Celebrando El Sur

At the end of July we had a conference here in the south of the country. It was called Celebrando El Sur (celebrating the south). After having been to a few camps here, I know how positive they are for the kids, but can also be very stressful for the volunteers. This camp turned out to be the best camp I’ve done so far in country. My friend Justin planned the whole thing pretty much by himself, handing out different charlas and tasks for the rest of us to do. We had 15 volunteers and 45 kids. It was up outside of this city called Neiba about half an hour on this partially paved, super curvy road, then turned off onto this rock (not gravel, but big rocks) road that leads at a 45 degree angle up this mountain to this camp. It was a pretty small place but had bunk rooms for all our us. Volunteers bunking with the kids because a bunch of Dominican teenagers unsupervised is just generally not a good idea. Heck, I guess that applies to all teenagers, not just Dominican ones.

The theme of the camp was diversity. So we had charlas about gender, ethnicity and immigration, HIV/AIDS and sexual pressures, biodiversity (I did that one), the continents of the world (I did Africa), and a few others I’m not remembering right now. The kids had to present a few times as well. They had to present something that represented their community. My two girls Laury and Germania presented about our holy spirit. They had a photo that they shared with the group while they talked about the holy spirit festival. Each group of kids also had to do a presentation on a different country of the world. We also had a game night where we had a bunch of stations the kids stayed at for 15 minutes each. The favorites were musical chairs and beer pong (with water of course) and flip cup. On the last day, the kids were divided into groups and they were each given a news article about some sort of diversity that they had to turn into a news broadcast. They were hysterical. We all got matching t-shirts and took a group picture on the last day complete with certificates for each of the kids and for each of us volunteers. It was a great weekend with the kids and I was so proud of my girls.

Mini-Vac meeting

Once every few months we get together with all the volunteers that live in our region for a mini-vac. I can’t remember what mini-vac means anymore, but pretty much what happens is one person is the representative for our region and they go to a meeting in the capital where they talk about what’s going on with Peace Corps, bring up any issues volunteers are having, etc. Then we get together as a group and talk about all that stuff, but also hang out and relax with other volunteers for an evening. It works pretty well here in region two because there are only nine of us. Although it’s hard to make a time that works for everyone. We decided to hold our last mini-vac meeting at my friend Jeff’s house. We call it Hotel de Jefe. We were going to have a chili cook-off but we got standfasted the day before we were supposed to have the meeting so we all made chili and ate it in our sites instead. Luckily the standfast ended the next night so on Sunday instead of Saturday those of us who were able headed out to Jeff’s place. We cooked up a mean dinner and then tried to burn a stump in Jeff’s backyard and sat around listening to music and chatting. It was a great night. Peace Corps is funny in a way. You get so used to just being in your community that you don’t realize that you’re stressed out or just tired of having to integrate all the time until you hang out with another group of volunteers. Number one it’s a nice reminder of the fact that you’re not alone in feeling stressed and tired, but it’s also a chance to vent, and laugh, and share stories, and listen to American music.

4th of July

There are a few times during Peace Corps service where we get to gather together and celebrate a U.S. holiday and 4th of July is one of the big ones. Which is funny because 4th of July has never been a huge holiday for me, but for many Peace Corps Volunteers it is. I stayed in my site last year but this year I decided it was time to get out of the campo and head to the beach. So I made the trek up to the Samana peninsula. A bus into the capital and then another bus on the “new highway” which only some parts of were new. We went winding through mountain roads on a huge Greyhound looking bus. When we go to the town of Samana we then had to catch a ride in a guagua that wasn’t really a bus but the back of a truck. We were piled in like sardines with all our backpacks and about 6 Dominicans as well with their produce, gas cans, etc. Needless to say it was really cozy. We got dropped off at the grocery store to stock up on supplies and then headed over to meet up with the friends we were bunking with. We went out to dinner and then headed to a party that some of the other volunteers were having and then headed out dancing for the evening to a discoteca. All in all a pretty good evening. Upon waking in the morning on the 4th of July we went and grabbed breakfast and then headed out to catch a boat to the beach we were going to spend the day at. It was beautiful. I mean spectacularly beautiful. We rented chairs that were strategically placed in the shade to hang out around and to stash our stuff. We spent the rest of the day swimming, lying around, munching snack food, and drinking. We headed back in the late afternoon and headed out for dinner and another night of visiting parties at various houses and hotels. We ended up at my friend Sarah’s room playing guitar and singing songs. Not a bad way to spend 4th of July. I may have to change my mind about the holiday, although it helps to be on a tropical island where no one else celebrates the holiday.

Religious Clothing

Since I talked about the Fiesta del Espíritu Santo I feel like I ought to mention the clothing more in depth. I don’t know the history of it, I wish I did but it’s really pretty cool. So for the procession before the festival and for the noche velas which are pretty much just mini versions of the big festival in someone’s house. They generally have a little shrine building and three blue crosses in the yard. They play palos and sometimes perico ripiao and some serve food as well, depending if it’s one that is going to last overnight or not. Anyway, back to the clothes. The clothes are amazing. They are usually cotton dresses for the women that are brightly colored in general, mainly red, yellow, green, and white. Sometimes they’ll have crosses sewn to the chest or sometimes on the sleeves. For the men, of which I don’t have a good picture unfortunately, they are cotton pants and button up shirts in the same colors as the women’s and with crosses sometimes as well. They make me think of Cuban men’s guayabera shirts (I think that’s the right name) although a lot more colorful.

