Reflections from Dad!!

This blog entry is by Anna and Kelly’s father. I visited the Dominican and was able to see their play, spend some time with the Mariposa and get…just a little taste of what it’s all about here.
The performance took place in the yoga studio above ground at the Extreme hotel. It was idyllic; , a grass roof, beautiful dark wooden floor, open air and when I came into it the girls were all lined up and ready to meet me.. They were all so beautiful and it was great to finally get a chance to interact with them a bit. It wasn’t much, really; they all introduced themselves in English and I returned in Spanish. Easy enough, but fun to meet a few that I had heard the most about for one reason or another. They were giggling and amused to meet Anna and Kelly’s dad. We were waiting for Sarah who was running a little late and the girls wanted her to be a part of it. While we waited, they danced a little and interacted with each other so positively—they were nervous about the performance and antsy to start.
The performance itself was one of the great things I’ve seen. It wasn’t perfect; there were times when the performers were distracted, clearly nervous, or missed a cue, but it was extraordinary in how well rehearsed it was--a tribute to their directors-- and in the conviction of their voices in what they were saying--a tribute to the process.
Of course, I could only pick up maybe 1/3 of what they were trying to communicate and Anna and Kelly filled me in later on the content, but it was so evident that they were words of empowerment because they were delivered so convincingly and with such force. One of the things that is clear to me is that, after having gone through this process with Anna and Kelly--this creation of a performance—this experience in theater—what the Mariposa’s come away with is so much more. Through the dialogue over the last month, through the everyday experience, the laughter, the fighting, the serious dialogue about the issues that they must face on a daily basis, they come away with—at least for now—a belief in their own potential. Any observer could have seen that in the performance. They were confident, poised, intelligent and…..Mariposa, I guess.
The foundation, because of the success of the production, desires Anna and Kelly to write up what they did in order that perhaps it could be repeated should they not return. A professor from UMass is interested in the process as well. How did putting together this show bring forth such confidence in these individuals? How did it bring together the Haitian and Dominican girls? And it’s nice to know that there is interest in this kind of thing continuing—the idea of theater or performance as a method to heighten potential in individuals, to tell an experiential story and, most importantly to bring disparate groups together in peaceful collaboration…and to create beauty.
Because that’s what it was in the end. Beautiful. The Mariposa girls, the work they did, what Anna and Kelly did for them and for all those involved in the project. Truly, I am humbled in their presence. It is an incredible undertaking brought forth by committed individuals who are working against odds so few of us can even begin to comprehend. I am astounded, after having gone into the village where they live, after having met so many of the mothers and the assorted denizens of this area of the Dominican how difficult the odds are that they face.
While thoughtful and calculated curriculum is an important consideration in making these changes, it is in the delivery of that curriculum that the magic can happen. That is vital to understand….for Mariposa, for education. These girls were successful, this group worked because they were able, through Anna and Kelly, through the setting of high expectations, hard work, patience, understanding, and most importantly listening to one another….to bring forth what was really on their mind and to express it willingly and publicly. Their potential is enormous and it is my hope that they can realize it in their lives, though it is only hope. It is the work that the Mariposa does, that Anna and Kelly did and the spirit of these young women that will help determine that fate. To leave some of them behind here…knowing the strength it will take for them to live a semblance of a life that we take for granted is heart-wrenching.
I walked around the village with all of them yesterday and, despite the poverty, despite all that you and I would take as severe hardship, they were joyful, funny, charming and….I would say happier than most children I’ve met. But that will change. They were walking slowly, and they should. They had nowhere to go, and they were children growing into what will most likely be a difficult adulthood. Bless them all.

And the Mariposas Take Flight!

This afternoon, at 3:00 pm in a restaurant called Tropicoco, the Mariposa Summer Camp 2011 presented their final show. Our girls were the culmination of this show, so they went on at about 4:00 pm.

