Mama y Madrina come to the campo

A day in the life…… Mom and Auntie Eileen came to visit the small, Dominican campo of Duveaux, San Cristobal and I think they got a pretty accurate look at my life in the D.R. All my neighbors, community members, anyone and everyone really were all wide-eyed and honored to meet and greet. We schlepped all around the campo because everyone wanted to see, watch and sit with my mom and “Aunt.” My Mom and Eileen patiently sat in plastic chairs while campesinos just stared. Eileen brought letters from Fairhaven High to Duveaux and all my Escojo kids anxiously selected their future husbands and wives! We are attempting a cross-cultural/ pen pal relationship between middle school and high school students of Duveaux and Fairhaven High. The idea is that they can ask each other questions and learn about one another’s cultures. My Escojo kids however only see romantic potential! They devotedly chose their match and began writing. They also wanted photos to accompany these pictures; so of course, we went through the thousands of pictures of them on my computer and chose the perfect one. We also talked at length about how their new found romances will receive these pictures electronically. (Many of them have not been on the internet before) Some asked for their email addresses, but I told them that they, themselves needed an email address to send an email! I suppose I would be asking the same questions had I not gone through adolescence while technology too was simultaneously hitting puberty so to speak. So, we will wait to see what unfolds, but until then, Escojo Mi Vida de Duveaux is learning to write love letters! I am not encouraging it, but it is pretty awesome to see them get so excited about writing a letter!
Back to the visit with the fam. Mixing cultures is a funny business, but oddly enough it wasn’t all that strange this time around. I may be more used to it or my community is more accustomed to peculiar behavior, but somehow I was unfased when my mom and Eileen brought out their sun hats, cheese, crackers & wine and sat down at my picnic table. Sure, they could have been in an ad for J.Crew, but somehow I think all the Dominicans surrounding them would have been airbrushed out. Regardless, all my neighbors were of course very welcoming and excited; maybe a little too much because my Mom & Eileen hit the hay long before the evening banter came to a close at the picnic table. Nonetheless, we had a great time and family is really important in Dominican culture, so my Dominicans were happy to meet more of my family and friends and I was proud to show them off. There just isn’t a better cross-cultural exchange, than real life, American family spending a sleepless (dogs barking, roosters crowing, etc.) night in the campo under a mosqiutero.