CASEY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
CASEY
Elementary Education Undergraduate |
It's been a little over a week since our return home from the Dominican Republic, and I must say that all I've wanted since I've been home is to go right back. I was really excited the day that we left the Dominican, because I was ready to see my friends and family. But, as soon as we boarded the plane to Newark, I had a sad feeling in the pit of my stomach and realized I wasn't quite ready to leave yet. It was great seeing everyone once we finally got home, but I wish we could've just had them come down to the Dominican instead!
All of my family and friends that I've seen in the past week have all asked me the same sort of questions like "How was it?" or "Would you ever go back?" The question of would I ever go back is easy to answer, a definite yes. I was so afraid when I first decided that I would take on this adventure, being that I had never been away from home by myself, let alone for so long. But, I am so happy that I did decide to go, because it was an amazing experience that I really do believe changed me for the better. This experience pushed me to try foods that I would have never even thought of trying here at home, submerged me in a culture much different from my own, and changed my perspective on life and the things that I so ignorantly used to think were the end of the world, now that I've seen people going through hardships much worse than I've ever had to endure. When it comes to the question of, "How was it?" it's kind of hard to answer. I can tell everyone how beautiful the Dominican Republic is, how much I loved every person I met, or how great of an experience it really was, but I know they'll ever really be able to understand. Telling people of an experience and physically experiencing it are two completely different things. I wish that at some point in their lives, everyone I know would be able to have an experience like my fellow students and I did in the Dominican Republic, because I know we all took something greater than we had thought away from it. This program was/is absolutely amazing, and I hope to be able to experience something like this again throughout my college career. Although it was "only" a two and a half week long study abroad program, I can honestly say after being home only a week that I really do miss it. For one, I miss waking up every morning and hearing my housemates greet me with an "Hola!" to start my day. I'm an only child who has only ever lived at home, so living with three other girls was a very interesting, but very fun experience. We all got along very well and I think they'd agree with me in saying that C6 was a pretty cool house. Not only will I miss the girls from C6, but everyone that was in this program. I made some really great friends through this experience, and I couldn't be more grateful. I think that we all got along very well, as well as 15 girls can for two and a half weeks, at least! I also miss the beautiful scenery that surrounded us everywhere we went, especially coming home to cold weather and now snow. Another thing I miss is speaking Spanish as much as I could throughout the day. Although I can probably guess that I sounded like an idiot to a lot of the people around me, since most of what I was saying was broken Spanish, it was fun to try and hold an actual conversation with a true Spanish speaker. It also made me feel accomplished when I succeeded, or when I thought I did at least. It got to the point where I realized I was just calling out random Spanish words when they pertained to the situation. These little things I do miss a lot, but most of all I miss the amazing people we met along the way. Whether it was the staff at the Mariposa Foundation, the teachers in every school we visited, or the children we were able to fall in love with in under a weeks time, every person we came in contact with had a kind heart and made us feel like we were meant to be in the Dominican Republic, like we were home.
