"Life is a hectic ratrace driven by business and succeess! Success is then appreciated by going someplace where money, time and material things is no longer important and life is ohhh so so simple. I worked for that and I treausre it!"......
In Canada or in my circle which is not to say its everyone's so I will clarify that..."We live to work"....in the DR...they "Work to live".....I remember one Sunday on the Malecon particularly when I realized ..."this is where I fall in love with this country", ....in Canada, on Sunday I work to get ready for Monday, in Santo Domingo, the people I met thought this was crazy, ....they celebrate with so much happiness on Sunday...as they do on so many occasions.....
I have yet to post about my summer experience...and I hope sometime soon to do so, however, being back in this hectic work world I live in.....but when I returned to Canada, many people were waiting for my "horrific"...."dangerous" experiences...to some extent people even taunted me to talk negatively about my experience which really frustrated me...
I teach grade 9 students, and I told them a story about a Dominican bus that dead center of Winston Churchill to tell me they thought I was going the wrong direction one day, because when I got off I told them I needed to go to the Multi Centro, when I really had to get to that corner, and then proceed right to Gold's Gym....well the people on the bus figured I was going the wrong way, and this was day two of my summer experience, so I knew very little spanish......the next thing I knew this big GREY bus stopped in the middlle of the road to get the guy that collects money to run over and turn me around...because none of us knew how to communicate ......then I said to my students. "Can you imagine that happening here in Canada?"...Do you think one of the metro buses would even notice that a foreigner might be going the wrong direction, let alone care.....and they were very quiet,...
and I explained, that I do not think Canadians are necessarily unfriendly or uncaring, it is just not part of our culture, and for me the remainder of my trip unfolded in exactly the same experiences. Beautiful people, rich and poor, that continued to do whatever they could to protect me, help me, and show me a good time. From the 2am arrival in Santo Domingo, ...to the 5am departure, I was surrounded by some of the nicest people I have ever met in my life.
I am hoping to return, ...in fact planning to return for two years next September to teach. Perhaps more than 7 weeks will change my view...I am not sure, 7 weeks was not very long....but I can say that I did the A1 in March and knew that I wanted to go back, ...now I have done 7 weeks in the Capital, and arrived there not knowing a single person......and the one thing I continue to say, is how much I love the person that I am, when I am there, and that the greatest part of my experiences, have been the people that I have been surrounded by....