The Dominican Time-Warp

This beautiful land has a talent for taking your time and doing crazy things with it. Some days, each moment will drop languidly over you like a drop of honey from a spoon. These are usually the sweltering hot days where all you can manage is to lay half naked in the shade thanking each precious breeze for, at the very least, moving the air from its stale state. Or on rainy and cloudy days when your bed insists on your constant presence. Other days, time washes over you like a cold bucket bath, waking you sharply. These moments run by you and suddenly you find yourself, 20 days away from home, wondering how that first day is so far gone. Wasn’t it yesterday you found yourself stepping off a plane, exhausted from layovers? And in the same moment, you feel there was never a beginning to this summer, after all, this place is home now. You look forward to the end of the week, when you can come “home” to your squeaky green cot and mosquito net. You have morning rituals, cold bucket baths have become refreshing, washing clothes in a bucket of soapy water, normal. The people around you know your moods. They hug you when you’ve had a hard day, laugh with you when the world around you is full of joy and ridiculousness.

You realize how much you will miss those palm trees that wave above you, their long, slender, silvery trunks reaching to the sky whom they tickle with their smooth, green fingers. You know your belly will ache with dissatisfaction when a huge pot of white rice and pinto beans doesn’t appear in front of you at lunch. You aren’t sure whether it will be the food or the motherly dominican hand that made it which you will miss most. It is not just the food, the place, or the people that you will miss, it will be the entire life you have here, which is what it is because of these things. Maybe you will appreciate the constant convenience of electricity and water more. Maybe you will appreciate the clean smell of the United States and it’s cooly air-conditioned buildings. Most definitely, you will appreciate the moments you’ve had here and the moments that are to come.

With all this in mind, I prepare to have a wonderful week! I look forward to taking advantage of each moment. I can’t wait to see all the completed CBI’s and campamentos. I am so proud of all my volunteers and youth counterparts and have enjoyed watching them change and grow over the summer and I am so thankful for all they have taught me. I am excited to spend time with my staff, being crazy, dancing to the light gods to bring back the electricity, playing dominoes and generally having a good time.

PA’LANTE!