horse, then we're able to ride.  And it all 
leads up to playing and games and just good management.
((NAT))
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride)) 
I feel like I've built an individual bond with each and every horse we have at our barn.
((NAT))
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride)) 
Being at the barn is very like homey. It's very comfortable and I feel safe. We all treat 
each other like brothers and sisters.  
((NAT))         
We don’t need that. We don’t need it now.
No, you will see that. You want to bringing your mallets?                                                                                                   
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride 
We came down to Virginia to have a game with the team. And we’re going against 
Battlefield today and trying to have some fun.
((NAT))
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride))       
Yash, you are going to ride Ashley.  Mo, you are going to ride Phantom. Mari, you are 
going to ride Midnight.
Yash, you have the slowest.  
I do?
You do.   
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride 
I like to travel because there is more people to meet and maybe better places to play.  
And it is a lot of fun.  
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride))                    
We travel to a lot of different places.  We will travel the whole northeast of the United 
States from top to bottom pretty much playing at different clubs and different teams.
Traveling to play polo cost a heck of lot of money.  Yes, so, we do a lot of fundraising.  
And if we can afford to go, we’ll go.  If we can’t afford to go, then we won’t.
((NAT)) 
Mo, Didn’t I tell one of you guys to go to goal?
((NAT))
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride))
It’s not always about winning, but today they won by five or six goals.
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride)) 
I am really happy that we won our game today.
((NAT))
 ((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride))
This picture is the photograph that was taken when the boys won the national 
championship, polo championship in Charlottesville, Virginia in 201. They were the first 
African American team to do so in the history of the United States. 
Very proud of them, made national history. 
((NAT))
((Lezlie Hiner, Founder, Work to Ride))
Our main focus is to get kids through high school and possibly into college.
So, polo, we use as a vehicle obviously to have kids' kind of stay on track, do well in 
school, get good grades, develop responsibility, and build self-esteem. 
((NAT))
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride))
This program has made me a better person overall.  I feel like I've learned more 
teamwork and also learned more responsibility.
((NAT))
((Marisol Jimenez, Member, Work to Ride)) 
My goal with Polo, I want to be a professional, but I don't know where it's going to go at 
this point.  I know I can get better. I can improve because there’s coaches, there’s 
people here that help me.  I am not sure how far I can go, but I just want to keep going, 
keep moving forward.

TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Guided by the Canvas 
((SOT)) 
((Jorge Yanes, Magical Realism Artist)) 
When I start a Canvas, a lot of times, right away, the canvas tells me where I should go.  
 
 
BREAK ONE                                                                           
BUMP IN ((ANIM))                              

BLOCK B  
 

((Jorge Yances: Magical Realist Painter))   
((Banner: Magical Realism)) 
((Executive Producer:  Marsha James))
((Camera: Kaveh Rezaei))
((Map: Nashville, TN)) 
((Main characters: 1 male))  

((NATS))
((Jorge Yances, Magical Realism Artist))
Creating a painting is a feeling of satisfaction for the body and the mind to be able to 
create something, to put something down. I paint because it is a necessity for myself 
and when I don't do it I get very irritated and I’m not too happy to live with. 
My name is Jorge Arrieta Yances and I am a magical realism artist. 
When I came here to the United States, I was 13 years old. Even though my family 
came from art background, trying to make a living was not easy. And so a lot of times I 
had to go and just find places, you know, just to make my stretcher bars and canvas or 
not canvas. It could have been just cardboard or paper. In a way it was good because I 
learned that you can really work with whatever was available.
Being from Cartagena, we are the city of magical realism.  For me magical realism is 
expressing something that is inside of you, expressing yourself and you combine that 
with part of what you see around you. When you walk around in the old downtown 
Nashville and you see this old building, these old walls, if you really just take your time 
and you can see there were so many history, so many people that stood in those walls, 
that touch the walls, the energy of everybody that was there before and that's what I get 
when I do my work.
So the faces and the bodies and everything that appears on my canvases they’re there. 
I don't paint them. It’s pretty much like, like the canvas is telling me ‘Here I am. Do you 
need me? Do you want to paint me? Do you want me to be part of your canvas?’ Here it 
is because most of the time it’s not there in the next canvas. 
When I start a canvas, a lot of times, right away the canvas tells me where I should go. 
My paintings, really they don't have titles and that's the idea. Whoever looks at it, let the 
viewer, whatever they can take out of the painting, that's what it’s about. 
My favorite painting is the next one that I'm going to create. Once I'm done I cannot wait 
to do the next one.  The next one is really the one that I think is going to be the best 
one. And so, that's what keeps me motivated and keep on going. 
I have had quite a few exhibits in Mexico in different cities. I have done exhibit in 
Colombia. I was invited to do exhibit in China, in Hong Kong. And here in the United 
States, I’ve done all over the states, all over the country.
To become a painter or an artist I believe that’s something that is there, it just comes. 
Sometimes it's difficult but if you have it inside you will do it no matter what, for as long 
as it takes. 

