November 9-11, Rick and Becky attended a Cultural Training in Santa Domingo. It was our first visit to Santa Domingo, the capital of the Dominican Republic. The weekend was lead by Carmen Fanas de Sena and Patricia Ebersole de Zwier. Carmen is Dominican, Patricia is from the United States but has lived her for about 20 years.
The weekend focused in five different categories:
1. Understanding Dominican beliefs - Historical Roots, 10 types of families, Gender roles
2. Understanding Dominican values - Being, Time, Destiny, Heredity, Solidarity, Hierarchy, Formality, Communication styles
3. Understanding Dominican perceptions - Temperament, Cleanliness, Driving rules, House staff, Refranes, Reframing frustrating events
4. Building a support system - Greetings/departures, Bonding & Confianza, Protocol, Do's and Don'ts, Setting limits, Styles of family
5. Growing personally - Personal cultural identity, Family values, Anxiety re: health and safety, Dealing with culture shock, Biculturalism
A lot to cover in a weekend! Often I hear people talk about the latin people and their concept of time. During the weekend, this came up and a North American made the statement "you will be on time out of respect for me." Carmen, the Dominican responded "we don't look like it that way, instead, we believe that because we have a relationship, you will understand something made me have to be late."
This weekend helped us tremendously. I, Rick, left having some answers to some of the things that were starting to really frustrate me. I was able to laugh at some of my preconceived ideas about how things "should" be. You know, we all are culturally biased. I have talked with Dominicans that go to the United States and they share that they struggle with the US culture, much in the same way we have struggled here.
Remember, it isn't right or wrong, it is just DIFFERENT!
