In which Tim discovers that some of his skills translate better than others...

Last week we had a session on "acculturation" in which we were taught first to play dominoes, and then to dance the Merengue. Apparently this is a critical element of training, as Dominicans spend much of their free time either playing dominoes or dancing. The dominoes lesson was uneventful and fun. Game play is pretty simple (you just match numbers), but the strategy gets pretty elaborate. The most skilled players will know instinctually who has which piece, and how they are going to play them. Apparently it can be a very intense game.

The dance lesson was much more amusing. Let me preface the following by stating that my ancestry has not equipped me with the necessary hardware or software to be an amazing dancer. Half of my ancestors were New England puritans who were not allowed to dance, and the other half were stalwart midwestern farmers who had no reason to dance...

Merengue is a fast and rhythmic style of dance that requires a lot of swing in the hips while the feet barely shuffle across the floor. When done well it is really a beautiful dance. Those who know me well understand that I do not often have trouble finding the words that I need to describe a situation. But I cannot for the life of me begin to describe what I looked like trying to get my butt to move more than my feet. Please let your imagination do the work. It was downright embarassing, especially when I discovered that a friend had decided to spend her time taking video of others rather than practicing the dance...(this video will NOT be made available for main-stream consumption)...

Of course, the embarassment was mildly relieved by the fact that most of my comrades looked just as ridiculous, if not more so, than myself. And fortunately the day did not end with humiliation. When I got home that evening I told my host mother that I had learned dominoes that day, and would very much like to play sometime. Later that night she took me over to the neigbors where I have noticed that they play very spirited games every night (lots of slamming pieces down on the table and yelling at each other). I was a little intimidated to have my skills tested so early on so competitive a crowd, but I sucked up my fear, sat down at the table, and picked up my pieces.

I won the first few hands, and they laughed it off as beginners luck. But then I won the game, and they decided to play a little harder. After winning the next two games in a row they acknowledged that I possessed no small amount of skill, and told me that I was welcome at their table any time.

So while my dance skills may leave something to be desired, at least I can hold my own at the dominoes table. All in all, not too bad for a day's worth of learning.