TEASE  ((VO/NAT)) 
Coming up….. 
((Banner)) 
Rural Broadband 
((SOT))
((Anne Greenwalt, Carver's Ridge Engraving)) 
We have been waiting for a year now to have fiber be brought to us and they just say 
that we’re not within their territory and they don’t have to provide us service.   
 
BREAK TWO                                                                          
BUMP IN ((ANIM))                             
 
BLOCK C 
 
 
((U.S. RURAL BROADBAND ACCESS))   
  
((Banner: Small Town Life )) 
((Reporter: Calla Yu))
((Camera: Suli Yi))  
((Adapted by: Zdekno Novacki ))
((Language Service: VOA Mandarin)) 
((Map: Corning, Iowa))    
((Main characters: 2 female; 2 male))  
((Pop up Banner: Some19 million Americans, mostly in rural areas, have no broadband 
internet access.))  
 ((NATS))
((Anne Greenwalt, Carver's Ridge Engraving))
Because our employees are experiencing, you know, 20 to 25 percent a day in 
downtime, due to the internet speed. They're not being able to effectively do their work 
as efficiently as possible.  
 
We have been waiting for a year and half to have fiber brought to us. They just say that 
we're not within their territory and they don't have to provide a service. 
((Peter Orazem, Iowa State University)) 
 If it's an issue of giving service that’s necessary for public safety, then there’s a very 
strong social argument or public argument. So, hospitals, the police, homeland defense, 
perhaps other emergency services that are provided in the area. It's a little bit more 
difficult to make an argument that, then you also need to subsidize internet service to an 
individual household.
((Anne Greenwalt, Carver's Ridge Engraving))
The total package will probably be around five thousand dollars by the time it's brought 
to us, installed, and all the fiber and things are done within the building. 
I want to say packages are going to be around the 80 to 100 dollar range, depending on 
what speed you get. We will be able to get up to, I want to say, 100 megabits per 
second or faster. 
((Shari Vanden Heuvel, Alpha Omega Publications)) 
 Senator Chuck Grassley, we emailed him with just one time. I told him about our dream 
of pursuing, buying this farm property, building a new home out here, wanting to work 
from home, but was not able to because internet provider at that point did not have high 
speed. “It will happen, I'm just not sure when”. But he said this Connect America funding 
was made available to internet providers through all of Iowa. 
((Greg Gray, Windstream Communications))
If we plowed fiber to every one of these, you're probably talking several hundred 
thousand dollars. It could be in a million dollars in some of these exchanges, just to 
serve two, three, four or five customers. 
((Peter Orazem, Iowa State University)) 
At the end of the day, the customers are going to be paying for that, one way or 
another. It may be through property tax or it may be through service subscription. Now, 
if it's only relatively high income people who are the subscribers, they're the ones who 
are then being subsidized by the people who don't buy the service, who are paying 
through their property tax.
((Greg Gray, Windstream Communications))
We currently use the CAF funding, the Connect America funds. We’ve been in that 
program for several years, been very active in it.  And it helps us fund projects like this.  
Had we not had that funding, I’m not sure we would have been able to reach out and 
serve all these rural customers.  