The girls arrived at Tropicoco around 2:30. As usual, there was the typical pre-show crazy. We were running around trying to create an audience-loooking formation with the chairs. Tropicoco is a restaurant, so we had to take the chairs from all the tables and arrange them in rows. It ended up looking great. The girls all meandered in and we gathered them all for a theatre group meeting off to the side. We then realized that we were missing one of our girls!! No one knew where she was, and all our girls were freaking out, because this girl has kind of a major role. Together we came up with a contingency plan, in case she did not show, but luckily, five minutes later, she arrived. We were all so relieved. We gave them a quick pep talk about having fun, going for it, all that, and they were all super nervous but excited. When we told them they were going last, they all cheered. We did our customary group cheer and sent them off to get changed into the clothes they had brought, their "costumes."

Said "costumes" were basically just whatever nice clothing the girls wanted to wear. They all looked beautiful. The show began promptly at 3:00 pm, which was totally bizarre, because we were anticipating that all the parents would show up late, pushing the show till 3:30, which was really when they intended to start. However, all the Dominicans showed up EARLY, which is the only time I have ever seen that happen. We had a pretty full house, and the crowd was quite enthusiastic. The show began with the youngest girls, in the sports group, who did this adorable gymnastics/circus presentation, all to some great music. The audience was totally into it. The next group was the Environmental group, who did a dance that involved most kids in the group, and then they spelled out "MEDIO AMBIENTE" (environment). Each girl had a sign and said their letter and an adjective that began with the same letter. The funny thing was that they spelled it backwards, so it looked more like "ETNEIBMA OIDEM". Needless to say, we all enjoyed that.

The second to last group to perform was the other bunch of older girls in the dance group. They did three short numbers, one was pure belly-dancing that involved veils and the whole bit. That was super cool. Then they morphed that into another song that mixed the belly-dancing and their own music, which was nice. The final section they did was a song of the girls' own choosing, and their own choreography. So, if you can't imagine what that looked like, just think of a Britney spears video. It was well-done and the audience got pretty into it. They love to see those girls up there shaking their hips. =)

Our group was next!! We went up there and gave the audience the title "Entre Nosotras," and I had to be onstage to run the music. I'm not going to go through every detail of the performance, but let me just say that it was magnificent. I could not, in my wildest dreams, have imagined them doing any better. Not to mention the audience was almost dead-silent and captivated. When the girls began to speak about drugs and prostitution, the room was hushed and many audience members told us afterwards how they got chills. The reception to the more serious material was incredible. The audience laughed heartily during the telenovela, rightfully so, because it was absolutely hilarious. The girls danced to their songs, laughing, smiling, and putting passion into their movements. They sang their hearts out, singing "Color Esperanza" as the audience sang along and clapped. It was really pretty magical, the connection in those final moments between the girls and the audience. I nearly cried. It was just amazing. The show ends with the girls all standing in a line, clapping and singing the final words of "Color Esperanza" ocapella, which worked better than it ever had before in the show. The audience cheered wildly at the end of the performance, and the girls just could not stop smiling. They were so proud.

My heart is full right now with love for all of the girls. This afternoon they showed just how much they have all grown during the process of creating this piece of theatre. To quote a certain play, they showed us all their heartskin today, and we couldn't be any prouder. They are an amazing group and as a group we have accomplished so much more than this wonderful piece of theatre. We are so unbelievably happy.

Our work here has culminated with a huge success, but this is a success we can feel so much more proud of, because the show was not the only thing involved here. It was only one tiny part, and their performance of it proved so much more. We can't even control our excitement.

We want to thank you all for being part of this tremendous journey, and we hope that if you have any thoughts on our experiences, you will share them with us here. We have loved making this process as interactive as possible.

All the best, and I would like to give a brief shout out to my roommate Alysia, and our dear father who is on his way down as we speak!!

Peace, love, and Mariposa. Mariposa all the way.

<3 Anna and Kelly

El Show

Hi everyone!

