Oily Men in the Carnaval Parade - Help Please

  Okay, I now have almost 300 photos edited from my winter in the Dominican Republic, and I'm about to start compiling the Photo Journal, the coffee table book that has been the object of this cultural project.
  But I need your help.  I feel that I have a working knowledge of the culture from living there for extended periods of time, but I've been stumped by a couple of things and would like to have my readers help me gain some background information on these things before I begin on the book.  My goal is to have the book ready by the end of April.
  Here's one of my puzzles:  While shooting the Carnaval Parade in the town of Samana, I photographed some guys who were covered with oil - at least I think it was oil.  I touched the one guy and sure enough I ended up with a black smudge that I had to stop and clean off before handling my camera any further.
  Besides the oily guys in this entourage, there were also a guy with his hands bound in cuffs, a "tyrant" behind them flogging them with a branch, and they were taking donations with a big can and a bag.
  What is the back story on this tradition?  What do these guys represent?  If some of you would do some research and link me to the information, I'd be very thankful.  If you come up with some good stuff, I'll mention you as a contributing researcher in the book.
  Email me or make a comment here on the blog with the links.  My email is: rasims@juno.com
  Thank you!
Oh, here's the link to the photo gallery I'm working from for this book:
http://simsshotsphotography.zenfolio.com/p391431575

Okay, folks, I've had some people help me out with some great resources.  It turns out that Los Africanos pictured here are representing the original African slaves who were brought to the Dominican Republic and became part of the Dominican heritage.  They take donations from bystanders who don't want to be hugged by them!

The Seaside Economy

  There are markets throughout the community.  Everybody's trying to make a living in a mostly agricultural area that is strengthened with a bit of tourism.  Some work with the tourists to serve as guides for ATV safari's, or paint oil paintings at night under a single light bulb, hoping to make a sale to a tourist in a few days.  This fellow runs a fruit and gift market in a shack along the road to one of the popular beaches.  These guys have to learn second and third languages in order to do well; there is a mix of tourists from Canada, Germany, France and a very few Americans.  When we stopped to get some pictures at his shop, he came out asking if I wanted to speak in Spanish, English, German or French.  Gotta hand it too em', they work hard to make a few bucks.

  I've been home for 10 days now and have edited about 75 photos for my gallery and photo journal.  I'm hoping to have all of it ready by April.  Start viewing the photos that I have posted already on my photo website. This link takes you right to the Dominican Culture gallery:

  http://simsshotsphotography.zenfolio.com/p391431575

  

The Family Business

The fishing community functions as a large extended family. The men go to sea every day on the boat, the boys fish from shore, and everybody - brothers, cousins, uncles - comes to the shore late in the afternoon to help pull the boats out of the water and haul the equipment and catch back home.

Fisherboys

Even the young boys contribute to the family business of supplying seafood for the table or the nearby market. They use a single fishing line wrapped around a plastic water bottle and expertly ply the waters from shore. It's a slow and methodical mode of operation, but it works. Sometimes. I was impressed with the patience and talent with which these boys worked, and without any supervision; their dads and uncles were out on the ocean after all, bringing in the bigger stuff.
The neighbors have become familiar with my presence by now and seem to enjoy finding photos opps for me; I have been invited to shoot the local baseball games, the school, and many families and their small family businesses. I'm getting more ideas for my upcoming photo journal.

Young Fishermen and the Sea

I have arrived at my winter seaside home in the Dominican Republic and already met a bunch of the local fishermen. My posts will probably be quite short because the absence of internet; I have to go to town to connect, so here's a photo of the guys dragging their boat out of the sea in the later afternoon. This process is repeating every day as the men leave every morning for a day on the ocean - usually two guys in each boat - and then return with their catch in the late afternoon. They have to recruit a crew to move the boat each time.
More later.

The Young Men and the Sea Project

  This is to announce my next photojournalistic project, a cultural study of an obscure community of fishermen and subsistence farmers located on a remote coastline in the Dominican Republic - and how their traditional way of life is affected by the growing tourism in their neighborhood.  I hope to tell their story in photos and a bit of commentary, producing a photo journal that will make a nice coffee table book to be offered at Amazon.com and other book sellers later this year.
  I have often thought it would be nice to live in a quiet seaside village for a while, and I am pursuing that dream this winter as my wife, Kaye, and I head down to the tropics for a wintertime hiatus, living next door to some fishermen and following them around and capturing a few glimpses of their laid-back culture.
  This is the place to find my project updates as I am actually starting to write the book by posting my encounters here, on the Travel/Culture side of Where the Robert Meets the Road.  (My other, most-read blog is a partner to this one and is the more philosophical platform where I comment on religion, politics, and spiritual journey. To go there now, click the link at the right side of this page in the pop-out menu.)
  If you want to follow the The Young Men and the Sea project, simply subscribe to this blog by clicking the Subscribe button on the right.
 Thank you!

Fishing boats on the beach in front of my winter home near the fishing village of Las Galeras, Dominican Republic

Stephen the Voyager- the Backstory

  In the two years since he graduated from high school, Stephen has sailed around the world, and I mean it; he really has-- along with 400 other shipmates. Not only that, but he is moving to Nepal next and plans to stay there awhile.

 While on a photo shoot at the historical re-enactments at Bay City, Michigan, last September, I met some of the company that Stephen had been camping with while he was in high school.  They were a French and Indian War group dressed in red coats, and they had traveled as far away as New York state to participate in war re-enactments on some of the historic battlefields.  They attended several sites every summer, camping in old-fashion canvas tents, sleeping on cots, and cooking in iron kettles on a campfire.

  But the backstory on Stephen is that right after graduating from high school, he took off to volunteer for a humanitarian organization, serving a two-year stint as a cook in the galley of the Logos Hope, a huge ship that is the world's largest floating bookstore.  He embarked when the ship was in the port of Trinidad in the Caribbean and stayed on to visit ports from West Africa to the Canary Islands, through the Mediterranean and the Suez Canal to Dubai, India, and Sri Lanka.  At every port the crew sold or gave away thousands of books and educational materials and held seminars on board.  Steve often accompanied groups who went on shore to conduct clinics or improve damaged schools, homes and churches.

  At his high school graduation people were predicting that Stephen would go a long way in life.  Little did they know that he would do it within two years.  And yes, he's leaving for Nepal presently.  There must be somebody in need of a young humanitarian over there, so he's on his way.  I wonder if he'll be camping in a canvas tent over there and cooking on a campfire.  I can't wait to hear his next backstory; maybe I'll write about that one when he returns, whenever that is; he apparently hasn't set a date for coming back home to Michigan again.