Hi All! Well, it's my 3rd week in the DR. I've been busy meeting our 85 chronic-care patients and the other staff, orienting two grad. student research interns from the U.S. who are here to study hypertension med-compliance, and getting to know my new neighbors. I've moved into a new little apartment for the next month. It's yellow - which I love, and it doesn't have internet - which I love less. But it's got a fabulous view outside the front second story window! I sit at the window every morning and eat my breakfast looking out at the Maribal Butterfly Park that is pictured above/below. The park consists of a wall that separates the street across from my house from the acres of sugar cane fields beyond it. Last year the local residents commissioned an artist to come and paint the wall with pictures of the Maribal sisters -- three sisters who were part of the underground movement against the Dominican Republic's dictator Trujillo, in the late 1950s. The Mirabel sisters were murdered in a sugar cane field near here in 1960 because of their work in that underground movement, and they are hugely famous for it, and well -loved throughout the DR. Their pictures are on the money, as well as on the wall of my park (as you can see above). They're the main characters in the book "In the Time of Butterflies" written by Julia Alvares. My neighbors sit and chat on benches in the park early in the morning and late into the evening, and they've gotten me into it too. It's a great way to get to know everybody. So, here are some photos of my favorite park in Montellano.
This is my neighbor boy and his dog, who saw me taking photos like a crazy tourist in the Maribal/Butterfly park, and sweetly took it upon himself to try to teach me about the many different kinds of tropical flowers and plants -- everything from vegies to butterfly bushes, growing in the Butterfly park. It was awesome. If only I could remember the names of half of those plants!
And this is the yellow house, just below (beside) the steps leading up to my new little yellow apartment. Apparently I'm now living in a happy yellow part of town. : ) I love it!
Above, and below, are some views of the park, the sugar cane fields behind it, and the mountains beyond that, as seen from my window in my second story yellow apartment. I think I may have the prettiest view in all of Montellano.
For those of you looking for some interesting summer reading, you might check out the book about the Mirabal sisters and their opposition to the Trujillo dictatorship here in the Dominican Republic.
The link to the Book on Amazon is here:
In the Time of the Butterflies
Happy Summer to all of you -- from me -- as I sit here on my neighbor's porch, watching rain from one of the DR's unexpected torrential downpours dump sheets of water straight down upon the sugar cane fields, and turn the street, which was dry and dusty a minute ago, into a growing puddle. Rain is a great thing here, in the summer, because it cools things down.
In the Time of the Butterflies
Happy Summer to all of you -- from me -- as I sit here on my neighbor's porch, watching rain from one of the DR's unexpected torrential downpours dump sheets of water straight down upon the sugar cane fields, and turn the street, which was dry and dusty a minute ago, into a growing puddle. Rain is a great thing here, in the summer, because it cools things down.
Today is going to be a beautiful day!
- Janelle