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This week I had the pleasure of being able to sit in with a 4th grade class at the Coral School, Monday through Thursday. Every day we were asked to plan an activity to present to the students and do with them at the beginning of their lessons. On our first day, Shannon and I did a get to know you activity where the students were asked to draw a picture of and write a few sentences about their families. We were absolutely blown away by these kids. A few students wrote out their sentences in Spanish, but used the example words that we had given them to translate their sentences into English! Other students’ drawings were so detailed and were drawn with such depth perception, that I really forgot they were only in fourth grade. One student even wrote that their family is their life, and that their mother is their heart. On our second day, we asked the students to draw a picture of and write what they wanted to be when they grew up. We were happy to see that some students wrote they wanted to attend college and become doctors, some wanted to be veterinarians, and almost half the class said they wanted to be teachers just like us. It was nice to be able to see their future plans and hopes for a great career when they’re older. Today was our last day with our class, and we did a really fun activity, Bingo! We made Bingo boards that had English words written on them, but we would call out their Spanish name. For example, we would pick out the word “rojo,” and they would have to find the word “red” on their boards. They had a really good time playing the game, and we even got to sing a few songs with them after. At first all of us were a little hesitant to go to Coral after we had just left our Mariposas, because we didn’t think we’d be able to make as close of a connection with the students in such a short amount of time, and with mostly just observing during their class time. But, at least for me, it ended up being the complete opposite. Throughout this week, we had sat in on the 4th grade class every day from 1:45- 5 pm, and every day I’ve become more attached to these children. The first day was a little rough, because all we did was observe and the language barrier made it difficult to even understand what the students were learning in each subject. But, as we left, Shannon and I were still bombarded with the word, “Adios!” and 20 little waving hands. On Tuesday is where I think our connection really started. We came into the classroom and realized from the students’ uniforms, that it was their gym day (they all had on track pants and short sleeve shirts, compared to their everyday uniforms). When it came time for gym, almost instantly we had a whole class of 20 running towards us and pulling us onto the basketball court with them to play a game. Although we couldn’t understand their instructions in Spanish, they knew that if they showed us examples of how to play that we would eventually catch on, and we did. I thought my arms were going to fall off with the number of little girls I had on each of my arms trying to pull me in different directions during the game! I couldn’t stop laughing. The games that they taught us were very similar to games that I used to play back home as a kid, so once I got the hang of it I was really into all of them. We could tell that the students loved having us be a part of their gym time, instead of just sitting on the side and watching them. Throughout different games, some of the girls would come up to me and ask me questions about why we were here, and how much longer we would be a part of their class. I told them we came from a college in New York and I swear almost half of them gasped, and one little girl even said, “Ahhh Nueva York es mucho frío!” (New York is very cold!) It was fun being able to have conversations with them about myself, and learn some things about them. Again, although the languages are different, they really tried to tell me at least a portion of their sentences in English so I could piece it together. It was also very interesting to see how much they use their classmates as resources for communication. I was speaking to one student and she could tell I was really having a hard time understanding her. So, she called two of her friends over who know some English, and they tried to translate her sentences for me! It made it a lot easier for me to be able to at least try to answer her, and it got more students involved in a conversation. Wednesday was fun because we had already started to form a bond with the students through gym class on Tuesday, so it made it a little easier to teach our activity because, at least for me, I wasn’t as nervous anymore. During their break, the students pulled Shannon and I onto the basketball court once again to play the games they had taught us the previous day. At this point, we were already experts at the rules of the game, so we got into it right away. Shannon even won! All of these times with the kids are what made today really hard. We did our final activity in the class with the students today, and it really hurt me to leave them when class was over. We stood up and told them that today was our last day and that it was time for us to leave. Some girls handed us pictures that they had drawn for us, all of the students stood up and hugged us, and the one little girl even teared up a little bit. But, I did the same once we stepped out of the classroom. We had only been with that class for these past four days, but I really fell in love with them. They were all so sweet, and it was great to hear “Holaaaa,” from all of them every afternoon, and get some hugs goodbye every time we left. Although we were skeptical of Coral because it was like we were “starting over” after the Mariposa Foundation, I’m very happy that I had a chance to meet all of these children, and that they impacted me that way that they did. This weekend was again, full of new experiences. We started the weekend