TRIP UPDATE

Oh! Project update! Yes!

First of all, above is a picture of me and my crew being as awkward as humanly possible with 2 seconds notice (before the 10-sec. timer on the camera went off). We love this photo. We laughed so hard afterward we almost peed. It somehow captures our personalities perfectly. 

Now this is the official crew picture. Much nicer, and no one had any complaints because we all look good. Geez, I miss these people. 

Liz is still here but currently swamped with homework. Zach is in Austria at the moment, shooting a documentary with another classmate of mine about a man who was in the mafia at 17 and later became a Believer. Dan is in Peru at the moment, working for CBN. He's helping shoot a segment for Vida Dura, a program that airs on the Spanish version of the 700 Club.

Anyway, the trip to the Dominican Republic was awesome and productive. It was an incredibly packed and intense four days, but my crew was incredible and we got some really good interviews and b-roll shots of life in the community of El Callejon.

Each day consisted of shooting interviews and b-roll, then in the evenings we would watch the interviews and figure out our shooting plan for the next day based on what was said in the interviews. These pow-wow sessions were incredibly helpful because we would hash out story ideas and give feedback on what we had done so far. 

On top of working like mad, we even had time to do some random cultural things that I was hoping we would have time to do! I do think they all had an authentic Dominican experience, in spite of only being there four days! I made a list.

All the wonderful cultural things we got to do in just four days:

-go to Salto Jimenoa, and climb the huge boulders (Jimenoa is a waterfall)

-go for a drive and see some awesome landscapes

-eat rice and beans with a Dominican family

-drink coffee, Dominican-style

-eat mofongo, chofan, pastelitos and pica pollo (Dominican fast food: fried chicken and )

-drink chinola juice and coke made with real sugar

-suck on a piece of sugar cane

-visit the coffee factory

-shop downtown Jarabacoa

-see a legit dominoes game

-hike to the top of the hill overlooking the Jarabacoa valley

-see a cock fight (sort of)

-buy a machete

-play baseball with the kids

The only things missing were: dance merengue and ride a motorcycle. But that's ok. Next trip, haha!

Anyway, now the harder work begins: I have to translate and edit like mad in the next three weeks. God, help me!