It is Tuesday evening at about 9 PM, and we are writing to you after a very full day of Spanish and camp. :) Today we had a pretty easy day in terms of camp - we only were with the girls for about an hour and a half in the morning, during which we went with them to Tropicoco, which is the restaurant where we will be performing. There is a nice stage there (and the restaurant is super nice), so the girls are very excited about it. Just being onstage really animated their performances and brought the show to life. Anna and I just looked at each other at one point during the show and smiled, both knowing that the show would come together in the best way possible. The girls were especially fascinated with the curtain and kept peeking their heads out during the scenes they weren't in. It was funny but obviously distracting. I did feel bad telling them to not peek during scenes, though. It looks kind of cool. Who knows? Maybe we could work it in ... :) In any case, we ran the show two times - the first time the girls just performed for me, Anna and Jessica , and they did a pretty good job. However, the second time they ran the show, the whole dance group was there as well, and I was worried about how the girls would perform. They rose to the occasion beautifully, however. They performed even better with the "audience" than they did without much of an audience. Anna and I are super pleased with the show. It is random at times, but at other times moving. Their energy and commitment are superb. And what's more is that we see them taking ownership of everything in the show. They are proud of themselves and their show. It was all over their faces after their performance for the dance group. :) So the show is looking great! We can't wait to rehearse a bit more and then perform!!!

For the rest of the morning, the girls had academics, and then after lunch we went with them to the pool. We had fun, as usual, in the pool, splashing around and playing games. We even got to speak with Valentina and Emmanuela in French, which was pretty awesome. I am kind of hoping that those two will keep letting us practice our French with them. We will see. :) But even more exciting than alternating between speaking English, Spanish AND French :) was this afternoon. The girls from Callejon had invited Anna and I to come to La Loma (which is basically in Callejon - it has all of these natural caves and swimming holes) and hang out right after camp. So we went to Callejon with them and first walked around, seeing all of their houses and trying these yummy cherries (at least I think that's what they were!). Then we walked up to La Loma, which was beautiful but super mosquito-ey. Apparently the backs of my legs look like they have some kind of rash on them, but it is all just tiny little red bug bites. Hahahaha. Anyways, we walked up with 5 of the girls in our group and hiked up to see this beautiful view of Cabarete, and then hiked back down to this cool swimming hole. Anyways, we spent 5 hours total in Callejon today, hanging out, swimming, walking around and chatting with about half of our group (the ones that live in Callejon). We had such fun. And yesterday we went to La Cienaga (where the other half of the girls in our group live) and hung out with them and went to this beautiful golf course and had a little picnic. Again, super fun. We are loving every minute we get to spend hanging out with these girls. It is very chill - we just kind of follow them around and chat. Time goes by so quickly! The only reason we left Callejon when we did today was because it was 7 PM and it was going to get dark soon - and we had to get back to Extreme still! :)

All is well here, as you can see (well, as you can read). :) There are rumors that we may get some kind of hurricane in the DR (not in this part - but we might get the dregs of it here), which would take the form of tropical rainstorm and lots of wind, basically. That may come tomorrow, which could mess up the river field trip planned. We will see what happens. In any case, we are done with normal camp days - tomorrow is the field trip if the weather cooperates, and then Thursday the girls come to camp around 2 to prep for the 3:00 show. So we are almost done! Tomorrow is pretty much the last day. Obviously we both have mixed feelings about that. Mainly we are sad that we won't get to work with our girls anymore. Our group has had it's ups and downs, of course, but each and every girl in the group has brought something special to the table, and we love all of them. It is definitely going to be tough saying goodbye to all of them.

Our advice for the day is to swim whenever you get the chance (because down in the DR, swimming is a total thrill) and eat awesome fruits that grow on trees or that people hand you in the streets - it is always fun to be surprised and to hear the girls laugh when you ask how you are supposed to eat this. :) Basically, surprise yourself by trying something new. :)

Love,

Kelly and Anna

Entre Nosotras

It's amazing how much of a close group we've become. And I just love it.

Just to give you all a time frame, it is Monday. We have another 2 hours with them in the morning tomorrow. Wednesday we go on a camp field trip to a local field trip, and Thursday late afternoon they perform. It's all ending so, so soon.