off with a Puerto Plata bus tour. The bus first took us to the Teleferico Puerto Plata cable car. We all boarded the cable car which took us to the top of the mountain, “Isabel de Torres,” which was 2,624 feet high! The view from the cable car was terrifying, but absolutely stunning. The sights of all the bright green trees and houses of the people of Puerto Plata below was breathtaking. I did feel a little uneasy because we were so high up, and there were about 20 of us in the car, but I knew I had to take the opportunity I had to look around. Once we reached the top of the mountain, we came upon a fortress with a statue of “el Cristo Redentor,” or “Christ the Redeemer.” The tour guides even helped us take some pictures that made it look like the statue was resting in our hands. Once we had finished walking around some shops on top of the mountain, we headed back down on the cable car to start our next part of the tour. We boarded the bus again as it took us to a cigar factory. We were shown how cigars are made in Puerto Plata, from the drying of the tobacco leaves to the final rolling process. It was interesting to see the whole process form beginning to end, but the tobacco smelled pretty bad. After the factory and a delicious lunch at a small outdoor restaurant, we took a short walk over to “Brilla Puerto Plata,” a beautiful park surrounded by shops and a cathedral. The park was still decorated with a huge tree and car-sized presents for Christmas, and was full of life with the amount of people passing through. It was nice to be able to just sit down on a park bench and watch as people walked by, some feeding the pigeons, and others just passing through. We ended our tour with a visit to Fort San Felipe. We all got headsets and listened to the history of this fort being used to keep pirates away from the island. Sunday was a very relaxed day, but still had a lot of adventure towards the end. It was Charlene’s birthday, so some of us went with her horseback riding on the beach! I’ve only been horseback riding once before, so I was very nervous that I would fall off or the horse would kick me off. But, we all got the hang of it pretty quickly and within no time we were riding on the beach. We stayed at a steady pace, except for a few times when the guides would whistle to get the horses to start running!? I thought it was funny watching everyone try to hold on as our horses raced each other down the beach. The horses took us along the edge of the water until we reached a small cove where we could get onto a boat that took us across to the other side. After that we just rode the horses back to the small neighborhood we had started in. All in all, it was a pretty fun experience! I will say I am a little sore today, but it was worth it. The ride back was especially beautiful with all of the gorgeous scenery we passed, and the sunset we got to watch. The Mariposa Dominican Republic Foundation is a foundation that was started by Patricia Suriel in 2009. Its main goal is to empower young women to reach their full potentials and accomplish their dreams. Here is some more information on the foundation: http://www.mariposadrfoundation.org/ The Mariposa Foundation has been like my second home for the last week. Every day we took a bus to the foundation around 12pm for lunch. Every single day we had something new and delicious to eat, and it was always a hot meal. Our group and the teachers at the foundation all sat down together at big tables and ate lunch together like a family. Once we were done with lunch, we would have Spanish class every day from 1 to 4. This class was like no Spanish class I’ve ever taken before. We were all split up into three different groups for different classes. One was the beginner group, one was intermediate, and one was the advanced for those who already knew Spanish coming into the Dominican Republic. I was placed in the intermediate group with seven other girls, and our teacher Maria Alexandra. Along with Maria, we were also assisted in our Spanish class by three Mariposa girls; Nikauris, Anabell, and ChiChi. Maria would have them help in our Spanish lessons, while also leaving us time at the end of class to try and have conversations with them. Although there is a language barrier, we still managed to have some pretty entertaining conversations with them. We got to learn about their lives, they asked us questions about ours, and I think we all learned a lot from each other. The reason this class was so informative to me, was because it was taught so much differently than how I was taught in Spanish class back in high school. The way that Maria instructed this class was through only speaking Spanish, at least until we were really stuck on something. She would use pictures and games and real life examples to help teach us Spanish, instead of just reading off words and phrases to us and having us repeat them. The Mariposas also did a really good job at helping out the class. They would answer our questions and teach some of the lessons on their own. Altogether there were eight girls, and I think that even though we’ve only known them for a week, we’ve grown a really great bond with all of them. That’s why today was so hard. Today was our last day at the Mariposa DR Foundation. We arrived at the school around 8:45 this morning, and did a few activities with the Maripositas, or the younger Mariposa girls. We sang some songs, played some games, and then we went into their classrooms to sit in and assist with their health, English language and art classes. It was really fun to get to play some games with these girls, especially because some of them were the exact same games we taught our campers at summer camp over this past summer! Aside from the games, it was really interesting to see the way that they taught the Maripositas and how much they wanted to learn. Once the girls left the foundation for school, we ate lunch and waited for the Mariposas to arrive. While we waited, we all stood in a