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| The CIC group on PUCMM campus |
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| At a jazz concert in a cultural center |
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| Promotional material passed out by the Presidente Beer Company that uses the Bible verse "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. 38Whoever believes in me, as[a] the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him." to encourage liberal drinking in Catholic dominated D.R. |
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| The majority of our group, waiting for the show to start |
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| The crowd at Festival Presidente |
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| At the gates of Festival Presidente in Santo Domingo with some Dominicans we met on the bus |
I am also fairly confident that I have killed every mosquito in my room and bathroom, so until their eggs hatch, things are looking up. It’s been raining more here (as a result of Hurricane Earl) and there have been significantly more mosquitoes, which is problematic because the cases of malaria in the D.R. have gone up recently and Dengue Fever is a big problem in Santiago. My host father is a doctor and works part time at a government health clinic so a few weekends ago I volunteered with his office to go out into communities in Santiago to spread awareness about Dengue and Leptospirosis, a disease spread by rats. We basically just went door-to-door taking surveys, distributing larvicide, and sweating like maniacs.
Last weekend I went to Santo Domingo, the capital, to a huge music festival called Festival Presidente. El Presidente is the beer of the D.R. and they sponsor this enormous concert every couple of years, and it was quite the scene. It was held at a stadium used to train Olympic Athletes and was packed with people. When we left, we were practically wading through trash (well, recycling really…) left by people. The music started at about 6:30 and ended at 1 AM and there were all sorts of special effects including fireworks, giant flames, saucy dancers, smoke, and pillars rising from the stage. We saw Tito el Bambino, Luis Enrique, Luis Fonsi, (who apparently is quite the BFD based on the amount of screaming by the girls behind me), and Juan Luis Guerra who is a famous Dominican singer/musician. It was definitely exciting and we were probably less than 100 feet away from the stage, so that was really fun. Towards the end of the concert, they sprayed water on the crowd to cool us down because Santo Domingo is even hotter than Santiago (which has been at least 90 every day since we got here). This was nice at first (and explained why so many people had cell phones in plastic baggies) but they did it about 5 more times with what I’m pretty sure was a fire hose, and by the end we were all soaked. It made for a very chilly bus ride home!
Other than that I’ve just been getting settled into school and sorting out classes. It’s not looking like credits are going to transfer as easily as I had hoped, but I’m feeling a lot better about it than at the beginning of the week. I’ve decided to take Contemporary Hispanic Literature, Gender and Society in the Caribbean, Community Medicine, Introduction to Healthcare, an independent study, and Intro to Guitar. Right now, I’m most excited about guitar, but the other classes are growing on me. I feel like a freshman in college again, but without the communication skills. I’m having to learn all the little things again: my way around campus, how to check a book out of the library, where public computers are, etc.
I’ve been running on the dirt track on campus a bit though, and when another girl in my program and I have the same schedule, we go around the neighborhoods as well. I still get turned around very easily here in Santiago, but luckily there is the giant monument that makes a great marker.
Well, this has turned into a monster post, so I’m going to see if I have an internet connection to actually put it online, but I love hearing from everyone else so keep me updated on your lives and have a good weekend!
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