Friday morning was good - fairly uneventful. We spent the whole morning working hard on the play, and the girls were super well-behaved because we had told them about the special field trip we planned to Extreme (the hotel we are staying at). We had arranged for them to take a yoga class, swim in the pool, and have a special "photoshoot" on the beach and then have a movie night. So we pretty much spent the whole three hours rehearsing the show. We wrote the order up on the board and ran it as much as possible. We discovered that it ran over half an hour and panicked, because that is way too long. The show looks pretty good, but we definitely want to leave the audience wanting more rather than bored - and apparently the audiences in the DR are totally different than those in the US - here it is common for audiences to talk and walk around and such during the show. Can you imagine? Eek. We will see. In any case, after Friday, we discovered that the major problem with the show is (surprise surprise) the transitions, mainly because the girls move slowly and argue about positions and what comes next during the transitions. We will have to work on that. :) But on the whole, it looks pretty good. We are super proud of them.
So we went into Friday afternoon totally pumped for the field trip. The girls had their yoga class with the dance group, which went fairly well. Then all of the other campers left and only the theater group and Anna and I remained at Extreme. The girls changed into their suits and we all went swimming in the pool. It was super fun - we jumped in and splashed around and all was well. It was a little tough to get them out of the pool, but after carrying Maria out, we were ready to move on to the photoshoot. The girls took forever to change into their nice outfits, but they all looked like models when they emerged. Craziness. The only problem with the photoshoot is that these girls (and Dominican kids in general, I think) are obsessed with seeing themselves on film or on camera, probably because they never get to - plenty don't even have access to a mirror very often. So getting pictures taken is a thrill, so they would crowd around the camera and demand pictures and all of that. More interestingly, we had a tough time getting them to simply smile for the camera. They would try to look sexy in every single photo. Ahhhh. We eventually stopped taking pictures and said that they had to smile and have fun. We refused to take sexually charged photos, which is all they wanted. But we had fun, in any case. They are too funny.
Then we rehearsed the show up in the yoga loft, and since it was almost 5 at that point, we all decided to just watch the video clips Anna and I had taken of them during the rehearsal process thus far. We went into the side room at Extreme, got out the snacks we bought for them, and I set up my computer with the video clips. All was good - they were passing the food around, laughing together at themselves on film and marveling at how "bella" and "fea" they are when the atmosphere changed. Fabiola made a comment under her breath (which Anna and I didn't hear and therefore didn't react to) and then sweet, choir-girl type Vanessa launches across the room for Fabiola's throat. After an uproar, Sauri yanked Vanessa off of Fabiola and the situation passed. After severely reprimanding the girls, we settled back down into our seats, shaken but otherwise ready to keep watching the clips. Then Fabiola gets out of her seat, starts to take out her earrings, pull back her hair, and sets her sunglasses on the table. She then says in a super aggressive voice, "Ay, no" and launches herself onto Vanessa. Now, since most of you don't know Fabiola or Vanessa, I will just say that Fabiola is rough. She is great, but super aggressive and street smart. Basically, you would have to be pretty gutsy to attack her. Vanessa, therefore, was pretty damn gutsy. But basically Vanessa was no match for Fabiola. Fabiola was on top of her, on the ground, beating her up. Naturally, all hell broke loose. The girls sprang from their seats - some lunged for my computer, which was precariously sitting on the desk - they went to make sure it didn't get knocked off the counter in the fray. The rest of the girls were attempting to break up the fight, which was no easy feat. Maria was running around the room, clutching her enormous hair and crying out, "Ay, dios! Ay, dios!", which, looking back on it, is hilarious. But Anna and I also jumped out of our seats and dove into the fray, and I grabbed Fabiola by the waist and yanked her off of Vanessa. ButI got some punches and kicks in the process. Leisa grabbed Fabiola by the hair and threw her against the wall to get her away from Vanessa, which was helpful but super scary. So it finally ended, but it was terrifying. Now, looking back on it, I do see the humor - immensely - especially because Anna stood in the center of the fight, clutching her hair, totally useless to me while I was trying to sedate the wild girls.
Obviously, we were super upset with the girls, but I will say that we were impressed with the way the other 9 girls united to end the dispute. There was nothing about race or anything - both Fabiola and Vanessa are Haitian, and both live in Callejon. They just don't like each other, really. And it was only later that we found out what Fabiola had said that set Vanessa off like that - Fabiola said that because in one of the clips Rosailin was kind of walking with her legs spread apart, that it looked like Vanessa had been raped when she was younger. Now, once we heard what Fabiola had actually said, we sympathized with Vanessa much more. Even someone who is not used to fighting would be infuriated by that inappropriate and explicit a comment. So anyway, we got to see our girls go from civilized to wild animals in two seconds. Totally scary and also kind of funny if you think about it.
Naturally, the field trip ended the minute the fight ended. We called up the taxi driver and sent them home immediately. Ay, dios. :) But other than that, the field trip did go well! You might not believe me, but it did. We still love our girls, they are just a little wild sometimes. We went into the weekend highly disturbed and yet simultaneously amused. It was one of those situations where we were so horrified and so shocked that our reaction (after the girls had left) was laughter. Crazy, but I guess stress will do that to you. :)
So we wish you guys a whole lot of laughter, but hopefully that laughter won't come from breaking up a violent fistfight between teenage girls.
Peace, peace, peace and more peace,
Kelly and Anna
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