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Hello everyone! Today we focused on opening our minds to new cultures, learning from each other and also from the local Dominican people that we met. We started our day with a culture seminar where we talked about stereotypes and cultural misunderstandings, and brainstormed strategies for making sure that we take advantage of every opportunity to learn about new cultures. Then we went to El Higuerito where we met people from the local art collaborative, Asociación de los Artesanos de Muñecas Sin Rostro. We learned the significance of the dolls without a face and how the association was formed. Then we returned to Monte de Oracion for lunch. After lunch we were treated with a dance class! We learned to dance Bachata and Merengue and had a lot of fun! After dance class we had another seminar to prepare for our CAP project, we ate dinner, had a self-reflection session, nightly meeting, and now we are relaxing a little bit before bed.

The highlights of today are definitely meeting the artists, making art with clay and dancing with our energetic teachers. In our nightly meeting several people shared positive reflections on creating art with clay and dancing the afternoon away. We also really enjoyed getting to know each other better today.

We spent a great deal of time reflecting on identity and culture today. It was really inspiring to see the passion of the artists and the pride that they took in their work. The dance teachers were also super passionate and energetic, which helped us all get excited about participating. All in all, we had a fun and inspiring day and can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store for us!

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