September 11, 2008

The people here in the DR are incredibly hospitable and generous, and even more so here in the campo. When you visit a house you will be asked to sit, though it seems more of a command than an invitation and you will inevitably be served a coffee or juice at some point during your visit. I was out visiting families and community leaders today and I ended up drinking 6 glasses of fresh fruit juice, including cherry (cereza), lime (limon), melon (melon) and passion fruit (chinola) in addition to a coffee and a few oranges (naranjas) off the tree. I was in heaven!

Because we don’t go to the grocery store every time we have a craving for something like avocados or bananas, you gotta eat the oranges too when they’re ripe. So many days my extended family and I harvest a pile of them and sit for any hour peeling and eating until our lips hurt.

I spent the evening hours today in a small wooden house playing dominoes with my teenage brothers. The light had gone out just as the sun set and not long after a beautiful storm moved in, bringing thunder, lightning and a ton of water. With downpour loud on the tin roof the four of us played dominoes for hours by candlelight, teasing and laughing the entire time.

Various people in my community acknowledged today as a day to recognize for the United States. Dominicans have a strong connection with the United States, so many of their families are in New York and more are joining our society every day. I was proud, on the anniversary of a day we mourn, a day when many people realized that our foreign policy might need some improvement, to be an American who has chosen to engage in the cultural exchange with other countries. I read the book Three Cups of Tea since I’ve been here, a story of a man who gives his life to build schools in a part of the world where it seems that every obstacle is in his way. He finds in his travels that a cause of Anti-American terrorism from the Middle East is a lack of positive educational options. He ventures to believe then that building schools, rather than bombing entire countries of people, is the answer…hmm…what a concept.

I highly recommend reading it.

I am currently reading Truman, a huge biography of Harry S. Truman, Be Bold, a book about people who have chosen to start non profit organizations like Teach for America as their life’s work, Educating Esme, a hilarious journal of a wonderful person’s first year of teaching and Tropical Nature, a unique piece of writing describing the biology of the tropical forest ecosystem in a very accessible, interesting form.

The juice I made with the gorgeous cheeries pictures above. Of course they're no Michigan cheeries but they're alright anyway.