circle with the teachers, Maria Alexandra, Mary Jane and Alexandra. We used that time to reflect on the Spanish classes and our time at the Mariposa Foundation. Within minutes almost everyone was teary-eyed, if not crying. It was a very emotional time as everyone expressed their gratitude for such a great opportunity, and why they loved the foundation, its girls, and its teachers. As we finished up this reflection, the Mariposas arrived and we started our final activities. We played games in the pool, taught each other dances and sang some karaoke! The dances were my favorite since they showed us their favorite dances to Spanish songs, and we taught them the dances to songs like “Hit the Quan,” “Watch me Whip” and “JuJu on That Beat.” We had a lot of fun with the girls today, and I think it was a great way to spend our last day together here with them in the Dominican Republic. I’m really going to miss them all. Like I said, the foundation felt like a second home for us this whole week. I was nervous about being in another country with people I’ve never met before, but everyone at the foundation made us feel right at home. All of the Mariposa girls and teachers have amazing personalities, and beautiful souls. I am so lucky that I was able to spend time with all of them this week, and that we had as much fun as we did. These girls and these teachers inspire me to be all that I can be as I move forward in my journey to become a teacher, because they taught me so much about teaching and learning within a short number of days. Muchas Gracias, Mariposas. Te extrañare! Today we had the opportunity to observe in a few different classrooms in the private school, Coral. I observed in a 9th grade French class, a 12th grade English class, a 3rd grade math class, and a kindergarten class. Although we were able to sit in on many different classes with many different aged students, there was one class that stood out to me in particular, the kindergarteners. This class was made up of about 12 students between the ages of four and six. When I first entered the class, I was actually kind of nervous. I know that sometimes it’s hard to talk to kindergartners to begin with because they’re so young, so I thought this would be even more challenging since the students only spoke Spanish. But I was pleasantly surprised when I made an instant connection with a 5-year-old girl named Raquel. I went into the room and sat down next to her, and she immediately said, “Mira, mira!” or to look at her drawing that she had in front of her. She was using crayons and drew a picture of her house and her family. I wanted her to know that I knew some Spanish, so I pointed out some of the images in her picture and said the Spanish words for them. Once she realized I was ready to try out my Spanish, she began pointing at different colors in her picture and saying, “En Espanol!” So I would say the Spanish word for each color she pointed to. It was kind of like she was trying to give me a mini Spanish lesson. Once I finished saying the Spanish, I said, “Quieres saber en Ingles?” or “do you want to know in English?” and she said “Si, en Ingles por favor,” right away. So I would say different colors in Spanish, then follow it with “es” and then the name of the color in English. For example, “ Azul es blue” or “azul is blue.” Once I would say that, she would pick up each crayon that matched the color I said, and repeat the sentence I said with both the Spanish and English versions. She did so well, and did a really good job at pronouncing the English words that I was giving her. It made me really think about the schools in the United States and how children don’t seem to have a drive to learn anymore. It’s refreshing to see students here in Cabarete so eager to learn and so willing to try and find new ways to learn from other people. Raquel and I continued to go over our colors, and then the students were moved to another table to work with play dough. I moved with them to the table and watched as she constructed things out of clay, and tried to teach me the Spanish words for each object. This went on for about 20 minutes, until we sadly had to leave the school. I said goodbye to Raquel and the other students, and at least half of them hugged me goodbye as I stood up to go. I left this school, and my heart was whole. I don’t know what it was about today or this school, or if it was me being able to somewhat communicate with Raquel and the other students, but I was so happy at the end of our visit to Coral. It just made me very hopeful for the future of students, at least in Cabarete, because of how intelligent and ready to learn these students are. Raquel and I
Today was a busy day for us here in Cabarete. Throughout the morning, we visited four different public and private schools. We visited Caldin, Escuela Punta Cabarete, Puerto Cabarete and Escuela Salomé Ureña. Although we weren’t able to stay in each school for a long time, it was still great to see what but public and private schools look like here in the Dominican Republic. Here are some pictures of the schools: This is one of the classrooms within Puerto Cabarete. Many of the classrooms looked similar to this, with pictures, posters and students work on the walls. I liked this classroom in particular because it was laid out similarly to a classroom I'd see back home. The only downfall of these classrooms in public schools, are that the tops of the walls don't reach the ceilings, so there's space for noise to travel from classroom to classroom, forcing teachers and students to have to talk louder over each other. Today we had to wonderful opportunity to visit the Coral Dominican Republic private school, to teach lessons in English! We all split into two groups, one to work with kindergarteners and the other to work with third graders. I was part of the third-grade classroom, and planned a lesson on colors with Shannon. Our whole group of eight planned a lesson for 26 students, with four centers that