fitting in weekend fun

Working out kinks in the first week of summer school can be stressful, so one night all of the volunteers went to a local restaurant for dinner and dancing. Turns out I am pretty good at Dominican dancing (basically a lot of hip-shaking).
[Side note on dancing/music--People here don't sing along to songs; they dance to them. Dominicans like songs for the rhythm, not for pitch or tone--I'm thinking it's because dancing to rhythm makes more sense than dancing to pitch. Also, it is really common for the teenagers to put music on their cell phones and then pull out a dance party anywhere.]
That Friday, me and 6 other girls convinced one of the guy volunteers to take us to Puerto Plata to go shopping. The guy, name of Justin, is practically Hispanic himself for his grasp on Spanish language and culture. Plus he has good fashion taste.

And he was a good tour guide...

In one of the stores we went in, I saw what Dominicans do for baby/wedding registries:

They stick what they want in 'registry shelves', and then people can just pick out an item and buy it. I was impressed enough to take a picture, apparently.
After shopping, we walked along the malecon (boardwalk)

 and headed to dinner: Dominoes. I was extremely thrilled to eat American food. Plus it was located in an "American style" shopping center

Yes, I took a picture of the shopping center. I think I was homesick.

My favorite memory of the night, though, was the travelling part of it. We had taken a guagua (a 4 or 5 row van that is used as a transport vehicle) up to the city of Puerto Plata, and that trip I think we had around 30 people crammed in--there really is no limit to how many people a guagua can take, as long as they 'fit'--hanging on the side, sitting in laps, whatever works. On the trip back, it was too late at night for guaguas to be running, so the 8 of us literally piled into a compact-car taxi--5 girls in the back seat, Justin, me, and another girl in the passenger seat, and the driver. Boy, it was a long drive back!

Saturday, all of the volunteers from my university (Brigham Young University) went on a rafting trip. I have been white water rafting before, but this trip takes the cake. We were outfitted with helmets, wet suits, and life jackets, which is good because we flipped our raft, hit some rocks, and went down at least 3 intense rapids. Our guide was good enough to save our skins. Except I did get sunburned

Yes, it hurt

Some of us didn't get quite enough of the city sights of Puerto Plata, so after attending church there on Sunday, Bjorn, me, and my two roommates toured La Puntilla. It's a fort that used to protect the bay.

The doorways were built low so that defenders could slice off beseigers' heads.
But all I had was a water bottle

Model posing

Bust of Juan Pablo Duarte at a Masonic mansion
See symbol below

So here's the pun--'caber' in Spanish means 'to fit'; our trips to and from Cabarete [hey, it's pronounced about the same] involved fitting into vehicles intended for far fewer passengers.

inside a guagua

DREAM

It's probably time to explain what the heck I was doing in the Dominican Republic. It wasn't to get a tan (I don't tan, I burn. too expensive just to fly to the DR for a burn) or to relax or run away (I'm not good at doing either of those). Mostly it was because I knew I needed to practice Spanish on a day-to-day living basis. When I heard about the DREAM project (which stands for Dominican Republic Education And Mentoring project), I decided teaching would definitely qualify for Spanish practice.

The DREAM Center in Cabarete

The goal of DREAM is to supplement primary education (for further details, visit their site). As I understand it, the average Dominican child attends just a half-day at school, and classroom control is difficult, so volunteers for DREAM help teach classes during the summer, mentor students during the school year, and showcase teaching techniques by bringing in teachers from the United States (DREAM is a U.S. based organization) and pairing them with Dominican teachers. I am not a certified teacher, but I volunteered to teach health classes during the summer. Oh, boy, what a demanding job--learning how to teach, without curriculum, by using my secondary language.

My classroom!

Each night my co-teacher and I would have a pow-wow about what we would teach the next day.. We typically taught 5 different lessons a week to 4-5 different groups. We thought of lots of games and activities to get the desired message--food safety, nutrition, body systems, etc--across.

"Pass the ball"--to demonstrate how blood carries nutrients to the body

"Red light Green light"--shows how our eyes recognize color and movement
 (or maybe we just played the game for fun)

I am very proud of these fruits and vegetables
I drew them for a visual for the 'nutrition' lesson

Our 'first aid' lesson--how to straighten an airway

they really swarmed him to straighten his airway

vacation from a vacation

Well, technically I wasn't in the Dominican Republic for vacation. I was there to improve my fluency while teaching health classes. But still. It's the Caribbean; how can it not feel like a vacation?

don't i just look like i need a vacation?

Anyway, when a fellow volunteer invited me to go to La Vega with her, I was all for it. Trips across the country in an air-conditioned bus, sign me up! We stayed with a lady named Altagracia (the same one from my last post on food), and since I so obviously look foreign, I got to get a tour of the town from friends of Ashlie, my fellow vacationer who had been to La Vega on a mission.

Hansel, Franklin, Ernso, and Altagracia's daughter (don't remember her name. oops)

Catedral de la Concepcion de la Vega. a very concrete cathedral

picture of someone taking a picture is so classic

This girl  LOVED my camera. and getting pictures.

the girl was still figuring out how to use my camera at this point

the absolutely gorgeous plaza

hurray for friends! and thank goodness I managed to sneak in the picture!

spoiler: so these two end up marrying

We ended the tour by watching a local baseball game, which is the only important game as far as Dominicans are concerned. Baseball in the Dominican Republic is like football in Texas: BIG

the best way to a country is through its food

Food is a pretty important part of any culture. So I'm going to deviate from chronology and devote this post to Dominican cuisine.
First thing to know: the most common lunch of the country is la bandera, which is beans, rice, and some sort of stewed meat (in my experience, usually chicken), often served with a salad (which, again based on experience, is shredded cabbage with a vinegar dressing). In poorer areas, the lunch of la bandera is the only meal of the day, as it is very filling. I confess I got tired of la bandera from sheer repetition.

stewing meat

The good news is there are plenty of other awesome Dominican foods. One of the country's favorite side dishes is also one of mine: tostones, which are fried green plantains. They are salted, and are very good with ketchup. It's a strange idea to eat banana-looking things with ketchup, but trust me, they are good.

The great thing about tostones is that I know how to make them!

[Actually, plantains are extremely versatile, and show up in all kinds of forms. Boil and mash them for breakfast as mangu. Fry and mash them for a dish of mofongo. Slice them, layer with ham and cheese, and roll up to make piononos. For a sweeter side, carmelize chunks of plantain in platanos al caldero. No, I have not eaten all of these things. I'm just making a point.]

Pastelon de platanos amarillos. It's kind-of like lasagna, but with plantains.

One of my best, most cherished experiences in the Dominican Republic was staying with a Doña Altagracia and eating her homemade meals. I learned a lot about Dominican food, and am proud to say that I immediately liked concón (crunchy rice), some sort of chocolate tea, ginger tea, and fried corn patties.

Altagracia and me

Come to think on it, a LOT of things are fried. I guess it's an easy way to cook.

bollitos de yuca: cheese-filled cassava. and it's fried

My favorite way to end off a meal was to go for some batidas, which are basically smoothies: fruit, ice, evaporated milk, sugar. The fruit in the DR tastes SO good!