to share/compartir

It's been several days since I have set down long enough at a computer to write a blog post, which is and of itself is a beautiful thing--a bit of disconnection from my techno-reality has been welcomed. The last ten days have been magical...meeting new people, being exposed to new situations, sharing new realities and moments. I continue to feel guided in this journey.

Given the lapse in blogging, I have many moments to choose from. I am going to focus on some really wonderful instants of compartiendo I have experienced these past days.

Last week my classmates and I started talking a lot with our teacher, Beatzida, about la comida dominicana. We found out through our conversations that her grandmother used to run a cafeteria here in Santo Domingo, and throughout her childhood she was trained by her abuela in the restaurant. As we discussed tostones, habichuelas, arroz con guandules, pescado del coco, jugos frescos, it became obvious that Beatzida knows how to prepare basically every Dominican dish and cooks with a lot of love! After class last Monday, I asked her if she would be willing to teach me how to cook a meal and allow me to document it for my project.

Well, this conversation led to an afternoon-long adventure with my classmates, Beatzida, her cousin and boyfriend, an afternoon of sharing and learning about one another's food histories. I shared my love for cooking, which comes from my father and grandmothers, while she talked about her abuela's restaurant and her aunt, who currently is training to be a chef and inspires her to learn new recipes and try different foods. After school last Wednesday, we went to the open air markets and purchased fish and produce for our meal, including fish, shrimp, avocados, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, carrots, ginger, onions, garlic, lettuce, beets, leeks, oregano, limes, and plantains. We ran by a supermarket to pick up several canned ingredients we needed and got stuck in an afternoon tropical storm. The storms here are quite magical and don't have to stop life; I'm learning that being stuck in the rain can be a beautiful thing. We arrived back to the apartment, nine-deep in a tiny taxi, drenched, and ready to begin preparing this feast! The menu included the following dishes:

~ mero de coco
~camarones con salsa de queso y hongos
~arroz moro con guandules
~tostones
~ensalada de vegetal
~ensalda rusa
~jugo de limon
~ postres frances

For the next three hours, I worked alongside Beatzida learning how to prepare each dish, and with the help of several other students we made food magic! Jay recorded the process and captured some really great footage of Beatzida's love for Dominican cooking. The end product was beyond description, perfectly prepared dishes that were devoured in silence by the 12 friends present for our feast. This meal, from market to plate, was prepared with intention and love.

When the house cleared around 9:00 and I had a moment to reflect, I realized how nice it felt to share this beautiful apartment with Beatzida, her loved ones, and my classmates. When we take a moment out of our days to truly share time and space with other people, new worlds and experiences can open up to us. This is at the core of why I love to travel. These moments of sharing inevitably evolve my perspective and understanding of the world. I leave each moment richer for the intercambio.

Moving along with the theme of sharing....almost two weeks ago I shared a random, yet fated conversation at a bar called la espirral (the spiral) a fitting name for the connection I made. As I ordered my caipirinha, a conversation was struck about the United States. I found out that Dante, a Dominican now living in New Jersey, comes down to the Dominican Republic each summer to work with students in a summer film program--what a serendipity! This program, sponsored by Vin Diesel's One Race Global Flim Foundation, Fundación Global Democracia y Desarollo, Wyclef Jean's Yelé Háiti, and other groups I am now forgetting, brings students from various countries to DR each summer to study screenplay writing and film production. Dante went through the program as a student in 2006 and now serves as a teaching assistant each year.

As we talked, I explained to him a bit about my work as an educator in the United States and my deep interest in the development of 21st century linguistics curriculum that is based in the advancement of technology products--public service announcements, poster projects, music videos, short documentaries, etc. We discussed the video project I am currently working on about my experience in the Dominican Republic, and he offered to let me tour the Fundación Global Democracia y Desarollo to see the students' at work. I was blown away by what I found and returned a couple times last week to help with translations.

In its inception, the program was designed to help build the Dominican film industry through teaching script writing and technical skills to young Dominicans trying to get into the industry.
However, this year marked the development of global consciousness in the program. Focusing on the issue of of border conflicts, they brought students from Haiti and the Dominican Republic together along with students from Israel and Palestine. This added a whole new element to their project work, an aspect that fascinates and inspires me. I see so much potential in where they are moving with this work...the interweaving of screenplay writing and critical issues facing our world today, a beautiful, powerful combination of forces. I was invited to attend the graduation ceremony for the program last Saturday, and sat behind the president of the Dominican Republic...yes, in this country the president sits in the audience with his body guards. :)

It was an unforgettable night, a night that was also documented for my project so I won't say too much more.

I am learning, sharing, listening, discussing, and just taking in all I can right now. This, sometimes, gets in the way of regular blogging, but I am sure you can understand. I will do my best to keep up with the posts in these remaining 18 days of travel. This has been a journey that has already taken me much farther than I am able to communicate via the internet. Lilly, I must say thank you for the renewal.