they would rotate through within the hour. One center was a bilingual read aloud, one was drawing a picture of their environment, one was learning a song, and one was our color lesson. The plan for our color lesson consisted of us laying out colored pieces of construction paper, and handing each student index cards with different color names written in both Spanish and English, one word on each side. The objective was to have them lay each index card on its corresponding colored sheet of paper, Spanish side up. Once they had completed that, we would hold up each paper and read allowed the Spanish word for that color, then again in English. We would have each child repeat the English version of the words back to us a few times to try and get it to stick with them faster. Our plan was changed a bit once we arrived at the school and realized we would be split up within our original lesson planning group. Four of us stayed in the classroom with the third graders, while the other four were dispersed throughout classrooms where they were teaching English lessons. Our plan changed even more once we entered our classroom and realized only four students had shown up for class today! There were four boys, three of them were eight years old, and the one was ten years old. We quickly changed our plan to focusing on two of our stations, the colors and the drawing of their environment. We did a short activity with name tags that helped the boys learn our names, and us learn theirs. It also gave them a chance to say “My name is” instead of “Me llamo.” Once we got through names, we split the boys up by tables, into two groups of two. We began our color lesson with the first group of boys, and I learned quickly that they were very, very smart and eager to learn. We started off by laying out the colored sheets of paper, and handing them the index cards with the Spanish word facing up. The boys knew which words matched with each paper pretty quickly. Then, we had them repeat the English version of the word after we had said it to them a few times. Although they did have accents, they were very clear with repeating the words back correctly to both Shannon and I. After we had gone over the colors a few more times, we started asking the boys to point to an object or article of clothing in the room that contained different colors that we said aloud to them. For example, I was wearing a shirt with white on it, so when Shannon would say “Que es blanco?” or “What is white?” they would point to the part of my shirt that had white on it. We continued on with this for a few minutes, until we moved on to trying to have them say the English word for each colored piece of paper we would hold up. The one boy impressed us greatly when we wouldn’t have even finished bringing up a piece of paper yet, and he would already be yelling out the color word in English. For example, pertaining to the title of the blog, Shannon picked up the blue piece of construction paper, and right away one of the boys said, “Azul means blue!” Just hearing him say that so quickly without any guidance made me feel really good, like we had actually taught them something, and that it was sticking with them. Once we were done with our color lessons, we all came together to read the students our bilingual books we had created and brought with us to the Dominican Republic. They seemed to really enjoy the pictures, and looked confused on why we have so much snow back in Buffalo! We took turns reading two books, then sang some songs with them to get them up and moving, and have some fun! We went through teaching the boys a song about peanut butter, with phrases like, “Peanut butter, we like peanut butter. Do you like it on your head? Yes, we like it on our heads!” and would use corresponding hand movements. They seemed to enjoy this song, but looked a little confused since there were so many English words given to them at once, so we went back to a classic, “Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes!” We started off by singing the Spanish version of the song with them, then had them try to sing along in English. They all did pretty well considering we didn’t really go over the English words in depth. Once we ran through the song with them in English, we sang it about five more times in Spanish, speeding up every time. Shannon would ask, “Mas rapido?” or “faster?” and they all shook their head in agreement. It got to the point where they were moving so fast, we couldn’t even keep up! Overall it was a really fun experience being able to sing a song with them that they already knew the words to, especially since it got them all excited to participate. When we had about ten minutes left, we took time to ask and answer questions with the students. They learned why we are here in the Dominican Republic, and we learned things like their favorite colors and foods, if they live around the school, and things they like to do. It was funny listening to them tell stories and try to get us to know them better, even in such a short time. When we had finished all of our lessons and reconnected with the group, we actually got to meet Miguelina, the founder and principal of the Coral school. She told us her story of always knowing that she wanted to be a teacher, and about her passion for helping children learn everything they need to know. A really cool thing about the school is they’re actually having their first high school class graduate this year! It was an amazing experience being able to teach a lesson in the Coral school today, since I have never taught a lesson in a classroom before, let alone to students who don’t speak English. Although at times it was a little difficult to try and get the boys to understand what we were trying to tell them, I think it went very well and everyone had fun that was involved. I am so excited to see how my time in other school here will be, and for the tools and experiences I will be able to bring home and use in classrooms in the United States.
