Memorial For Charo's Mother

Charo's Tias came to the house today, all five of them.  The sisters still living came to commemorate the loss of Charo's mother, their sister, who died a year ago.  Charo's mother, who had cancer, was just 56 when she died. There was some moaning and shrieking today at the end of the service, which was reminiscent New Orleans funerals I've been to.

What a comfort it was to me as I drank in the presence of the mujeres. "Tango hambre," I told them, "para mujeras de mi edad." They each took me into their arms for a warm embrace. We sat in the living room together for a half an hour before the priest began the service. Charo's sister and brother were here today too. I have to say that today's service nourished me more deeply than any other event since I've been in the Dominican Republic. I valued the beauty of the prayers, the singing, and being together. Charo and her aunts cried, and tears were flowing from my eyes too. Here is a photo of the altar and another Tia:

Charo's mother appears in the photograph above the altar. The fuzzy object is the tail of a toy "mono" or monkey one of the children here  hung from the chandelier, where it remained throughout today's service. I didn't notice it was in this photo until posting it now!



Keep scrolling down after this photo, please, as there is a gap here!











The photo below is of three of the sisters together:

And this photo is of the oldest sister.

Charo's husband was here today, too, of course, and I realize that I haven't included his photo on my blog yet. He is such a pleasure to be around, so I am bringing up his photograph now, along with one  of their 19 year old son Jonathan, who plays baseball for the Minnesota Twins in Boca Chica.

Jonathan's little sister, Gabriela, is in the photo along his side. On the upper left is the photo of Charo's mother that was hung over the altar for the memorial service. As long as I am having luck with uploading photos today, I'll post one of the children playing in the bedroom today while adults were in the front room preparing for the memorial. All of the cousins, or "primos" were here today:

Below are photos taken last week of my host sisters hamming it up in their mother's clothing:

And another photo of Jonathan, out front of the house:

Here's a photo of an aunt I meant to include earlier:

And here's a photo of the whole group of Peace Corps volunteers at the waterfalls we went to yesterday. We had a terrific time! You can also see that I am the only older person in the group, so no wonder I was very happy to be among women my age today!

Still having luck uploading photos, so here are some taken in the campo last week I have been meaning to post:

Oh, and a week and a half ago, Peace Corps Volunteers took girls out on a scavenger hunt of downtown Monte Plata. Here are a few of my favorite photos of that day. The first one is of a man who sells chicken feet to customers at the park. I love this guy!

I also fell in love with the guy who cuts and sells sugar cane.

Here is a scene you see all of the time in the Dominican Republic: A group of guys playing Dominoes.

And behind them you see our girls, checking off items on the sheets for our scavenger hunt. As you can tell, it's been a lively and varied few weeks so far in Monte Plata. I'll post again, soon!