Religion in the DR

Que lo queeeee mi gente. 

Well, I've moved to my new community. I now live in a pueblo called El Factor, just south of the city of Nagua on the north coast of the DR between Sosua and Samana. Extremely far from my old home in Barahona. Today is day 3 living with my new host family in my new site, so there will be a post to come on my new project(s) and life as I basically start over in Peace Corps ("Carajo, diablo pero quien es esa Americana?!? Yep, that's me. Round two.).

As I approach my 8 month mark here (dios, when and how did that happen?!) I am going to touch a subject that has caused me much confusion and frustration in this country. Religion. I have just returned from church with my new host family.
Most of you could have probably guessed that the Dominican Republic is a Christian nation. There is no separation of church and state here, in fact, mixing of the two is normal and encouraged. Many typical sayings here used by everyone include god, such as Vaya con dios (may you go with god), Dios te bendiga (God bless you), Si dios quire (Godwilling), and of course Gracias a dios (Thank God) among others.

When we arrived here one of the first things we talked about in training was cultural integration, and that religion and church were going to be things we'd need to get used to. We were encouraged to go to church with our host families and participate in church activities as a way to get to know people and integrate. I was raised Catholic, so I thought, no problem. Most Peace Corps volunteers are anti-religion...and I mean, strongly against it. So I thought, meh, I can def handle it. I'm not a super religious person but being that I was raised in the Catholic church, I believe there's something up there. Or at least I did before I got here...
I learned quickly that when people ask if you are Christian and you say yes, they assume you are Evangelical. I'm catholic, I said. Well then you're not Christian then, you're Catholic, I was corrected. Why the difference?

My first church experience was with my doña in Santo Domingo. She brought me to her Evangelical church, which was held in our neighborhood in someone's house. I don't know if it was the pastor writhing on the floor screaming in tongues or him calling me out as a visitor and trying to convert me, but I was NOT sold on this whole church thing.
Experience number two was at the Evangelical church (located RIGHT next door) to my house in community based training. I was forced to go to a bible study where I was to read various verses and answer comprehensive reading questions. Awesome.

When I finally moved to Bombita, I made an effort to attend each church in the community to show my support and integration efforts to everyone (resilience, I tell ya without it no one would ever survive Peace Corps). They have Evangelical, Catholic, Seventh Day Adventist, Jehova's Witness, Baptist (I think..) and a witch doctor (I skipped this one, the hut looked scary). All of those churches...in a community of 1600 people? You have got to be kidding me.
As most of you know, my first community is among the poorest in the DR. Very few people have jobs, there are naked babies running around everywhere and (all jokes aside) lots of starving people. I mean skinny, starving people. In the Dominican Republic, when you go into someones house for a visit it's customary to be offered something. Be it juice, food or a meal. This basically never happens in Bombita because there just isn't enough food.
Wanna know what's even worse? When you're invited to stay for dinner at a house where you know there isn't enough food to feed their own children. Where you know people are starving because you have seen family members disappear to skin and bones in the few months I had lived there because someone lost their income. Clearly I have no business eating their food when I'm just fine and have my own income and food...but the family is insulted when I decline their invitation. Embarrassment for them because they know why I didn't stay. It's a lose lose situation! Ugh.
Kids used to come to my house and eat the papery coating from my onions because there was no lunch for them that day, their bellies full of parasites from eating whatever they can get their hands on. They'd pick through my garbage and take the most disgusting parts of the chicken that I would never eat and cook it themselves because they were hungry. People literally starving to death or dying from completely preventable illnesses.
On top of all of that, there's almost no water to cook or bathe and electricity is a joke.
Anyway, the point I'm getting at is this: Church is the only thing these people have to keep them going, to give them reason to keep living and to not focus so much on living in severe poverty, and I understand that. But given the situation that I wrote about above, I'm going to ask some extremely trying questions that I can't help but pose...

Where is God in all of this? When kids are born in to families who can't feed them, clothe them or send them to school? Can't pay for them to be legally documented in this country? People dying from illnesses and hunger, which are completely avoidable?
Here is hands down the worst part of all of this. The Evangelical church, for example, (which I especially have a problem with, in a second you'll read why) is the way it is because of US missionaries who have taught them to basically devote everything these people have to the church because apparently they will never amount to anything else. Rules that were brought here by them and ARE STILL IN PRACTICE TODAY include the following (from I don't know how many decades ago):

Women must cover their heads in church, women must wear skirts or dresses, women may not wear earrings or necklaces, women may not paint their nails or straighten their hair, women must sit on the other side of the church, members of the church may not dance or drink alcohol.

Notice a trend there? Almost all of those rules are for women. I'd like to know where in the bible does it say all of that? Sorry, but I'm not going to let some MAN tell me what I can and can't do.
All of these rules in combination with a male dominated culture (machista, ya heard of it?) makes for an extremely unpleasant situation for women and they were brought here by AMERICANS! Women are lacking self esteem, motivation, self worth and education. The church essentially teaches women that their purpose on this earth is to procreate. But back to Education. If these people put half of the time they put into church into education, this country would advance tremendously. Exponentially.
But instead as an American working here in the DR I am often mistaken for a missionary. You can imagine the frustration that this causes me as I often find myself combating the work of fellow American missionaries (and their stupid dated practices) when it comes to women's self empowement and motivation. Oh and by the way, it's often the teenage Evangelical girls who get pregnant. As you all know, contraception is a whole other animal with the church.

Sigh. On the other hand, many of my closest friends here in country are Evangelical and recognize that I am not going to convert and for many of them, poverty and church are all they know. It's a vicious cycle my friends, but I have a lot of hope for the future of this country.
My new host family is Catholic, by the way. I almost feel at home at church with them...almost. And it's not that this country has made me believe less of anything. I'm just throwing my thoughts out there for whoever feels like reading them.

Dios les bendiga, Kaley