I spoke of Independence Day in my last entry, so I will begin there. February was a very exciting month here, as Carnaval is in full swing and it is the month of the Dominican Republic´s Independence. A few days before Independence Day, I was sitting on my host family’s front porch with my Doña and my host cousin, Angele. Angele was putting my hair in twists while the Doña read to us from the newspaper. We learned about the history of “La Bandera,” or the flag. The red symbolizes the blood that was shed in the fight for freedom, blue represents liberty, and white represents a quest for peace. In spirit of all of this patriotism, they decided my hair should be la bandera. Hence, the rubberbands used where red, blue and white. According my host family, everyone in the country acts crazy in February, so it’s completely acceptable to have crazy hair!
To continue my celebration of Dia de la Independencia, which is the 27th of February, I went to the national parade with another volunteer and a few of his host family members. We took public transportation to the Malecon, a street downtown that runs alongside the Caribbean. Using incredible skill, we wove through the masses to the front stage of the parade, and then proceeded to wait about 2 hours for the president, Leonel Fernandez, to make his appearance. (waiting entailed standing in beating sun with thousands of people). When he appeared, there was much fanfare, and then the beginning of the parade. It was essentially a display of civil servants and military. There were marches and helicopter fly-overs. My favorite part of the parade was a float that demonstrated airport security. There was a woman on the float who acted as a model traveler, and the agents “checked” her and her baggage!
From Independence Day, I had one more day of training in Santo Domingo, and then took off for four days by myself for a site visit with a Real Live Peace Corps Volunteer (I am only an aspirante, or aspiring PCV). I visited Lindsay in the south, near San Juan de la Maguana. It was great to see her day-to-day. We walked to the closest river with some kids and enjoyed the cool water and a small waterfall. Her main project is a Brigada Verde group of 5 girls—much like girl scouts. We also traveled to San Juan to see the market and meet up with lots of other PCV’s and aspirantes for a few hours of pizza and a pool!
I left Lindsay’s early on Sunday and arrived home in time for lunch. My thoughtful Doña had bought me Chinese food for lunch. I’ve come to love Chinese food here because that means Chop Suey and Chop Suey means tons of vegetables, which I do not get to eat often. I ate lunch and had about an hour to rest before setting out with Angele and a few of her friends to the Malecon again.
This time, the Malecon held CARNAVAL! I am not quite sure how to describe Carnaval except to tell you that there were thousands of people and more colors than I’ve ever seen. I loved the creativity of people’s costumes. One man covered all of his clothes in bottle caps from Presidente beer. Another created a costume out of tiny teddy bears. I did buy a pirate mask which I wore with pride! An important part of Carnaval is that a lot of people have inflated cow bladders on strings (think leathered), which they run up and smack women on the butt or legs with. I was hit only once, and I don’t think it was done with full force. Gracias a dios! The Carnaval experience was total sensory-overload, but so much fun! As soon as I can, I will post all of my pictures, which will help paint the picture for you. http://picasaweb.google.com/colleengatliff/DR3Carnaval
I leave my house here on Thursday for CBT, or Community Based Training. We’ll be near Santiago, the 2nd largest city, in a very beautiful region of the country. There, our group will consist of just 10 environmental education aspirantes, 2 Spanish teachers, 1 main trainer, and tons of special guest trainers. I will have a new host family, and will begin to slow down my pace in preparation for Peace Corps life. This segment of training will last into mid-April. I am really excited about time in CBT. I’ve loved training here in the Capital, but we are busy all of the time and it is so crowded. A change of pace should be fun.
It’s hard to know what to share with you. If you have any questions, feel free to post them under comments or shoot me an email and I’ll do my best to answer them! Keep the mail coming, it is a very exciting part of the week. Letters, inspiring quotes, and local Jax news stories are welcomed. :)
To continue my celebration of Dia de la Independencia, which is the 27th of February, I went to the national parade with another volunteer and a few of his host family members. We took public transportation to the Malecon, a street downtown that runs alongside the Caribbean. Using incredible skill, we wove through the masses to the front stage of the parade, and then proceeded to wait about 2 hours for the president, Leonel Fernandez, to make his appearance. (waiting entailed standing in beating sun with thousands of people). When he appeared, there was much fanfare, and then the beginning of the parade. It was essentially a display of civil servants and military. There were marches and helicopter fly-overs. My favorite part of the parade was a float that demonstrated airport security. There was a woman on the float who acted as a model traveler, and the agents “checked” her and her baggage!
From Independence Day, I had one more day of training in Santo Domingo, and then took off for four days by myself for a site visit with a Real Live Peace Corps Volunteer (I am only an aspirante, or aspiring PCV). I visited Lindsay in the south, near San Juan de la Maguana. It was great to see her day-to-day. We walked to the closest river with some kids and enjoyed the cool water and a small waterfall. Her main project is a Brigada Verde group of 5 girls—much like girl scouts. We also traveled to San Juan to see the market and meet up with lots of other PCV’s and aspirantes for a few hours of pizza and a pool!
I left Lindsay’s early on Sunday and arrived home in time for lunch. My thoughtful Doña had bought me Chinese food for lunch. I’ve come to love Chinese food here because that means Chop Suey and Chop Suey means tons of vegetables, which I do not get to eat often. I ate lunch and had about an hour to rest before setting out with Angele and a few of her friends to the Malecon again.
This time, the Malecon held CARNAVAL! I am not quite sure how to describe Carnaval except to tell you that there were thousands of people and more colors than I’ve ever seen. I loved the creativity of people’s costumes. One man covered all of his clothes in bottle caps from Presidente beer. Another created a costume out of tiny teddy bears. I did buy a pirate mask which I wore with pride! An important part of Carnaval is that a lot of people have inflated cow bladders on strings (think leathered), which they run up and smack women on the butt or legs with. I was hit only once, and I don’t think it was done with full force. Gracias a dios! The Carnaval experience was total sensory-overload, but so much fun! As soon as I can, I will post all of my pictures, which will help paint the picture for you. http://picasaweb.google.com/colleengatliff/DR3Carnaval
I leave my house here on Thursday for CBT, or Community Based Training. We’ll be near Santiago, the 2nd largest city, in a very beautiful region of the country. There, our group will consist of just 10 environmental education aspirantes, 2 Spanish teachers, 1 main trainer, and tons of special guest trainers. I will have a new host family, and will begin to slow down my pace in preparation for Peace Corps life. This segment of training will last into mid-April. I am really excited about time in CBT. I’ve loved training here in the Capital, but we are busy all of the time and it is so crowded. A change of pace should be fun.
It’s hard to know what to share with you. If you have any questions, feel free to post them under comments or shoot me an email and I’ll do my best to answer them! Keep the mail coming, it is a very exciting part of the week. Letters, inspiring quotes, and local Jax news stories are welcomed. :)
3 comments:
So I told everyone here about Carnaval and my friends liked the idea of smacking women's butts with inflated cow stomachs so much that we started a new Ann Arbor tradition. Unfortunately we are all now in jail. The end.
So I guess I have to travel to Michigan to bail my son out of jail again and pay for all the dead cows!...Moooooooooooooo.
hey there colleenie! you'll be the best pcv evah!! reading this is a blast- thanks for sharing and have lots of fun and enjoy every day!!
love ya,
patti
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