People are just people where ever you go

This is theme, about people, all people, came about as some friends living here from the US related being peppered with questions about living here. For instance do we have stars and rainbows here, like in the US. Yes, and unicorns, and fire-breathing dragons! I guess its better than the view the DR is a step below a third world country. Then come the questions about crime, drugs, with that preposterous self-centered superiority of a country plagued with ignorance, fear, and greed. Its back to the people, what its like here is the people, not the breath-taking beaches, mountains, agriculture, wildlife(yes I am talking about tarantulas!)...or the stars or rainbows, or extreme patterns of Monty Python clouds cavorting across the southern hemisphere's blue blue sky. I love the people here. I have enjoyed them the most away from the more 'cosmopolitan' areas of the country, in small villages and towns. They all have a similar readiness to smile, to offer to help, to talk to you despite the communication barrier with their own brand of rapid-fire sloppy home-grown spanish, where they often drop the entire last syllable, and run it all together without moving their lips...and they are genuine in their desire to share what they have with you, offer you a coffee or a cup of their beer, fix your flat tire, or whatever they perceive the need to be. I was amazed one morning driving to Samana the number of children walking to school, uniformed in light blue shirts, kakhi pants and skirts, knee socks, black shoes, hair in multicolored baubles. Lots and lots, all sizes, holding hands, in groups, alone, several on a single motorcycle whizzing by, all full of big white-toothed smiles. On the way home the same day around noon there they were, all running and skipping home. What they actually are taught or learn is up for debate as the education system, government budgeted at 4% annually and a known 2% funding, is very little. And families send their kids at great expense for uniforms, books, and the required government paperwork. In assisting my previous Haitian farm manager to get 5 out of 7 of his kids in school, it was a private tutor for Haitian creole to Spanish, many trips to obtain documentation, and a very pricey trip to the department store to outfit the five in two sets of uniforms , underwear, belts, shoes, socks , books, paper, pens and pencils, and lots of erasers. None of these things are part of everyday life here, all specialty items for the privileged and able. The local elementary two-room school does not have running water or electricity. The teachers there are a set of twins who switch on and off, I never know which one I am speaking with, and they have varying states of poor health themselves , having been separated at birth, and seem quite fragile and gnome-like in their bespectacled middle age...So far the neighborhood has put some tubo, aka cheap plastic pipe that was probably pre-cracked in places, in a shallow gutter along the road, and across it in several places, for water run from the street up a tortuous hill and rocky with grand canyon sized potholes. And we are working with the mayor to donate electrical wire to run from the nearest box to the school. Back to people, and children , and the genuine quality that comes across their faces as they come at you ,driving on the wrong side of the road, or going the wrong way on a one-way road. They can stop on a dime to talk to a friend on the road, or back up at a rapid-fire pace to return to a storefront , or to talk to that friend on the side of the road. They love the road, the "calle", the street where they congregate each evening, and pull their chairs out to sit during the heat of the day. Alone or in groups, sometimes with a hot domino game in progress, they will sit, balance on the very edge of the street and visit, watch the cars and motorcycle pass. Babies are passed hand to hand, held out to the next family member, and the events of the day, stories of love and affairs, the weather, long conversations day in day out make what could appear to be a boring, hard existance into a deeply social animated culture.