Hey, look, diversity in the DR

Four days after I returned to the DR, I participated in a weekend conference of volunteers from the northern valley region of the country, called the Cibao. (Thank you to those who supported this conference from the States. All of us here are very appreciative.) The conference, focusing on diversity and aptly named Celebrando Cibao, brought together two youth from each volunteer’s community (there were about 25 of us) for three days of speakers, discussions, and interactive programs. You can imagine that when I first heard about the Celebrando conference, I was pretty pumped, as I dedicated a fair amount of time at college to such activities. This is the Peace Corps’ version of YLEAD. It didn’t turn out quite the same, but it was similar in spirit, which is the important part. Sure, there were some slip-ups and last-minute cancellations, but we got the message across, more or less.
Celebrando Cibao is an exceptional Peace Corps program – it is programmed and executed entirely by Volunteers, who must also obtain all the funding. This also means we are free to discuss the topics we deem important. A conference like this is also a chance for campo youth to get out of their little towns for a weekend and meet some new friends. Remember any kind of trip you went on as a kid, and multiply that by a high number. Most of the participants have never left their small towns except to go to school or visit relatives in the capital. The students that came with me have never been to the beach, less than three hours away by public transportation.
Planning a conference always makes doubters out of the organizers, but I know that the participants had an amazing time. The Volunteers led a range of informative discussions, including Dominican-Haitian relations, sexuality, religion, ability, and domestic geographical differences. My personal highlight, perhaps unsurprisingly, was an activity we coordinated called Archie Bunker’s Neighborhood, in which participants are unwittingly thrown into a class- and privilege-based social system and only realize this halfway through the activity. My goal was for the students to realize that no, not everyone is treated the same, and this happens in real life. They were able to extrapolate their experience to daily life in the DR. The youth, living in poor, isolated communities, were able to get the message. While some other issues they chose to ignore or to give hollow lip service (sexuality, racism), they understood class. It’s the small victories. Plus, they got to run around in the grass, a rarity here, and watch some of us Volunteers perform a uniquely choreographed dance that we came up with ourselves. Overall, a big success.

The pictures are of all of the participants, and then me and the youth from my community.