George Constanza

Patronales

We are in the middle of Patronales week here in Constanza and it has really added to the overall experience of our training. Every town in the Dominican Republic has their own Saint and once or twice a year they have week long celebrations that are comparable to a county fair back home. There are your vendors selling useless trinkets like plastic jewelry and factory manufactured bracelets and clothes with stereotypical symbols of playboy bunnies and marijuana leafs. Then you have the food vendors selling pizza, beer, and a local favorite; hot dog on a stick. No not the hot dog on a stick where the employees where those tacky multi-color uniformed but the hot dog on a stick where a guy as a charcoal grill and a plastic bag of maybe 50 unrefrigerated dogs. It is only a matter of time before I give in and purchase a salty dog. They have also seemed to skip the carnival games that rob the parents of children of all their money in hopes of a stuffed animal worth less the value of the actual game and moved right on to gambling for adults using a wheel with nails and a spinner with twenty different numbers, basically a makeshift roulette. My favorite part by far is the street dancing. While there are first-class concert stages set up with jumbo-tron-esque screen, the real magic happens when a SUV parks near the festivities, opens the rear barn door completely filled with speakers and blares meringue, bachata, and reggaeton. For the amount of people who dance in this country I was sure that they would all be dancing like pagans but it turns out in large functions they just stand around and as soon as someone does start dancing (like me) everyone stops and stares as if some official side show had began. I don’t mind the attention but I would have loved if everyone would have begun dancing as well. The dancing here has some rhyme and reason to it, and everyone of every age knows how. Tonight is the last night of Patronales week and I look forward to one last night of festivities.

Aguas Blancas

For the second week in a row I have had the experience of a lifetime riding in the back of a pickup truck, throwing caution to the wind and admiring some of the most beautiful scenery the Dominican Republic has to offer. Last week we headed up to the center of the country for a service project and this weekend my sector went up to a famous waterfall to swim in icy waters. Having a better understand of how to ride comfortably in the back of a pick truck going through winding roads and rocky paths we packed pillows and blankets to save our backs from being tortured. I prefer to stand at the very front so I can feel the wind in my face and get a good view of the rolling hills. I brought my iPod this time which really made a difference in the magic of the ride. While I was disconnected from the conversation of the group, I was having a spiritual journey in my own right. When the truck was not whipping through turns I imagined I was experiencing what ancient roman generals felt when being pulled around the country side in chariots. As for the waterfall, it was picturesque and was deep enough to jump off rocks. Some of the volunteers climb to some extremely high points but being so far away from a hospital I thought I would hold off on the acrobatic stunts. From what I hear, the Dominican Republic is filled with day trip adventures and I plan on seeing all of them.