iBlock: Youth Retreat

On Friday afternoon we left Sabana to head to the first annual Intercultural Youth Retreat. It was essentially our group of Canadians with a bunch of Dominican youth from across the island and some Americans visited for the day. This retreat was organized and run by Billy, Guido’s son, and Monica and Mateo’s family. It was an interesting experience - and very Dominican. The beauty of it was that it was a very relaxing weekend - we rolled with whatever came. There was a pool, a basketball court and grass (we miss grass here, we are essentially surrounded by concrete nearly everywhere we go). There was a lot of free time which was good as many in the group needed time to recuperate.

The girls' accommodations.

Another part of the retreat was small group discussion - quite the challenge given the language barrier but we managed.

One of the highlights was on Saturday night we had some Dominican entertainment: they wanted us to get dressed up for a red carpet fashion show. For a group that has abandoned makeup, daily showers and doing our hair, that isn’t necessarily our idea of fun, but who were we to question? The problem is that the Dominicans brought their finest: people came decked out to the max! Image/beauty/appearance is important to many Dominicans, as it is to use back home. Prom/grad dresses, heels, hair and makeup done, ties...we just plain and simple didn’t have that stuff. So we employed our problem-solving skills and improvised. Monica, Nicole and Sophia modeled dresses made out of sheets and they found a way to turn it into a grand entrance. Thomas and Jordan took one for the team modeled their construction-wear...that they had worn for the last 4 days of construction. They added guitars, a harmonic and, of course, some sunglasses. They were a crowd hit. Each person/pair that was part of the red carpet got cheered for and the more cheers you had, the more you moved on. Thomas and Jordan made us proud as they earned a solid second place - and even got a medal to prove it!