Sorry folks, I know it’s been a while since I’ve written.  As always, a lot has happened.  I’m not going to try and recount all of it, just some highlights and things I remember.

The month of February is famous in the Dominican Republic because it is the month of Carnival, a festival that is celebrated every Sunday in February and culminates on Independence Day, which is the 27th.  This weekend is the big weekend, so some friends and I are going to a town called La Vega, which is supposed to have the biggest parade and festival.  It should be a good time.

Last weekend we had an excursion with the CIEE program, we went to a national park that was beautiful.  We stayed in a hotel out in the middle of nowhere, that looked very much like Rivendell from Lord of The Rings.  Parts of it were built into a cliff face, and they diverted water from a nearby stream to make these semi-natural swimming pools running through the place.  Needless to say it was magical.  We saw three caves during the weekend, and some ancient cave paintings drawn by the Tainos, the native people of the island.  The area surrounding our hotel was dotted with bright green rice bogs, which led into the national park.  The park is on the edge of the Bay of Samaná, so a lot of the park is mangrove swamps.  One day, we went whale watching, something very popular because these whales come to the bay every year to make babies, so there are lots of whales and you get to see them jump and things like that.  A lot of people got sick on the boats, although I didn’t.  I did, however, step on a sea urchin while I was swimming afterwards, which sent hedgehog-like spikes into the bottom of my foot.  Not fun.

A couple of weekends ago, I went to see a band called Aventura in the Olympic Stadium here in Santo Domingo.   Just for some background, Aventura is a bachata group of four Dominicans who now live in New York.  They are world famous and are treated like national heroes here.  They are largely responsible for bringing Bachata to the international music scene, and also to the middle and upper classes in the DR.  (More background:  the two most popular types of music here are Merengue and Bachata, Bachata is usually seen as “lower class” music, but Avenura has changed that.)  They have been around for a very long time and have gone through a couple lead singers, the most current of which is named Romeo.  Their most recent album was ominously called “The Last.”

So, this concert was a momentous occasion for the band, as a homecoming and because it may have been their “Last” concert, at least with Romeo.  It seemed as though half of Santo Domingo was there, and, without other words to express it, it was fun.

Also at the beginning of this month, I finally finalized my class schedule.  I’m taking five classes, here’s a bit about each one:

• At Instituto Bonó (the jesuit seminary), I’m taking Latin American Social History, which is taught by a profesor of Pomona College who is on a fulbright.  The class is taught in Spanish but two other languages can frequently be heard among the students: English (among us Americans), and Kreyol (The french-like language that our Haitian friends speak).  The non-American students all live together and know each other very well, so the class is loud and high-energy.  It’s a lot of fun.
• At La UASD (Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo), which boasts that it is the oldest University in the New World and has 160,000 (yes, that many) undergrad students, I’m taking Music History I.  It’s taught by a lively woman from Cuba, and there is no textbook, no tests and no assignments. We are given a musical period each class to look up information on and then discuss.  The discussions get surprisingly boisterous and heated.  The class and the University are definitely more of an experience than anything else.  Most of the things we discuss in class come straight from Wikipedia.  The University has no official list of me being enrolled in the class, just a piece of paper my professor signed.
• At FLACSO/CIEE, our home institution that is a small building three blocks from my house, I am taking a Spanish class with a hilarious man name Felix.
• Also at FLACSO (which stands for Facultad Latinoamericana de las Ciencias Sociales), I’m taking Processes of Migration in the Caribbean, which is a fascinating subject taught by a less-than-fascinating woman who is a lawyer from Argentina.
• Finally, I’m doing an internship which counts for credit.  Also, the people doing the internship meet once a week for “class” where we discuss our internships and human development in the DR and fun things like that.  I’m doing my internship at a place called ALEPH, which is a planning and consulting agency aimed at human development.  Right now, I’m working on a revision to a document of UNDAF, which the United Nations Development Assistance Framework.  Basically, 10 UN agencies are working together with the Dominican government to develop the country.

Well, time is speeding by here.  I’m sitting in my apartment right now, sweating through my shirt.  It is time to go to bed.  Hopefully, you all are doing well.  My little brother has just finished his homework, and is proceding to seek out ants on the bathroom floor and kill them with the back of a colored pencil.

Cheers,

Jonah