Profe in the DR 07

Profe in the DR 07

 

I brought in the New Year here in my site.   A lot of people who grew up here were back visiting, even more so than for Christmas.  There was a lot of celebrating up to and well after midnight on the 31^st.   As it was a weekend, this celebrating continued the next two days as well, during which time there was also a wedding in the batey.   Starting on the evening of the 5^th and lasting for the next three days was a large voodoo celebration.  It was to coincide with the “día de los reyes” the catholic holiday celebrating when the three kings visited the baby Jesus.  The voodoo celebration involved a lot of music on drums and homemade instruments, including bamboo horns that as they played them by blowing into them, they also drummed on the outside of them with sticks.  On the sixth, they paraded a little bit in the streets similar to what they did on the 24^th of December, with dancing, music, a man cracking a whip, and the entire procession led by a decorated bull.  The three day celebration was culminated with the killing and eating of the bull, and its bones were then buried the next day as part of the ceremony.   I was hoping to see and photo a lot of the ceremony, unfortunately I was sick with stomach problems that whole week.  (All part of living in third world countries.)

Now that the holidays are finally over, I am working on starting up new projects.  I am forming a group of girls between the ages of 11-15 to participate in a program called “Chicas Brillantes”.   The program focuses on developing self esteem and leadership.   I will be taking five girls to a nearby batey this weekend to participate in a regional overnight conference.  I am also starting to work with students in the elementary school.  I am currently focusing on math, but plan to eventually work with reading, English, and other subjects.  I currently have one small English class, but plan to start up a few more in February.  I am also working on starting up an environment program sometime in March, along with a program for teenagers on life choices called “Escojo mi vida”.

I am continuing to work on forming soccer teams here.  I have three teams formed so far.  A girls team, a teen age boys team, and a young men’s team.  The men’s team just played their 3^rd game against teams from other bateys.  They lost 3-0, but they have come a long way in two months.  The majority of the guys still don’t have shoes yet, and we had a big problem trying to come up with the gas money to get over to the nearby batey, but little by little things are coming together.