We´ve all seen it before, one of VH1´s top 100 countdowns entitled, "Rock and Roll´s 100 Most Shocking Moments". I´m sure there have been a variety of compilations on the theme, but one "shocking" moment which always seems to make the top 10 is that of Ozzy Ozborne and the chicken. You know the one - a Black Sabbath concert in the 70´s, someone throws a chicken on the stage, Ozzy throws it back ("I ´idn´t know ´em birds cayn´t fly"), and the crowd tears it apart. PETA caused a big stink and he hasn´t lived it down since.Well, I´ve got my own most shocking moment. I´m sure there will be more, but this one has got to make my top ten by the time I´m finished here.
This past weekend was Carneval. It was actually rescheduled from the prior weekend, but the night before Carneval was a beauty pageant, where they elect the girl who will be crowned the Queen of Patron Saints Day (later this month). About an hour into the show someone was killed outside of the club. I was there, I had no idea what was going on when people started rushing outside and leaving during the middle of the show. It turned out some kids were on drugs and one killed the other. Really sad, he was only 20 years old. I went to the funeral the next day which was a horribly powerful experience. The body stays in the home of the family and everyone comes to grieve, they are buried the day after they die. I´ve got to find a way to educate more about drugs in my community!
So, out of respect, the scheduled Carneval event was postponed to the following week. I had seen preparations for Carneval hanging up around the town for about two weeks before - these decorations being pig or cow intestines. People blow into the intestine and inflate it like a balloon, then hang it to dry. On the day of Carneval the mischevous ones run around smacking people with these intestine balloons. They can really hurt! Here is my friend Andres displaying one of these unique toys:
The celebration started with a parade from the school to the town park where there was a stage and sound system set up for the show. There were some fantastic masks, all hand made, which competed for the best costume award, along with choreographed dances. I feel like I learned a lot more about Dominican culture after this day, you can really feel the African roots by watching some of these dances. It even made Reggaeton make a little more sense. Here is a video of one of the dances: Here are some costumes and masks from the day:
Each costume had time on the stage to display their artwork and let the judges get a good look. One man, seen pictured below, actually made an almost-life-sized mule. He dressed like a campesino (farmer, which he probably is anyway), with his legs positioned as the two hind legs of the mule so it looked like he was riding it. He had two baskets of fruit draped over the back of the mule, along with two live chickens. 
The man began tossing fruit into the crowd. Everyone got really excited and dove enthusiastically for each new piece of fruit. Here comes a mango! Now a platano! I started to get a little concerned as these fruits can be heavy and he was tossing them pretty hard. More mangos! Platano! Pineapple! Pineapple? Just when I thought I should be concerned about this, I look up toward the sky and see a chicken hurling through the air. No, he couldn´t! He did. He threw the chicken with all his might into the center of the crowd. I screamed. The chicken landed in about five different sets of hands, which all pulled in different directions. The chicken was literally torn apart, alive.Half of the crowd started running away, the other half ran towards the scene. I stood stunned for a moment or two before I hurried over to lean against a wall and try to catch my breath. I saw a man I knew; he saw the terror in my face and commented, "Poor chicken". Poor chicken? To say the least! For the rest of the evening you could see a lone chicken wing and unidentifiable clumps of feathers rising up from one part of the crowd to the other. Needless to say the rest of the evening was shot for me, I felt nauseous and couldn´t really concentrate on the rest of the event. And after all that, the guy won best costume.
I spoke to another volunteer about this and she assured me that this is not a normal occurence. Gracias a Dios! So, that is my most shocking moment of Peace Corps DR thus far. More stories to come.
Joan