If you know me, you know that I am afraid of heights and can get anxious very easily trying new things. But, today I was brave and I faced one of my fears and went zip-lining! At about 9am we were picked up and taken to the Monkey Jungle and Zip Line Adventures. As soon as we stepped off the bus and I saw where I thought our first line was going to start, I was petrified. To me it looked like they wanted us to start at a line that looked at least 1,000 feet up in the air!? We put our things away then went and got set up with our equipment. We were given harnesses that wrapped around our legs and our chests, a helmet, gloves to help us stop, and a rope that connected us to the line. I was fortunate enough to have bought a go-pro type camera to hook to the top of my helmet, so I could capture some amazing videos as I went down the zip-lines! Once we got all of our equipment, we set off to the first line. When we got to the top of the ladder, I was shaking so hard because I felt like we were 500 feet in the air. But, when it was my turn to go, I let the guide hook me up to the zip-line and I let him push me to start. I screamed and was scared for about 5 seconds, but my fear vanished when I took a look around me at the beautiful scenery that I was going over. I had the biggest smile on my face and was almost teary eyed by the end, because I was so incredibly happy that I got myself to go down the line, and I had fun while doing it. After that first line, I was eager to go on to the next one. The second line was the fastest paced one that they had, but I thought it was absolutely amazing, especially being able to take in all of the gorgeous views from above the jungle. We continued on through four more lines, then came to a small cable bridge. Once we crossed, I realized that we had to do a 54 foot free fall from the platform, into a small cave below. After getting used to the zip lines, I was again terrified when I was sitting at the edge of the platform ready to fall into the cave. I told the guide I needed a minute to calm myself down, but once I realized just sitting there would only make my nerves worse I yelled, “Just throw me, just throw me!” and he picked me up by the back of my harness and tossed me over the edge! It was actually really fun to go down into that cave, and it wasn’t as bad as I had first anticipated. Once we had all gotten to the bottom, we went down the last line, gathered together for some pictures, then were back in the bus on our way to the monkey jungle. We got back to the place where we had been dropped off to start are zip-lining tour, and gathered around another guide who took us into the monkey jungle. The beginning of the tour took us into a large 3-acre enclosure, that was inhabited by squirrel monkeys. They were so adorable, and so soft to the touch. We were all given a plate covered in watermelon and sunflower seeds to feed to the monkeys. Once they realized we had food for them, they were all ready to be near us. Some would jump on your shoulders, others would jump on your arm and grab food, while others would go as far as climbing right up on top of your head! Once we had finished feeding them, we walked down a set of stairs to view a smaller enclosure that was home to Capuchin monkeys. They were also adorable, and made quiet squeaking noises and actually looked upset when they realized that we were leaving the jungle. All in all, today was an absolutely wonderful day. I felt so liberated when I had completed all of the zip lines, and was really impressed with myself for being able to do it, and absolutely loving it! Honestly, I already want to go back and do it again. I am so thankful that I was given such a unique opportunity, and enjoyed every minute of this terrifyingly wonderful experience! If you look on the $200 peso, you will see the faces of 3 young Dominican women. More specifically, Minerva, Maria Teresa, and Patria Mirabal, better known as the Mirabal sisters, or the Tres Mariposas (three butterflies). Just a little background on how the Mirabal sisters gained their incredible significance to the Dominican people: Rafael Leonidas Trujillo ruled as a dictator in the Dominican Republic from February of 1930, until his assassination in May of 1961. Trujillo wanted a “whiter population,” and was responsible for tens of thousands of deaths during his ruling. If your skin was darker, or if you were Haitian, he would have you executed. The most well-known and tragic story of these killings that we’ve been told, at least to me, was the Masacre del Perejil, or the Parsley Massacre. Dominicans and Haitians say the word “parsley” with different accents, so they used this word to tell them part. They lined people up in the center of the town, and asked each one of them to say the word. If it was in the Haitian accent, they were killed on the spot. It’s been said that the river ran red for days due to the amount of blood that was shed on that day. So, because of acts as