 ((PKG)) KIEF, A FADING TOWN   
((Banner: Really Small Town Life)) 
((Reporter:  Iryna Matviichuk)) 
((Camera:  Kostiantyn Golubchyk))  
((Adapted by:  Philip Alexiou))
((Language Service: VOA Ukrainian)) 
((Map:  Kief, North Dakota))  
((Main characters:  2 males;  1 female))  
((NATS)) 
((Richard Helme, Kief Resident)) 
The reason why they call it a ‘ghost town’ is because there’s no restaurant, there’s no 
gas station, there’s no bar.  There’s no business places.  You notice how this afternoon, 
the only people you run into is us.    
((NATS)) 
((Duwayne Hendrickson, North Dakota Resident))  
Everything is 20 miles to 50 miles away to get food for your family or gas for your car or 
you know and so, that put a big damper on a lot of these small communities.  The jobs 
that all moved to the larger cities and forgot about small town America. 
((NATS)) 
((Audrey Voloshenko, Kief Resident))  
Just the church, the Baptist Church.  That’s about it. 
((Duwayne Hendrickson, North Dakota Resident))
Population of Kief, seven people.   
((Popup Banner:   
Kief was named after the Ukrainian Capital, Kyiv, where most of the first settlers came 
from.)) 
((Duwayne Hendrickson, North Dakota Resident))
My name is Duwayne Hendrickson and I’m from Minot, North Dakota, about 50 miles 
out of Kief, but my grandparents lived on a farm near Kief prior to 1968 and a small-
town community that everybody knew everybody and everybody helped everybody and 
it was just a different atmosphere.  A different atmosphere of listening to people who 
didn’t speak English and you were trying to figure out what they were saying.  
((Popup Banner:   
The Homestead Acts, starting in the 1850’s, brought European settles to the area.)) 
((Popup Banner:   
Anton and Christina Bokovoy are believed to have founded the town.)) 
((Richard Helme, Kief Resident))
My father came from Germany.  He’s a Helme from Germany.  His dad got on a ship 
over at Odessa, Russia and came over here in 1902.  And then he homesteaded in 
1905.  He found some land and he homesteaded.  And if they homesteaded, was I 
believe 160 acres and if they lived on it for five years, then they got the title.   
Yep, the train came out here and this is what they used to call a ‘tank town’. They had a 
big water tank for the old steam locomotive.  It would stop here and fill up water and 
then go again.  And that’s where people settled because they were able to ride the train 
and the train brought in all the goods.  Mainly lumber, mainly lumber so that they could 
build houses and stuff and then, passengers stopped riding it.  It was back in the 1950s. 
((NATS)) 
((Audrey Voloshenko, Kief Resident)) 
My folks were born, being born here and stuff.  My mom is a German and my Dad is a 
Russian or a Ukrainian.   A lot of them got old.  I mean like Michalenko’s up there.  They 
had a gas station there.  And then Benny Krueger’s, he just passed away a few years 
ago.  A lot of them got old.  I mean like Ischenkos, Shevchenkos, Karpenkos, Dislevys.  
((Richard Helme, Kief Resident)) 
When the grocery store closed, it was like where do you go, you know.   
((Annie Helm, Kief Resident)) 
Okay, the Post Office…..
((Richard Helme, Kief Resident))
And, of course, the Post Office….. 
((Annie Helm, Kief Resident))  
That was in 2000 when we lost the Post Office.  Yeah.  It seemed like when the school 
closed in 1959, it kind of went down, you know, the population.
((NATS)) 
((Audrey Voloshenko, Kief Resient))  
So it’s, I like it.  Ever since my brother bought this place.  I call it a village.  It’s a village 
to me.  It’s not really a ‘ghost town’.  They just say that.
((NATS))
 
((PKG)  JUDGE CAPRIO   
((Banner: Finally, Just Justice)) 
((Reporter/Camera:  Yahya Barzinji)) 
((Camera:  Kostiantyn Golubchyk))  
((Adapted by:  Martin Secrest))
((Language Service:  Kurdish)) 
((Map:  Providence, Rhode Island))  
((Main characters:  1 male))
((Secondary characters: 2 females))
 
Courtesy:  Caught in Providence (all courtroom video) – but can use graphic already in 
lower third where needed
((:01 BANNER: Providence Municipal Court))

((Judge Frank Caprio, Chief Municipal Judge, Providence))
“A courtroom is a very intimidating experience. There's an oak-paneled courtroom. 
There are flags up on the bench. There’s a judge with a robe. Police officers with guns. 
It's intimidating. I am there to do justice and I am there to do justice with understanding, 
compassion and fairness.”

