Oh boy do I have a lot to catch up on! Basically, the last I told you all about was the Jardín de los Niños and the tarantula in my closet. Luckily, there has not been a tarantula relative seeking revenge.
So two weeks ago, my CIEE group and I went to the Mirabel Sisters museum. Here is the story of the Mirabel sisters. From 1930-1960, the Dominican Republic was under the control of a dictator named Rafael Trujillo. He did a lot of bad things, including killing 18,000 Haitians and Haitian descendants living in the Dominican Republic, and then giving Haiti money so that the country would not look into it. Basically, he was super corrupt. And the problem was that very few people in the country knew it, because Trujillo often had his enemies killed in a way that looked like an accident. Even enemies who had fled to different countries, including the US. The Mirabel sisters were four sisters who started to publicly talk about the corruption of Trujillo. They are responsible for the spread of knowledge about Trujillo's corruption in the Dominican Republic. Well, this, as you can probably guess, did not make Trujillo happy. Two of the Mirabel sisters had husbands that were in jail, and they had a lot of trouble getting permission to visit them. One day, they were informed that they could visit their husbands, so three of the sisters, including the two who had husbands in jail, went to go visit them. On the way, their car was stopped, and they were strangled and beaten to death. Then they were put back in the car, which was driven off of a cliff, in order to make it look like an accident. However, the truth about Trujillo was widely known, and when the bodies were found, it was obvious that more than just driving off a cliff had killed them. They became symbols against Trujillo, and a little while later Trujillo was assassinated (supposedly). The fourth sister is still alive today, and we actually got to meet her when we went to the museum! The museum is the house where the four sisters lived for about 10 months, until three of them were killed. It was amazing to get to see a living legend, and hear the story of her sisters straight from her mouth! After the museum, we went to the house of the fourth sister, which is the house that all four of the sisters grew up in. There is a giant monument across the street dedicated to the sisters, as well as the chassis of the car that was driven off of the cliff. It was a fantastic opportunity, and a real chance to learn about the history of this amazing country. The Mirabel sisters are considered national heroines, and are now symbols for ending violence against women.
The next day, I went with some of my group to Sosua for the day. The day had a lot of false starts, though. First, three of us were not able to get on the 8:00 bus and had to wait and take the 9:00 bus. So we are sitting, waiting for the bus, and Brittany, one of the three of us, decided to buy Pringles. Well, the Pringles ended up being mostly crumbs, and were crazy smashed. We finally got on the bus, and after an hour (it takes 2 hours to get to Sosua from Santiago), the bus stopped. We looked out the window, and there was traffic as far as we could see! Basically, there was a protest at a university near there, and the students had filled the street and were refusing to leave until someone from the government came to talk to them about building a crosswalk. But finally we made it to Sosua, and the beach was fantastic! Although the waves were a lot more intense because there were two hurricanes in the Caribbean, it was still a lot of fun to play in the waves.
Then came the week, with crazy amounts of presentations and homework. By the time the weekend came around, I was exhausted, so I decided to just spend the weekend with my family at home. I got a lot of rest, which was ridiculously nice. On Saturday, I had an audition for a musical group on campus. The best I can describe it is a Dominican jazz band/Glee club combination. There are approximated 20 singers, plus about 10 people playing instruments. But the audition process was one of the most intimidating things I have ever done! So I'm in this room with 30 members of the band, the professor, and about 10 other people that were auditioning. And the professor points to me, says "Violin, you're up." I had to play my piece in front of a bunch of Dominicans, and I was the only American there. Plus, I had to go first. But I guess it went pretty well, because although I don't know whether or not I am in the band (Dominicans don't always give you details like that), I was told to come back on Thursday to meet with the professor and another violinist, and possibly other members of the band. I take that as a good sign!
Today, I am going to Bellas Artes in Santiago, to see about helping teach violin lessons. If it all pans out, I would be doing this every Wednesday from 2-5, but today I am just meeting with the person in charge and I'm not exactly sure what is going to happen. I'm excited, though.
This weekend I am going with CIEE to Constanza, where it is as cold as 50 degrees in the evening!!! Finally a break from this heat! Although I am starting to get used to it. Still, it will be nice to not be sweating at all hours of the day. Constanza is the location of Pico Duarte, the highest mountain in the Caribbean. I'm excited to see the mountains, and possibly hike. Maybe. Don't get your hopes up! Tune in soon to hear about Constanza.
On a final note, I found out today that the "G" hurricane of this hurricane season is named Gaston. Really? Whose idea was it to name a hurricane after a Disney villain? I hope that it goes after the beast and falls off of the West Wing. It's only fair...
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