Getting Rad On: Patronales

Today is the beginning of a series of posts on Patronales, an event so rad it can’t possibly be covered in a single post. Patronales is short for “Fiestas Patronales” or Patron Saint Party. Our patron saint here in Banica is Saint Francis of Asisi, famous of course for his wolf-fighting skills.

Part 1: The Procession
The day began, as most days do, at sunrise. People begin congregating in the church to pray and prepare for the long walk ahead of them. The procession is a march up to a spectacular cave where St. Francis is reported to have appeared (it’s not really clear when or to whom, but that is apparently secondary). The procession gets underway as a series of members of the order of Saint Francis hoist the statue out from its resting place in the church and carry it through the town and up to the cave. The procession gains people as it makes its way through Banica. Processing involves praying, chanting, occasional stops, and enough bell ringing to make Sufjan Stevens jealous.
At each stop children rush to the head of the procession and are ushered back by men dressed in simple brown robes. As the procession makes its way through the crowded market cars split the crowd and the solemnity of the morning is accentuated by its stark contrast with the everyday roar of motorcycle traffic.

As the procession makes its way through town it picks up more and more people until it is a solid wall of humanity moving through the narrow streets.
Once the procession gets to the road leading to the cave it meets up with the near-by community of Pedro Santana. At this point it’s a couple of hundred strong and has gained another statue: Saint Joseph. Now it is unclear at what point St. Joseph and St. Francis became BFFs, but as this picture can attest they totally are:

As people walk to the cave they pick up stones and carry them on their heads. The stones have different meaning to different people, but in general they seem to be an acknowledgement of sin. At the base of the mountain where the cave is located is a huge pile where people leave their stones.

Once you place your stone it is time to get funky. A big party breaks out at the base of the mountain.

With Paolo rock out sessions
And some sweet hot chocolate (MMH, BPA leeching plastic cups).

Hola From Banica

As we round the fourth week down here I finally have a morning to myself to send an update. Life is good here in Banica.

I created this blog so that rather than not reading and having to delete a series of mass emails you could simply not read one blog. I’ll try to update as often as I can but internet is limited here, so I have an excuse for being lazy.

Now on to the meat and potatoes. For those of you who didn’t know I’m currently living and volunteering in the Dominican Republic in a town called Banica located right on the border with Haiti. The Dominican Republic is located on the island of Hispanola which it shares with Haiti. Because it was a former Spanish colony the official language is a very provincal Spanish, the climate is tropical, which means sweat is a fact of life. That’s the short course.

A shot of a sweeping vista (oh, that’s original)

Banica is located in the mountainous and rural region of the country about 4 hours from the capital by truck. We are not totally isolated from modern influence (clearly, as evidenced by this blog post), but at the same time most of the roads remain unpaved and electrical power is spotty at best. But Banica is a comfortable country town.

Life in the Dominican Republic has been remarkably easy to adapt to. Since the weather here is roughly the same every day (cool morning, blazing afternoon, heavy down-pour in the early evening), there is little to delineate the days. In this way nearly a month has passed since we’ve been here and what was shocking at first glance seems remarkably unremarkable.

I have been working primarily in the collegio, the private school attached to the parish. Mairin and I have been teaching English in fifth through eighth grade. Additionally we organize a sports league for the kids two days a week and tutoring in literacy. Life is busy but life is good.

And now a group shot/ proof that I'm actually where I said I am...