Today we had them for 2 hours initially. We began the day by working on the songs that I had spent the last night cutting down on GarageBand, because they were all far too long. We showed the girls the cuts and let them practice the songs and dances. They were a little rowdy, but no problems. Then we began a run through of the entire show. Fabiola was upset with us during the morning because we sent her to the Mariposa leaders for disciplinary action following her inappropriate/violent/terrifying behavior on Friday. So as we were trying to begin the run through, she would do her line, but with the least amount of effort possible. We got super annoyed and we did the classic 'make everyone do the scene again until she cooperates' strategy, which didn't work because this girl thought it was hilarious to make everyone mad and waste everyone else's time. She was being such a little shit. There's really no other way to describe it. So we calmly sent her out of the classroom, told her to sit outside and not come back. She was shocked and repentant, but we still made her leave. The run through went smoothly after that, especially after the girls saw that we were serious about seeing some serious work from them.

We proceeded to give them a short break, after which Fabiola grudgingly rejoined the group, and the next run was much better. The girls were energetic, having fun, smiling, passionate about the work, and we saw lots of smiles and a whole lot of focus. So yes, tremendous success. We gave the girls another break, during which one of the girls wanted me to play the Waka Waka song on the iPod speaker so she could record it on her phone. So all the girls had left and we played the song and I just had the urge to get up and dance, and all of a sudden it became a mini dance/singing party with me, Kelly, and a bunch of the girls, which was super, super fun. The girls were supposed to have health class at 11, but the health teacher came in and realized that we were hard at work, and cheerfully agreed to cancel health for the day. The girls were thrilled and had renewed excitement doing the final run for the day. Overall, a great morning.

Oh, and we now have a title... "Entre Nosotras"... Fabiola came up with it. It means, "Just Between Us", essentially, and the "nosotras" is specific towards women. Really, it's a perfect title.

To give you an idea of what the show looks like, I will be honest here. It's totally random. We've tried to mix up the more serious text/monologue sections with more fun or at least amusing songs or uplifting little poems, just to break it up. We don't want it to become monotonous. So we have in there a little "telenovela"/opera/drama song with these two girls, which is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. We have poems, modern dance, opinion monologues, stories, their kind of dance, singing/rocking it out, and a group section of text/song at the end. It's really nice, and the best part about it is that the girls are so into it at this point. They are taking pride in their work, in us, in the group, in themselves, and it's so beautiful to witness. No matter how this thing turns out (and I'm sure it will be great), we have accomplished our goal. And even better, we have formed lasting friendships with these amazing young women. For instance, we spent the entire weekend in Callejon with our girls. We hung out with them from 4 pm to 2 am on Saturday... went back on Sunday, and then we saw the girls from La Cienaga today after camp. We went back to la Cienaga with them and went to their houses. They showed us a beautiful field out there and we had a picnic and listened to music. It was wonderful. Tomorrow we are going back to Callejon for an extensive tour including each girl's house, and also a trip to La Loma, which is way back into Callejon, with caves where you can swim. Should be fun.

Mainly, I just have to say that I am already super-upset at the prospect of leaving these people. These girls are my sisters, my kids, my friends, everything. We have our moments, of course, but they are unforgettable and inspiring and I will miss them in so many ways. I still have a little time with them of course, but the end is closing in fast, and I can't bear to think about it. What an impression these young women have made on me. It's amazing how much these girls have made me change the way I view my future plans, myself, and the world around me.

I hope you have the opportunity to be inspired, because it sure feels amazing. Love you all.

Anna and Kelly

Ay, no.

Sorry this post has taken so long to come out - we had to speak with the staff at Mariposa before posting this one - you will see why. But this post is about Friday's work.

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

Diva, please?

I'm going to be honest ... today had its ups and downs.

BUT we now have a show. It certainly needs work, I'm not going to say that it's incredible at this point, but I see so much potential for this piece. I think I'm getting ahead of myself, though. I will go through some of the highlights/low points of the day for you.

