Carnaval, Bird Tour, Inversor & More!

Sunday, February 17, Maria Magdalena Lopez, another psychologist at the Hogar Renacer invited me to her home town of La Vega, and we went to the Carnavel together. Maria Magdalena, or Mari Lyn, as she is called at the Hogar, and I both enjoyed a full afternoon at the premier Carnaval Event in the Dominican Republic. The day brought back memories of living in New Orleans! 

I especially enjoyed meeting Mari Lyn's mother, who served us dinner before we headed over for the Carnaval events.

Here is Mari Lyn with her mother:

Mari Lyn and I are together in her family's back yard here.

My favorite photo of myself at the Carnaval is the one where I'm dancing with Fidel Castro. As you can see, I am really in my element here, and Fidel looks like he is enjoying himself, too.

I found the yellow Carnaval man irresistible as well. 

You can see from some of these photos that Mari Lyn is quite a lot of fun to be with:

The children who participate in the Carnaval are especially wonderful:

 I found this clown especially lovable:

This mask is so beautiful that I felt it deserves a photo all their very own as well:

 

I'm ending these Carnaval Photos with this figure, who captures much of the day's drama in his stride!

Carnaval, except for a few events that take place on the weekend afterwards, culminates with  Independence Day in the Dominican Republic on February 27. This building, located in the  Colonial Zone of Santo Domingo, is draped with the Dominican flags on Independence Day.

Now for something completely different. On Sunday, March 3, I participated in an early morning bird tour at the Botanical Gardens in Santo Domingo.  The following photos are of the West Indian Whistling Duck:

Here a duck is nesting in the middle of a stream that runs through the Botanical Gardens.

This photo shows the early morning bird watchers themselves. The Botanical Gardens hosted a special open house event on this particular weekend, so the group was larger than usual.

I took this photo at the booth Bird Tour Leader and Expert Kate Wallace hosted at the open house event of the Botanical Gardens. Here you see a photograph of the Solenodontes, an endangered species in the DR. Kate has been knitting these little guys as a part of her project to raise funds for the protection of the Solenodontes.

Kate Wallace and I had an opportunity to meet for iced lemonade at the Ambassador Hotel earlier this month. Here we are in this photo:

While I am posting photos of the more social events of the month, I'll post a few of the meeting of the International Women's Club of the Dominican Republic, which meets at the Santo Domingo Country Club every month.

This truly is an international association, as I met women from France, Holland, Spain, Columbia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, and the United States among other countries. The speaker on this particular day gave his talk in Spanish, although English is spoken throughout the meeting.
The women who come are generally the wives of businessman who have been transferred to the Dominican Republic. They are decidedly of a more pampered sort than I usually associate with, yet I found them friendly and caring. I made some good connections at the meeting for future participation in charity events. A volunteer job teaching English at a school I'm starting next week could even lead to a future paid teaching opportunity. 

The meeting includes a light breakfast and a celebration of the birthdays of various members. Also an annual charity event takes place in May to support the organization's scholarship fund to Dominican High School students. The meeting took place at the Santo Domingo Country Club:

I may not have joined the Country Club, however, a few weeks ago I did have an inversor or generator installed in my house. The installation cost about $400 and enables me to enjoy light and most importantly, a fan, during the frequent power outages here in the Dominican Republic.

Much of my time in the past few weeks has been about addressing the glitches that occurred after the installation. I am happy to report that now I enjoy electricity 24/7.  Here is the team who performed the installation:

This electrician is checking some of the electricity outlets that haven't been working and connecting the wires so now my electricity is fully functioning:

 

This team came to connect my electricity to my own land line. I was having problems with my generator, as it turned out, because the electricity was coming to my house from my neighbor's house.

I paid the electricians 700 pesos, or approximately $20 to do the job. This is the van they arrived in:

I still can hardly believe this young man climbed all the way on top of this ladder to do the job. Here in the DR, it's called working for a living. I am impressed.

So not only have I succeeded in getting a lot of electrical and water issues sorted out in the past two months, I have some new furniture in the house.

I paid my neighbor to make drapes for the living room, but she hasn't finished them yet.  They will be gorgeous. She helped me buy furniture at a much reduced price through someone who once dated her daughter. Seems like that is how business is done here in the DR!

I took photos of all of the guys who made the furniture I bought (I walk by the house in which the furniture is manufactured on a daily basis) and gave them each a copy!

Moving the furniture these men made by hand into my house (above).

A photo of the completed, unwrapped Dominican style furniture, in the living room (below).

I've even been able to buy some art (my neighbor and I went back to Villa Consuelo, where the best prices in the country can be found) and have these pieces framed.  And here are some photos of some of my recently purchased art pieces:

I bought a bed and chest of drawers for my spare bedroom (sheets and towels, too!) so that my visitors from California have a room all of their own when they come to stay in April:

As far as my day to day life lately, I have still been volunteering at the Hogar Renacer three or four days a week. I have been helping the girls with their reading as well as teaching an English class. My Spanish is improving every day.

My latest project has been taking photos of children in the neighborhood, getting them printed at a nearby store, and giving them to the children's parents.  I've gotten to know quite a few children in the neighborhood and their families this way.

I've been fortunate in locating a store nearby owned by a Chinese couple and they do a terrific job of printing out high quality photos for 12 pesos (about 40 cents) each. So few people have photos of their children and their families here.  The photos are treasured by the people I give them to.

The face of the grandmother across the street just lit up when I gave her a photo of her grandchild, Juliana, above. And here are a few more of my favorite children on this street and the next:

 These two photos are of Joel and his little cousin Liliani, who live on the next street over.

And the baby in the photo below lives up this street on the corner with her mother, father, and older siblings.

There are so many photos of other children I have given away. We're headed into a brand new spring and this wide-awake baby seems to hold the promise of the new season, so I'll end here!