The time has flown here. I have 12 days of class left, +1 to present a couple final projects. I love piano lessons and am amazed that I can actually play [little kid beginner] songs with BOTH HANDS! How cool, riiight? I'm excited. It's really difficult, repetitive and frustrating but I love it; I can't wait to practice at Timaree's house this summer.
This past week was really calm. Thinking back to January, I'm definitely tons more confident with my Spanish, even though I know every time I speak I'm gonna make plenty of mistakes. Who cares? We're learning! I don't want to leave the people I've met here! I love my family more each day; they're seriously awesome and it's really fun to have "siblings" close to my age. Here's the play-by-play.
Thursday night we played skipbo at the colmado.
Friday, our ISA program ventured to the house of the Mirabal Sisters. There were four of them; Dede is the only one still living because the other three were killed by the DR government during Trujillo's rule, upon their return after visiting their husbands in jail. Who's Trujillo? Think Hitler, only instead of killing Jewish people and putting them in concentration camps, Trujillo ordered a genocide of thousands of Haitians (with knifes and machetes so it seemed more local, less like war) to "whiten" the Dominican race. This was in the 1930s. If you're curious, just ask; I've learned tons about his regime. Minverva, one of the Mirabal sisters, studied law in Santo Domingo in [i think] the 50s, however, after years of studying, Trujillo withheld her degree because she was a woman. If you're curious, here's the history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mirabal_sisters
After the Mirabal Museum, we hiked around a cocoa farm/ rain forest.
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| ISA w/ Dona Dede, surviving Mirabal sister |
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| cacao bean |
The same night some ISA girls (+Lina) came over to bake delicious banana nutella cookies and watch Black Swan, which if you haven't seen it, you must. It's super intense, insane, and scary but also mindbogglingly awesome. Mindbogglingly is a word but mindblowingly isn't? Our language is crazy.
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| ...but they were delicious! |
Yesterday Megan, Stacy, Rose and I went to Centro Leon for a Folklore Dance exhibit thing... We talked about weird freaky diseases and research. Haha I love learning from people; did you know? Later we hung out at Leo's. We watched "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", listened to Leo play guitar, and exchanged depressing yet funny stories. Really my favorite moments here are the ones in which we don't do much. Simply being with people and enjoying their company is the best.
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| Folklore Dancers |
Church this morning with Denis, then Haitian lunch (don't worry roomies, I got the sauce recipe), salsa dancing, and chilling at his house till a little bit ago.
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| Almuerzo! |
“I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
1 Corinthians 10:23-24
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