((:29 BANNER:  Judge Caprio appears in his court on syndicated television and social 
media. ))

Courtesy: Caught in Providence
 
((Judge Frank Caprio, Chief Municipal Judge, Providence))
“And now you have four parking tickets …” 
 ((Woman))
“Are you talking about the most recent one? The one on the …”
 ((Judge Frank Caprio))
“On the Nissan …”
 ((Woman))
“Yeah, the one on 11-1, I went to Social Security because they had cut my check 
because my son was recently killed last year. So, they cut my check because he had 
owed money.”
((Judge Caprio))
“Who?”
 ((Woman))
“My son was killed, March of last year, right? So I was his rep-payee. So, they took my 
money because he had owed money. So, I had to go to Social Security to fix that 
matter. When I came out, my, I had a ticket.”
 ((Judge Frank Caprio))
“You know, the horrific story that you just told us relative to your son. I don't think 
anyone in their lifetime would ever want to experience that, so.”
((Woman)) 
 “It’s the worst feeling in the world. I feel so empty.”
((Judge Frank Caprio))
“I'm going to reduce this to 50 dollars. How much time do you need to pay it?” 
((Woman))
“I have it on me now.”
((Judge Frank Caprio)) 
 “Alright. That's not going to leave you without any money, is it?”
((Woman)) 
 “I'll leave here with five dollars. Thank you, your honor.”
((Woman)) 
 “Thank you.” 
((Judge Caprio))
“Alright. With our best wishes and hope that things turn around good for you. OK, good 
luck to you.  
Good luck.”
((Judge Frank Caprio, Chief Municipal Judge, Providence))
“We've been on the bench for over 30 years. For 25 years, we were on television just in 
Rhode Island.  
That's it. I get letters every day, people sending me letters saying,’Please continue to 
treat people with understanding and compassion.’  And many people, because of my 
treatment of people who come before my court, send money to my court saying, ‘Please 
use this to help someone else.’”

Courtesy: Caught in Providence

((Judge Caprio))
“I have a letter from a woman named Angie Chesser. And she said, ‘I got a small bonus 
where I work, and I would like to donate 100 dollars to help somebody else.’ And she 
sent, actually sent cash, so we're going to use this to help pay for your fine. What do 
you say about that?”
((Woman))
“I’m speechless.”
((Judge Caprio))
“It says that there an awful lot of kind …”
((Woman))
“Thank you.”
((Judge Caprio))
“…wonderful people in life.”
((Judge Frank Caprio, Chief Municipal Judge, Providence))
“Many times, even though I am helping people, the city is still getting money, because I 
have people from all over the world. I have people from Iraq who sent money, people 
from France, from Italy, from China, from Russia, all over the world, and the United 
States. (They) send in checks saying, ‘Please use this to help someone else.’  So we 
have touched the heart of people all over the world.” 
((NATS))
Judge Caprio: “32 dollars (laughs)! 32 dollars.”))
((Judge Frank Caprio, Chief Municipal Judge, Providence))
“My father was an immigrant from Italy. We were very poor. We had very little material 
things, but we had a great deal of love in our house. And my dad's vision was always 
that life would be better for his children. Maybe I climbed the ladder of success. It is not 
enough to climb the ladder of success.  
The key is to leave the ladder down so that others can climb the ladder too.”

Courtesy: Caught in Providence
 
((Judge Caprio))
“Don't get any more tickets, OK? God love you. Good luck. Thank you so much, you 
two. (Woman: Absolutely.) That's just wonderful.”
 
CLOSING ((ANIM)) 
voanews.com/connect

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BUMP IN ((ANIM))                                  
 
SHOW ENDS