Learning about the DR

A few weeks ago I went to a conference held here in Jarabacoa at the Young Life camp with 3 other Kids Alive missionaries (who have all arrived within the past year). The weekend conference was all about the Dominican culture. We talked about the history of the Dominican Republic, family structure, the use of time, culture shock, clothing, and many other things. There were about 24 of us in all as people came from several cities throughout the DR. A couple of things that were made clearer to me were greetings, clothing, and friendships. I've been greeted with a simple "hola," with a hand shake, and with a kiss on the cheek but I never knew which one was normal. Come to find out that I should let the Dominican take the initiative if I'm meeting the person for the first time. If I know the person, it's more normal to greet with a kiss on the cheek. I also learned about clothing and appearance. Dominicans take pride in their appearance and 90% of the time look 'put together' and professional. And I see 75% of women wearing heels or other very cute and dressy sandals. That explained why teachers at ANIJA (all the classroom teachers are Dominicans) usually wear some sort of dress suit every day. Needless to say, the fact that I have lived in running clothes for the last 8 years does not help my fitting in in this area. Since the conference I have tried to make more effect at looking nicer for work and other outings. Something else that I brought up was making friendships with the other teachers at ANIJA. The first few days at ANIJA I didn't feel very welcomed by the other teachers and I found out that that is a normal behavior for women here. Also, specifically at ANIJA, teachers are used to having Americans come in, stay for a year or two, and leave so they have learned to somewhat guard themselves from getting to close to us. This made sense to me and I learned that I need to be the one to approach the teachers and make an extra effort to start friendships. I have already seen a difference within the last week and am enjoying my new friends!
Here are a couple of pictures from our formal night at the conference.

Myself, Whitney, Erica, Meredith, Amanda, & Rachel. These girls teach at Doulos, at all English speaking school about one block from Anija.

Myself, Marcie, and Jenilea. We are all missionaries with Kids Alive.