Current host family: My Doña, Guillermina, her 21 year old daughter Melania, Melania’s husband Ruben and adorable baby Melani. For a while I also had a tia named Melania who was visiting from the states, and a fun prima, Andrea, visiting from Barcelona, where she lives with her family. Andrea is now in Santo Domingo for a while, and tia Melania’s sadly gone back to Connecticut. I also have two brothers, 21 (Melania’s twin) and 22, who live in Santo Domingo but come visit sometimes. Full house. There are also 5 neighborhood muchachas who hang out at the house all day. They help with cleaning, love holding the baby, and randomly hug me a lot... cute. It took a few days to get all that straight.
Guillermina with baby Melani, tia Melania dancing with Carlitos
With one of the neighbors who hangs out at the house
So that’s my home life right now. Yesterday I went to a wedding with Guillermina, baby Melani and my friend Carlitos. It was strange, to say the least. We dressed up (as best as we could) and walked down the street to a neighbor’s house where the wedding was happening. The moment we walked up I could tell that it would be weird… though, after a month in this country, I really should have expected it.
The scene: There are 6 round tables with white plastic chairs set up in front of the house. We are among the first guests, there are only like 4 other people sitting around outside. Then in walks Guillermina with a baby and her gringos… people stare at us, but it’s not too awkward. Some are super dressy, others are wearing jeans and t-shirts… typical. We sit down directly in front of the giant speakers blasting some radio station. Someone brings over a bottle of Brahma Light and some plastic cups… we enjoy our beer in silence because we can’t hear each other and nothing interesting is happening yet. The baby is so used to noise that she sleeps while the music breaks my eardrums.
Meanwhile, more people are showing up, drinking beer, waiting around. After maybe 45 minutes, they are ready to start. Merengue is replaced with the wedding march, but it sounds eerie and tinny coming out of the speakers so loudly. I am reminded of funhouse music. The bride comes out of the house, takes a loop around the crowd, and then goes back into the house where the ceremony is apparently happening. We stay in our seats.
So… we didn’t watch the ceremony, and neither did lots of other people who were still sitting outside. Someone brought over little baskets of finger foods (empanadas and other fried things), which were crawling with ants. No one batted an eye… just grabbed their empanadas, dusted off a few bugs, and talked about how delicious they were. And after they got hitched, the bride and groom started passing out gifts to the guests. Even Carlitos and I got little boxes of candy!
We were tired and left before the dancing really got started, but it was worth going… beer, food, gifts, what more could we ask?
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