I was sitting in the car, waiting for the light to change, after delivering my companion off for her violin lesson, when I looked around me. There in front of my car were many, people trying to sell me stuff. They are at every intersection marketing different wares, fruit, windshield wipers, lottery tickets, avocados, newspapers, etc. I also looked at the pine trees in front of me and realized I am in a foreign country. The I looked at the corner through the intersection an saw a sign KFC. Sure enough the Colonel Sanders was there selling chicken. The US is here, in a slightly different form, etc. (No need to define the Domincan food, but there is a TGIF, a Tony Romas, Taco Bell, Dominos, Quiznos, McDonalds, Burger King, Pizza Hut, etc.)
I was driving home and was reminded of our maintenance man. He is often seen sweeping the dirt. He is also seen scrubbing down our parking pad with soap and water when our cars are not there. He is seen sweeping up the leaves that fall on the walk in front of our apartment. People down here are fanatic about having their homes clean. Then as you drive a block or two away, you are confronted with a smell of garbage. There in front of you is a stack of garbage sacks that is piled about as high as a small home. I am not kidding. The smell is awful. (I have seen some people going through the pile searching for "goods".) The good, the bad, and the ugly... Yes we have it here.
Then as I was driving home, I was behind a spankin' new BMW, or Audi, or whatever those expensive cars are. (I wouldn't know.) They must have driven off the show room floor, not an ounce of dirt or scratch on it, etc. There IS money down here, for the privileged (or wicked) few. And right next to it was an old 1972 thing that was still running that didn't have a place anywhere without a dent, scratch, or anywhere with the same color as the rest of the car, it must have just come out of the demolition derby, but still running.
Time. We have a member of the church who is our fumigator. He comes once a month to spray for bugs, and especially cock roaches (to save my companion). He wears a mask so be won't breath the fumes. We shut the place up, all windows closed to kill all bugs that happen to be hiding. It is an awful smell. After he sprays we go away for a time, then come home, open all the windows, clean up the spills or excess fumigation spray laying on the floor. Anyway, he arrives at exactly the time he said he would. I am impressed. For when we teach our five o clock class, we seldom start before 5:15 or 5:20, because if we did, no one would be there. We once went to a baptism which was scheduled to start at 6. We finally started at 7:45. It is a difficult lesson I have had to learn about scheduling, for it goes contrary to my makeup, not being on time, or at least trying to be on time. This country doesn't know the meaning of punctuality, or being on time.
There are many things to contrast here, but I won't go into the rest for you would get bored. But they are here....
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