Caminata

I went to my first march (protest?) on Thursday (although I didn't march, I went in the truck). People from Los Higos and neighboring communities were marching against the condition of the road that leads from Hato Viejo through Hatillo and to Crucero (this is the road we take to get to Los Higos before we turn left to go up the big hill). The met up in Hatillo (about a mile below Los Higos) and walked to Hato Viejo (about 1.5 miles, but including a mega-hill). When they got the Hato Viejo, they closed off the road and held a ralley. A Catholic priest spoke about the need for justice in government and spoke against how the government does not use money for projects that will benefit rural communities. Following his talk, he gave communion.

Here is the view from the back of the ralley. I am guessing there was several hundred people there

Here you can see the priest up on the stage:

Meri was at the ralley representing the 'junta de vecinos' (the city council) of Los Higos. Her sign reads, "City Council of Los Higos. No movement towards progress. Los Higos demands reconstruction of the Hato Viejo-Hatillo-Crucero highway"

Tito

I found a home for Tito, the rabbit that turned out to be a boy. Carmen Luz needed a male rabbit, and I sold him to her.

So, today I stopped by Carmen Luz's house. I had heard that her younger daugher, Elisabet, was sick and asked Elisabet about it. Here is how our conversation went:

Arlene: Es verdad que estas enferma? (Is it true that you are sick?)

Elisabet: Si. (yes)

Arlene: Que tienes? (What do you have?)

Elisabet: Un conejo! Ven a ver! (A rabbit! Come and see!)

pulga

On Thursday there was a 'pulga' (yard sale) at the preschool in Los Higos. When we host teams, they often leave donations (usually clothes, towels, and sheets) behind at the base. Rather than give these items away, Students International allows sites to sell them at low cost to raise money to buy things for the sites that wouldn't normally be included in our regular budgets. For example, a few months ago Johana had a pulga at the preschool to buy a television for the school.

The community always looks forward to sales like this. The picture below shows the crowd waiting at the gate for the sale to begin.

These pictures (which are my favorites) shows the people rushing towards the school once the gate was opened.

Here the people are crowded onto the porch of the school, looking through the items for sale:

coneja (o)

So, the big news at the social work site this week is that it turns out that Titi, the rabbit, is a boy. That would explain the reason she [he] has not has baby bunnies, yet.

faldas

Kay Yua Korean lady that lives in Michigan (she is the mom of my intern from 2006, Sandra), is working at my site during this outreach. She came prepared to teach the advanced sewing class to make simple skirts. The whole process turned out to not be so simple, but most of the girls did manage to finish their skirts. It was good to have an outsider come to the class and give the girls advice, because I think they sometimes get tired of me nagging them to sew straighter or correct their mistakes. Kay graciously told them when they needed to correct their sewing and the girls took her advice well.

Today Kay was also going to make a simple sundress for Marcela (an SI missionary kid). She cut the fabric out, but then later couldn't find it. Not long after, Gabby came out of the sewing room sporting a skirt and headband her mom made her using her new skirt-making skills. Turns out that Maciel found the little sundress fabric and cut it down to make a skirt for Gabby. Apparently she didn't recognize that that fabric was already cut for someone else's project. ;)

jira

Last week the social work site from El Callejon, which also works with women, brought their teenage girls to Los Higos to have a cookout with the girls from my teenagers' Bible study. We hiked to the river, cooked locrio (chicken and rice), and swam. The top picture shows Daisy, the leader of the social work site in El Callejon starting the chicken.

The girls from El Callejon had prepared a short program where they gave each of my girls a friendship bracelet (one girl is shown giving a bracelet to Genesis, from Los Higos) and then sang a few songs they had learned. It seemed the girls had a good time, except for the fact that the rice turned out kind of hard.

One of our biggest frustrations, however, was that about 40 young men from Los Higos decided to go to the river right when we went. Dominicans often show up for events they weren't invited to, because the idea of an exclusive event doesn't fly here. We were disappointed, however, because we wanted to have an event just for our girls and we had a hard time convincing the girls to spend time with one another rather than going over to talk to the boys.

gran exposicion de costura

On Monday, we had a sewing 'exposition'. Basically we decorated the community center with all the things the sewing class has made in the last four month. We laid plastic chairs down on the floor to form 'beds' to put our bedspreads on, and hung curtains behind the beds to try to make it look like they were in bedrooms. We hung bags on the back of chairs, to make it look like we'd left them there when we got home.

Unfortunately it rained on Monday, so hardly anyone came (except a bunch of kids who realized we had a snack). The participants seemed disappointed that hardly any adults came, but were pretty excited to get their pictures taken with what they had sewn:

Here, Melvin poses with his 'bedroom'. He officially joined sewing class about a month ago and scrambled to get 4 months worth of class projects done in time for the exposition:

Below, Vianelli poses by her 'bed' and a curtain made by Maribel:

Although attendance was super disappointing for our exposition, knowing we were going to have one was really motivating for the ladies. I announced we'd have the exposition about 10 days ahead of time and the women flooded by site daily to finish up their projects on time. A few that had gotten behind were able to catch up with all the class projects in time to show them at the exposition.