terrible as these being done during Trujillo’s rule, there were many people who wanted to rise up against him and try to overthrow the “government,” or the dictatorship led by Trujillo. Through encounters with different people, and terrible things brought upon their family, three of the four Maribal sisters became part of the movement against Trujillo. They seemed to mostly stay out of trouble with Trujillo and his men, until November 25th, 1960. The three sisters were found dead at the bottom of a cliff, due to them “swerving off the road” on their way home. But, it was later discovered from the marks on their bodies and the extent of their injuries, that the sisters had really been assassinated by Trujillo’s men. They were beaten with bats, and strangled, before their vehicle was pushed over a nearby cliff, with them in it. These three women later became known as the “Tres Mariposas,” after their nicknames being given to them during their help in the uprising. Because of their amazing story of perseverance, and hope of one day being able to help bring freedom to all people of the Dominican Republic, they have become a symbol for strength and women’s empowerment. The fourth sister DeDe had not been with them that day, and lived on to tell their stories until she recently passed away in February of 2014. We had the pleasure of being able to see the previous homes of the Mirabal sisters, both in their childhoods and their early adult lives. As soon as we stepped foot on the property of the first house, the one they lived in as adults once their husbands were imprisoned, I was blown away. From reading the incredibly sad but inspiring story of the Mirabal sisters, it was amazing to be able to physically see the houses where a lot of their memories and stories from Julia Alvarez’s book (In The Time Of The Butterflies) took place. We were able to go inside and view their dining area, their living room, and each sisters room. There was one for Minerva, one for Patria, and one that Maria Teresa and their mother shared. Each room was filled with personal belongings of each sister, including diplomas, clothing items, wedding dresses and jewelry. It was amazing to see how well kept all of their belongings were, and intriguing to recognize some of them from the book. I was particularly blown away at some of the artwork these women had created. Minerva created beautiful watercolor paintings, while Patria drew in charcoal and pencil. After we had finished walking through the house, we went outside and toured their beautiful garden. This garden was home to many types of flowers and trees, with the center containing a memorial for the three lost Mariposa sisters, and their father, Monolo. The memorial was four rectangular plaques, each with the name of a lost Mirabal written in the center, with a sort of sculpture in the middle connecting all four. The middle contained a pyramid that was made of stone, symbolizing eternal life, covered in moving water, symbolizing life, and was missing its point, symbolizing a life cut short. Once we had finished walking through the garden, we ate lunch then headed out to see the sister’s childhood home, about 3 miles away. When we pulled up to that house, I was even more astounded than I was for their adult life home. They had lived in a small yellow house, also surrounded by a beautiful garden. We weren’t allowed to enter the house, but we did see a small seating area on their back porch, leading up to the path of the garden. This garden was also filled with many different types of plants and fruit trees, and was kept up as nicely as the other. We didn’t stay at this house as long, but it was still as impactful of an experience to see this house as it was the other. The thing that really moved me was the first two things we saw when we exited the bus; the frame of a car, and a memorial sculpture. The frame of the car was the only salvageable piece that was left from the actual car the sisters were found in, after their assassination. It was so surreal to be able to look at the actual frame, pulled from the wreckage, but was heartbreaking to know that the car was so badly damaged that that was the only part they could recover. But, on a lighter note, the memorial sculpture was amazing. It was about 15 feet tall, and made of a metal that I believe was painted white. It was simple, with a frame that led up to three posts sticking up into the air, representing the three lost sisters. We’ve only just begun our time in Cabarate, Dominican Republic, and it has already been a very…interesting trip. |
AuthorHello! My name is Casey, and I'm a junior at SUNY Buffalo State College. I am currently working towards my undergraduate degree in Childhood Education, with a concentration in English. I am so excited to have been given such an amazing opportunity to expand my knowledge in the field of education, while simultaneously exploring the beautiful culture of the Dominican Republic. ArchivesCategories |