It is a special week in Constanza. It is Patronales. Each city in the DR has a patron saint and each city has an annual celebration to honor that saint. The celebrations begins as a religious event and over the course of the week becomes a big party. Naturally.
The festivities here in Constanza have consisted of bouncy castles, creepily androgynous clowns (see above right), trinket vendors and food stalls popping up in the parque that marks the city center. That and concerts. On Friday a groups of us Americanos went to a merengue concert downtown. Not yet my kind of music but it will grow on me over time as that and bachata are seemingly the only forms of music played in this country. Oh, and Michael Jackson too. He is something of his own musical genre down here. Despite not loving la música, it was a fun cultural experience. And we got to stand right next to the Síndico (mayor), whose face is plastered all about town on all things ranging from buildings to garbage trucks. A true Constanazan celebrity.
The only other highlight of my Patronales experience was sliding down the fire pole at the local fire station. A couple of the local youth that we work with are part-time bomberos (firemen) and had no reservations about letting us slide down the tubo. In the U.S. there would likely be rules & regs against allowing random foreigners to do such a thing. But here in the DR, most anything goes.
Saturday was a day of team-building activities for the 15 remaining Youth volunteers. We started the morning by reluctantly hopping into another godforsaken camión. The flat bed trucks from hell. Our destination was the beautiful area of Aguas Blancas. This weeks' go round with the camión was exponentially better than last. Less people, more space and a 1-hour trip rather than a 3-hour tour.
Aguas Blancas is an area high up in the mountains that consists of a 100+ foot waterfall cascading into an ice-cold pool. It's pretty to look at and daring to swim in. 2 for 2. Our host families provided us with the cautionary tales about the low water temperature and looked at us crazily when we told them we intended to swim there. No matter, we were jumping off the nearest rocks and into the pool immediately upon arrival. The water was indeed cold. The closest thing to a Polar Bear Club experience I have ever had.
The water truly did take your breath away on first contact. Once you were able to breathe, it hurt to do so and was all-around pretty intense. You got used to the water (more or less) soon thereafter and all was good. Some in the group kept climbing upward to find a higher, more adrenaline-filled spot to jump from. Normally I would have followed suit, but after my skull-crushing Canadian experience with cliff jumping this past summer, I stuck to the less death-defying heights.
The real team building came later that night as a number of us passed up another Dominican concert to partake in my favorite PCT pastime, kicking it on the loma. There is a large hill nearby the neighborhood we all live where we often sneak away to in order to avoid the ever-watchful eyes of the locals, listen to music in English and better get to know the people we will be sharing experiences with in the two years to come. The loma is easily the best part of Constanza.
A close second is the local repostería (bakery). We eat mountains of rice and platanos each day, but comfort food is missing from our diet. This is why when a teacher or current volunteers pay us a visit and happen to have M&Ms or Reese's Peanut Butter Cups in tow, we pounce on them like rabid dogs. Enter the repostería, which can sate my sweet tooth on a daily basis for under $1 US. It makes each plate of rice all the more appetizing to know that cakes and cookies are in the near future.
All is fantastic here. Couldn't be better.
No comments:
Post a Comment