Mercedes' Walk

Dominicans crammed into a back of flatbed truck waiting to be taken home. Imagine seeing this on a highway, the truck going over 60 MPH and the people passing around beer bottles. Yes, it does happen.
Mercedes (in blue) walking back to her house with Cha Cha and Cha Cha's grandson.
People sitting on top of and inside the dugout in the baseball field watching the commotion.


Yesterday my town played host to all neighboring towns for the start of Holy Week. Every year, a different town within the providence is chosen for this event. Whichever town is picked, people from all the other towns are supposed to walk there- in what I would imagine to honor Jesus' passion. Although it would have been crazy for these people to walk all the way to La Caya, many of them did start a mile or so out, or even half a mile and walk up to town. A pretty incredible feat, given that Dominicans hate to walk and it was ridiculously hot yesterday.

I have never seen my town so full of people. The one street leading into town was packed, with cars, motorcycles and people. Most of them I had never seen before. They all walked up to where the baseball field is, and there there was a tent set-up where the religious ceremony was happening. Although the purpose of the event was religious, most people were there to socialize.

The biggest thing, in my opinion, however that happened through all of this, is that the Grandma of the family I eat lunch with left the house to see what all the festivities were about! As I was walking around, being stared out for being the only American among all these people, I saw Mercedes (Grandma) walking down the street with her oldest daughter, Cha Cha. I instantly lit up inside and started to zig-zag my way through the crowd and was almost burned by a motorcycle exhaust pipe in my hurry. When I finally made it through the labyrinth of people, Cha-Cha saw me and gave me a huge smile as she simultaneously pointed to her mom walking through the crowd.

"Mama," I cheered! "You are here! With all these people. Are you okay?"

"Imagine!" Cha Cha answered. "We were sitting in the house and she (Mercedes) said she wanted to see all the people here, so I said, let's go! And look! She actually left and here we are together!"

I gave Mercedes a hug and Cha-Cha one too and I can't tell you how excited Cha Cha was to be walking around with her mom. Cha Cha then told me that it had been over a year since Mercedes had left the house.

Over a year! Mercedes has quite a few health problems, and she tires easily. Although she has energy to be awake and even do a few house chores, she doesn't like to leave the grounds of her house, not even to walk down the street to the market. Yesterday was the first time in over a year she's ventured further than the fence beyond her house.

It was an incredible moment to be apart of. Mercedes and Cha Cha only walked around for about 10 minutes before Mercedes wanted to go back home, but the energy and happiness that was beaming from Cha Cha left me feeling so content. As the hundreds of people in the street rested from their walk up to La Caya, in my mind there was only one person there whose walk really mattered.