WEPA!

Hola a todos! Our fabulous bunch in Santo Domingo today shined with their incredible positiviety, participation,  and even more amazing dance moves! At our service site, CIEE took the stage to teach some dances. Then, the NICHIBOSCO dancers showed us some new dances. Everyone was participating and dancing together...despite the heat! And it did not stop there! Today, back at the study center, we had Luis (a very vibrant, positive, passionate, fun local dance instructor) teach us Salsa, Bachata, and Merengue. Our students were learning moves, dancing together, and laughing a lot. 

We had a packed afternoon. In between service work and dance class, we did our intercultural lessons and activities. We spoke about core values and what shared values we hold, about perspective and observing, ethnocentricity, looking at the bigger picture,  and we did an activity about the web of poverty. This group is so respectful, intelligent, and all have so much to contribute and share. It's truly an honor for us to be working with such exceptional young adults. 

The title of this blog is "WEPA"-which is Dominican for many things including:  "yeah" "alright" "good job" "woohoo" and "yay"! All were yelled out enthusiastically during our dance class/party this afternoon. 

As if we haven't been busy enough-we also wanted to show you a little glimpse into our Dominican Cooking Class yesterday-where some of the host mothers came in and taught the students how to make "tostones", which is one of the DR's favorite and most popular side dishes. They are peeled, mashed, and fried plantains. Our students prepared them with friend salami, and even had a delicious vegetarian version with eggplant, onion, and tomatoes. The students washed them down with the wonderful coffee we have at the center daily.