May Fiesta del Espíritu Santo

So the Holy Spirit Festival rolled around once again at the end of May this year. It’s eight weeks after Good Friday. This festival is local to El Batey, think of it as El Batey’s Spring Fest, minus the rides and the dunking booth. I was excited to be here for it again because last year I had just arrived in site and didn’t really understand everything that was going on. I feel like I know a little more this year. Supposedly, the Holy Spirit doll (although you can’t call it a doll in front of the true believers) was left to the community by Taino Indians (the native population of Hispaniola) a long time ago. Although it was definitely not made by the Tainos. My guess is it was probably given to them by the Spanish, assuming the story is even partially true. Many people believe that it really does hold the spirit of the Holy Spirit and believe in its ability to grant wishes and perform miracles.

They start by having eight weeks of practices. The women go to the church in their religious clothes and clean the church and the men play the palos. Then the Saturday before the party, they carry the doll in a glass case through the community, stopping at various houses where they play the palos and do blessings on the house. At some of the houses they even make food for everyone in the procession, which means food for 50 or 60 people, maybe more, I’m bad at estimating numbers of people. They also have some people along who play perico ripiao, another traditional music that is played with a drum, a guira, and an accordion. A guira is a round metal thing that looks kind of like a cheese grater that you play by rubbing a stick on it.

Last but not least, the festival is on Monday. People come from all over the place by the carloads, truckloads, and busloads to see our little Holy Spirit doll. There are venders selling pictures of the Holy Spirit, candles to light when you pray for your miracles, plastic necklaces with crosses, jewelry, clothes, food from fried yucca to hamburgers to pizza to traditional sancocho (stew) and chen chen (grits), and alcohol mainly beer, whiskey, and rum (Brugal of course), and all the mixers to go with it. Some people will stay in the church all night praying (or sleeping on the benches). Meanwhile, palos are playing in various places outside and sometimes inside the church and people will dance. By the end of the night it’s generally the young people and the very religious who are still standing. The very religious stay at the church and the young people go over to one of the discotecas and dance reggaeton, bachata, and merengue until the wee hours of the morning.

Velorios, Novenas, y Rezos

I woke up this morning to hear that my neighbor across the way had died up in the loma. No one knows exactly what happened. They had been harvesting beans and he packed up his mule and started the long trek down yesterday afternoon. This morning a young man found him and came down to let his family know. As I’m writing this, a group of people has gone up into the mountain to bring his body back down. They have cleaned his yard, chopped the weeds around his house, and set up a tent for people to sit under in case it rains. And they have cleaned up his house so that they can lay out his body when the group that went to the mountain arrives with it.

Death is a common theme around here, particularly in a community made up largely of the older generation, as the young adults and people in their 20s and 30s have largely moved away from the campo to the cities. With death comes certain rituals that have been practiced for generations among the people of the Dominican
Republic.

The first part of these traditions is the velorio, which has already started for my neighbor although his body has not yet arrived, and will continue until tomorrow morning. Normally, it begins with the laying out of the body, and then all the close family members (spouses, parents, children, siblings) will sit in a room with the body and wail. People come in to pay their respects, which causes the family to wail even more loudly. After paying their respects people will gather outside in chairs and chit chat or play dominoes on the domino tables that have been brought in. In the normally separate kitchen building, someone is generally making coffee or hot chocolate, which they pass out on trays in little plastic cups usually accompanied by mints. Those who are close relatives of the family (cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) will stay all night at the velorio, many until they take the body for burial in our little cemetery.

Following this is the novena, which lasts nine days. On these nine nights close family and friends gather and play dominoes, drink coffee, suck on mints, and talk. At the end of each evening they play the palos, which are big bongo like drums and sing.

After the novena comes the rezo. At the rezo, anyone and everyone who was friends with or family with the deceased comes to pay their respects to the family. This means that sometimes as many as four or five buses come from the capital bringing extended family and friends to the campo. The immediate family cooks food for everyone, and I mean everyone. People will come early in the day and leave in the evening to head back to wherever they have come from.

Depending on how religious the family is there are other traditions they will follow as well. Some will not play music or drink for a month or more afterwards. And many will have a cabo de año every year on the anniversary of the person’s death for seven years.

Brigada Verde Camp

April 2010

Brigada Verde groups were started by Peace Corps Volunteers several years ago to teach environmental responsibility to the youth of the Dominican Republic. This program has since been endorsed and supported by the national government and some NGOs, although Peace Corps and us volunteers are still at the heart of the movement. As such, we try to have several conferences throughout the year including at least three regional conferences and a national conference. We held a national conference in April which I got to attend with a couple of youth from my community. We went to the national aquarium where we watched a video and then were taken on a tour. The following day we spent most of the time in a national parked tucked away in Santo Domingo. We did a nature walk and in addition the kids got to ride bikes or go on a paddle boat ride in the lake in the middle of the park. We also had several charlas (lessons) during the conference led by not only Peace Corps volunteers but also by some of the youth who put together amazing presentations that they gave to their peers. We finished up by presenting certificates and t-shirts to the kids and then took a group picture.