Preparations

On March 7, six Durham Tech faculty members will depart from RDU to head to the Dominican Republic for a seven day adventure.  Each of us applied for the program in the fall semester and were chosen by a committee to participate.  The six travelers are:
Peter Wooldridge
Marianne Williams
Kasey Jordan
Lance Lee
Erin Riney
Kerry Cantwell

We will be led by Dr. LeAnne Disla from Duke University who has lived in the DR and led many study tours to the DR.  We are honored to be guided in our efforts by her deep knowledge of the people, culture, history, and politics of the communities we will visit.

To prepare for our trip, we have attended a series of events and workshops and participated in activities designed to help us understand the history and culture of the Dominican Republic and to prepare us for the work we will do in our seven short days there as well as once we return.  Upon our return, we will be quite busy writing academic articles, giving presentations about our trip, and working hard to strengthen the partnerships founded during our seven short days in the DR.

Specifically, LeAnne prepared three workshops for us at Durham Tech.  We read Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies and Danticat's The Farming of Bones.  These two books gave us insights into the history of the Dominican Republic in the first half of the twentieth century and prepared us for some of the cultural changes that took place after the fall of the Trujillo regime.

On Friday, February 11, we attended one full day of the UNC - Duke Consortium in Latin American and Caribbean Studies Conference where we learned about some of the cultural nuances of immigration and the impact arts can have in this process.

On Friday, February 25, many of us dined together to get more comfortable with our travel companions, and we continued to get excited about the adventure that lies before us.

In this blog, we intend to give our own personal experiences of what we encounter on this adventure.  Our access to the Internet will be limited, so we may not be able to post daily.  We are excited to meet fascinating people, learn about our hosts, trade ideas with educators, learn about the communities, see beautiful art, hear wonderful music, view stunning landscapes, and eat some amazing food.

Below is our current itinerary:

Monday:        Arrive to the province of Hermanas Mirabel

Intercambio with host families (scrapbooks)

Evening welcoming reception with teachers and families

Tuesday:       Visit with the University of Nordestana to meet with teachers, administrators and intercultural groups. Lunch with host families and then visit English Institutes to share ways to collaborate. Visit museum of “Las Hermanas Mirebel” and meet with Dede Mirabel, surviving sister of In the Time of the Butterflies.

Wednesay:    Collaborate and share with artists from Asociación de artistas por la paz

y el desarrollo, introduction to their Mural project, tour of over 250 murals. Interview with artists. Lunch with host families and visit high schools to talk with students.

Thur./Fri.:      Visit and stay in small rural mountain village -- Sonador

Meet with rural campesinos, discuss economic and political challenges of a global market and society….work on ‘Story Documenting’ project (based on each person’s topic)

Saturday:       Return to Tenares and meet with Rotary club to discuss possible projects,

including ESL classes, youth groups, computer literacy classes and women’s health cooperative. Evening of local music and dancing

Sunday:         Shopping in Santo Domingo and then return to Durham

The time for packing and preparations is quickly coming to an end.  Ready or not, here we go!