After eight months here I am believing more than ever, that there is nothing I can do to "fix it". The best I can do is to bear witness to "it" and enjoy the sunshine.
They warned Steph before she left Canada that the pace of life would be much slower here and that she should expect to be bored. This is very true. Corruption, disorganization and lawlessness are a part of every day life and they mean that it can take all day to do nothing. Traffic jams mean that people run out of gas idling their engines. It is not uncommon to see cars and motorcycles on side walks. There is no emergency response. Most children go to school for only two or three hours a day. It takes three hours to have lunch. The poor are at risk of malnutrition and all sorts of horrible disease. The rich go for days without interacting with their children. The middle class is almost non-existent. Then there is Haiti: a gut-wrenching example of how different brands of colonialism can leave one country relatively rich and another completely without any infrastructure. One person here who has been to Haiti a couple of times told us that they should have just started a new city after the earthquake hit. Billions of dollars have been invested and almost nothing has happened. If I went to "help" I would just be in the way, one more mouth to feed, like everyone else. The greatest hope seems to be getting people out of there. There are 2 million Haitians in the DR. I often wonder how many people our Haitian fruit guy could get out of Haiti with a couple hundred dollars. I guess I should ask him. There is so much here that I wish I could change, but it won't change for anyone.
And who am I to think I know what is best? Dominicans are way happier than Canadians. Life expectancy, literacy, education, health care and wealth don't seem to be all they are cracked up to be. From what I've seen here, it is more important to have music to dance to, lots of sunshine and fresh fruit than any of the things I value as a Canadian. As my friend the Rabbi says: "Who is rich? He who is satisfied with his lot. Who is poor? He who is not satisfied with his lot." I have never been in a country as rich as this. Life is celebrated every day. The whole country shuts down for a month at Christmas, Carnaval and Easter. Then in the summer it is too hot to think about doing anything other than going to the beach or drinking a cold beer.
In Spanish a fairly common response to the question "how are you?" is "conformed". It basically means, "fine" or "content". Am I too tightly wound to "conform" to the party atmosphere of this country? Yes. But if anything is going to come out of the time I have spent here it will have to be a change in me.
*The power has just flashed off, but this is not a surprise. The responsibility is on me to make sure I am ready for any turn of events. If I am lucky the changes that the DR has made in me will stick. My dreams for this place are irrelevant.