Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Abundance of Beauty

Most of you have probably already heard: the U.S. moves too fast. We know patience is a virtue, family time is valued, and hard work with no play means a heart attack at the ripe age of 55. But the pace is addicting, and our attraction to competition means we’re not slowing down ‘til Mr. Jones does first.

But maybe if we had [public] white sand beaches, crystal-clear oceans and large shady palms to rest under, siestas wouldn’t be so foreign. And maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t care to keep up with those Jones’.

The Dominican Republic may have a very poor population. Their streets may be jagged, their stray dogs rampant and their structure nonexistent. Despite it all, I’m beginning to realize they are incredibly wealthy in ways we discount in the U.S. Their soil is luscious – take a twig from a tree and stick it in the ground and in weeks you’ll have leaves sprouting. One mango seed planted in your backyard – no maintenance required – yields endless, delicious fruit. See a bush you’d like in your garden? Cut a few leaves from the plant, stick them in the ground, and there you have it. Compared to Minnesota, it seems impossibly magical.

Bananas, oranges, lemons and limes, almonds, cherries, guavas, pineapples, and mangos are among the fruits in endless supply, year round. Looking for protein (besides the almonds)? Down every street a local butcher is slicing and dicing meat killed, cut and cleaned just this morning only a few blocks away. It’s as local and organic as you can get. Looking for an item to sell on the go? Juices are easy and inexpensive to make, yet delicious enough for tourists to pay ridiculous amounts for.

Mix the foods up with the colors of sarongs and bright buildings and, looking past the crumbling cement walls, you’ve got yourself paradise. Homes hardly need windows because the breeze is worth the mosquito bites, and lizards will find their way in no matter what you’ve built. Laundry is washed and hung to dry, and if it’s a rainy morning? Don’t sweat it – by afternoon the clouds will clear and the clothes will dry. Actually, rainfalls hardly last long enough to grab an umbrella – you can wait the rain out under an awning and hardly waste any time.

So while we see them as a poor group of people, with outside influence of fancy TV’s and speedy vespas, these locals would realize how wealthy they are. No wonder the land was so hungrily sought after.





     


     

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