The first low point of the day was when we walked into camp and heard from Francesca, one of the girls who lives in La Cienaga, that Rosa Lourdes (one of our girls) had a boyfriend who died last night in the hospital after being involved in a motorcycle accident and getting the wrong blood transfusion. So we were missing 3 girls. Not only was the news vastly disturbing, but it also messed us up that we were missing so many of our actors/group members.

We came in today knowing that we would have a full day of theatre work ahead of us. We have all these little pieces of a show, but we had to string them together, put in transitions, just really get our act together. Since we have more of a "fun day" planned for them tomorrow, we wanted to not have a lot of work to do in the morning, to keep in the fun spirit. So we began by dividing the girls up into small groups and giving them creative assignments, contributions that each girl could make to the piece. We did something similar on the first day, to poor effect. But what an improvement we saw today.

Yes, the girls did want fairly specific directions/guidelines, but they were able to focus and work together creatively, generate legitimately good material, and then share it with the group. Valentina and Emmanuela were the only two that struggled. They got a choreography assignment, and they were a little lost. But we gave Ingrid and Julian, two of our quietest/least forthcoming girls, a piece of text and told them to do something creative with it, and the two of them came up with a cute little piece. Maria Angelica (who hardly ever gets into it) and Rosailin were given the task of performing a personal story, which they did admirably and enthusiastically. And Maria Ynez and Edileiza took the initiative to prepare a soap-opera song about a stormy domestic relationship, which they set off to practice with alacrity.

We moved on to stage a piece with the stories that Rosailin, Maria Angelica, and Valentina (who we added) would tell. While each girl told her story, the rest of the group echoed movement from earlier in the piece. The movement is simple, the text is simple, but it looks pretty good. Here is where they began to lose focus. However, we have to remember that these girls are typically NEVER asked to focus for more than 30 minutes at a time. Putting them in a situation in which they have to do intense work for about 1.5 hours at a time is new for them, and it certainly takes its toll on a group of hormonal, HIGHLY emotional creatures. For instance... these girls are divas. At least most of them are. They were aptly placed in the theatre group. The main issue today was that because we were missing so many girls, and especially some of the loudest ones, we had the opportunity to let the quieter girls take more of a leadership role. The louder ones who remained, namely Maria Ynez and Edileiza, were not thrilled with this arrangement, to say the least. They enjoy being leaders, but they also enjoy being in the center of attention. So they got VERY VERY sulky in the morning. It was actually amusing, since Kelly and I did not actually get mad at them. For the first hour of sulkiness, it was endearing. After the second hour... well ... we had a calm discussion with them, in which we explained to the two of them that if they were going to act like children, we would treat them like children and give them a time-out for the rest of the day. I think it worked, because after lunch, their behavior improved drastically. Then again, they were once again in the spotlight, so that might have helped, too. Oh, emotional creatures. How I love them, and how they drive me up the wall.

After lunch we put together an order for the show, writing it on the board. We had them run it twice, and although I wouldn't say it looks great, it certainly has promise. The thing about these girls is, once we can actually put them onstage, they can really nail it. Like when we had them all dance the Waka Waka today ... that's a nice moment. There's just so many nice moments, and if we can capture those, and run this show about 10 more times ... I think we might have just made something awesome with them. We'll see how it goes tomorrow, when we spend the morning putting finishing touches on the show and running it... before their special field trip.

So, all in all, a good day of work with the girls. We certainly do have our divas, but we are working with a bunch of blossoming actresses, after all. What can we expect? And as always, we embrace the hormonal... the emotional... our own dear emotional creatures, right here in the Dominican Republic.

Hoping that you all embrace your own inner diva in honor of our Mariposas ...

--Anna and Kelly

PHOTOS ON FACEBOOK!

Hi everyone!!

I tried to upload the photos directly to the blog, but the connection is not good enough to do that sooooooo I managed to get a few up on Facebook. Check out my newest album:

www.facebook.com/kelly.banker

Happy browsing!

- Kelly and Anna