Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Camping with Kevin

Every day with Kevin Allison is a good day. This past weekend I was blessed with the opportunity to go camping with “muchachos,” a reality not often realized here in the Dominican Republic. A kind of peace overtook me with the kids that I previously hadn’t experienced in Peace Corps life. We were in our natural element. Unlike any other environment, nature has a way of relaxing the mind and placing one in the present moment. In one of the loudest countries in the world Kevin and I sought to find a natural, tranquil site where the noise of bustling civilization was non-existent. We solicited funds to take kids out into the tropical landscape that is their back yard and go camping.

After 3 days of adventure they hopefully understand their surroundings, the cardinal directions, how to gather firewood, set up a tent, and work in a team to accomplish the art of communal camping. I feel blessed to have arrived at this kind of wilderness adventure with my youth group here in Ojo de Agua. They are impressive kids with a desire to consume all that is new and undiscovered. So with my best Peace Corps buddy we decided we wanted to share the activities that were most fulfilling to us like living as close as possible to the beauty of God’s natural ecosystems. We ate rice and chicken, cooked over open flame, and juiced fresh lemons off of wild trees. We threw rocks and bathed with buckets under the stars, and even constructed a bond fire, told stories, and masterfully roasted marshmallows showing Dominicans how to properly make an American S’more.

These kinds of memories –sleeping under the stars and slipping out of my sleeping bag to mom’s clear call for breakfast of fresh hotcakes fresh off the griddle—are experiences that I’ve guarded in my bank of valuable childhood experiences. They are experience I want every kid in the world to experience. However, sometimes poverty can suffocate the flame of adventure and exploration because families don’t imagine a life outside their own neighborhood. Despite the depressed living situations or lack of basic public services, like water and electricity (that may lead to a certain level of discomfort), ones neighborhood is where these kids feel most at home. Disturbing sounds of muffler less motors, chickens crowing, domestic abuse, loud radios, and tightly packed living quarters all create part of the atmosphere that defines the neighborhood of Ojo de Agua. If such realities are not present then one may feel out of their element.

So I’ve come to understand how the silence of nature can somewhat disturb a Dominicans own sense of home or normalcy. What we feed ourselves daily becomes habit. My teenage host sisters, Lisanna and Lizbet, and friend Genesis all were all welcomed to go camping, not know they would enter an environment very different from what they’ve know as reality. They are superstars in the house, washing dishes, mopping floors, shinning toilets, frying up dinner, baby sitting little brother, etc. However, not being able to bathe in a private shower, sleep atop a mattress, or being told that it would be fun to hike to the top of a mountain just to spend a night far from the reaches of electricity offered a challenge and a healthy dose of complaints. I discovered the weakness of my bright intelligent host sisters. They don’t know what it means to rough it a little in the wilderness for the sake of connecting with the life that is natural and un-manipulated. I would certainly call these girls down to Earth, but they have no experience with “Earth” because the evil hand of machismo has kept them coupted up inside the home repeating the same chores their mothers learned at an early age. Lizbet, 14 years old, told me yesterday was the first time in her life she had touched a mule. It surprised me because we live in a town where almost daily I see young boys galloping past on the asphalt roads with the reigns of their horse in hand. Yet, this girl has never touched such an animal until I invited her out on a trip where she learned to place a saddle on a mule’s back. It was and anomaly I didn’t expect to confront.
Character development comes with exposure to the new. It’s been rewarding introducing kids to the beauty that exists in pure nature.

Wake up in your sleeping bag watching the sun rise and your stomach beckoning a fresh cooked breakfast. It’s you… literally grounded.

Peace,
Jared