Holiday Celebrations From the DR and Abroad

At the close of November, I was able to celebrate Thanksgiving and my 23rd birthday (which happened to fall on the same day) with other volunteers in the capital, Santo Domingo. I felt so lucky that I was able to celebrate both days and with my friends here in country. I was able to eat a real Thanksgiving meal, filled with turnkey, stuffing, green beans, mashed potatoes, salad, and three types of pies. My stomach was bursting by the end and I had to shift in my seat to make room to laugh and talk with my friends.

The night before the 27th, when the clock struck midnight, a group of my friends and I climbed the copper spiral staircase of our hotel up to the rooftop where the entire city of Santo Domingo could be seen at the wee hours of the morning- tranquil and twinkling with the night’s lights. It was my birthday- my first in the Dominican Republic. We jumped around, jamming to beyonce, taylor swift, and classy, cheesey, girly songs, reaching for the stars that at that moment seemed almost close enough to touch. Eventually we were so exhausted from dancing that we just lay on the blacktop of the roof and stared up at the stars. I thought of what this year of 23 would hold for me. I know it will not be like any other year I will have in my life, full of so many new and exciting experiences and well as some hardships I’m sure, but laying there with my friends, trying to calm my heart rate and not able to wipe a huge smile from my face, I felt I like I could take it on. Whatever this year will bring, I’m ready and I’m so excited. When we finally retreated back to my rooms, a group of other volunteers not staying at our hotel gave me a call and all sang me happy birthday in the most jubulient tones. I felt so loved and so special. Not only did I feel like these other volunteers were here for me if I needed anything, but since I was in the capital, I had internet and was able to talk to my much missed family and friends in the United States and abroad. As always, it was confirmed that these rock-solid friends and family are more than I could ever ask for. Still, showing so much interest in what I am doing and how I am doing I felt so loved and it was so refreshing to hear about their lives and their Thanksgiving plans.

The day of Thanksgiving revolved around the lovely meal, as Thanksgiving should, but I was also able to swim in a rooftop pool that was rented out by a group of Peace Corps volunteers. It was a little overwhelming at first, but so much fun, and such a drastic change from my campo lifestyle. Following the Thanksgiving meal we were able to explore the “colonial zone” of Santo Domingo, the more touristy area, which was a lot of fun. All around Thanksgiving was an amazing day, but almost nothing like my past Thanksgivings. Instead of filled with my close family members, it was filled with new faces and new friends (I feel like friends that are soon becoming like family). Instead of participating in classic Turkey Day traditions like writing what I am thankful for on little paper turkeys, eating my dad’s coveted corn pudding, or attempting not to burn down the house by frying a turkey, my day was filled with a pool in 90 degree weather, dancing on rooftops, and devouring non-Dominican food.

I have been lucky enough to celebrate Christmas with my two younger brothers, my mom and my dad, and often extended family. We have so many traditions for Christmas, especially because my brother Mark really likes to stick with tradition and Christmas is always so much fun, why change it, right? This will be my first year that I will not be home for Christmas and with my family. I will be celebrating Christmas with my new family in the Dominican Republic, my host family in Tierra Prieta. The 24th is a big deal in the Dominican Republic filled with a large meal I am told including special dishes never eaten otherwise throughout the year. This could include lasangna or certain Christmas sweet candies. For this Christmas Eve my family is also killing a cow just for this special meal, a very big deal. I have not had any beef from a Dominican household yet and I am excited to see how they prepare the meat. For the pork that I have eaten, they transport parts of the pig in thin plastic bags to the house. This pig is usually killed by one of the neighbors and they then purchase parts of the meat from them. They then cut up this meat, cover it in orange juice and oregano and then put the meet on the tin roof to dry in the sun for a day. The next day they then fry it up in some oil and often add other spices, this results in a slightly tough, yet delicious pork side to rice and beans.

Christmas day I have heard from other volunteers is nothing like Christmas back in the United States (I have not met anyone in the Dominican Republic yet that has openly declared they follow a religious tradition that is not Christian of some form). Not much is different from every other day except, people do not work. Therefore, Christmas consists mostly of drinking and playing dominoes, curiously for the most part it is not socially acceptable for women to play dominoes and I do not drink in my site, so I am not sure if I will be doing anything different than every other day. Still, I am excited to experience my first Christmas in a culture I am not used to, but also nervous about missing my family and my normal Christmas traditions. I will have cell phone service on Christmas day and hope that I will be able to talk to family, but honestly, despite the Christmas lights that have appeared outside of houses in October, it does not even feel like Christmas is two weeks away.

I honestly feel like it is still August. It is in the 80s every day, there are no leaves on the ground, there is no snow sprinkling the earth, I am still wearing the same clothes I wore since I arrived in the Dominican Republic, I am not eating any fall or winter food -I have eaten 2 apples since I arrived in country and absolutely no pumpkin spice lattes- (one of my guilty, totally unnecessary cravings), and school has not started (which I haven’t been lacking in 20 years, before starting preschool).

One exciting celebration in the month before Christmas is guinardo (I probably spelled that wrong). This is a celebration where everyone in the community in the wee hours of the morning before the sun rises, go out into the street and sing and walk around the neighborhood collecting people. They then collect at one persons house and have chocolate and other sweets or treats and sing and play drums. I am very excited to participate in this celebration, which I feel like is such a unique experience I could not see anywhere else, even if I was a tourist in the Dominican Republic. It is experiences like this that make me realize how incredibly lucky I am to be a Peace Corps volunteer. My community has welcomed me with open arms. Nearly everyone I meet tells me “a su orden” basically whatever you want I can do. I have many older Donas that more frequently refer to me as “mi hija”- my daughter than Carolina. People go out of their way to get me some type of food or coffee whenever I see them and often stop whatever they are doing to walk me home, or just sit with me on their front stoop. Even though it has been difficult at times to be away from my home in the United States, away from my family and friends, for the holidays, I feel like little by little I am burroughing into a home in Tierra Preita and I am gaining another family including the mishmash array of loving Dominicans to other American volunteers.

Feliz Navidad and Happy Holidays to everyone reading! Holidays with those you love, either new or old, is something that should never be taken for granted. I hope you all have an amazing holiday season!