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Coconut Climbing
I will explain in my next entry 5/28/12
An interesting observation that I have seen is that the people that I usually understand best happen to be really religious. In this context, I mean that they are Evangelical. Basically, this is the new religion that is growing pretty rapidly in Latin America. The biggest difference between Evangelical and Catholicism is that Evangelicals don’t drink or dance, and that their faith is 1000% stronger. I have already had quite a few talks with Evangelicals about their religion and I have been pretty open with my views, that I have even admitted that I question the existence of God every day of my life. That last statement I have only shared with Rudy because I trust him, however he is also Evangelical, which means that he takes the bible in a literal sense. He believes in creationism, the literal definitions of heaven and hell, and has no doubt in the existence of God. So never losing my directness, I of course ask how he believes in all of those ideals, and how he can be so sure of God’s presence. And with no malicious intent to challenge his views (because I could be a real asshole and just attack),
I ask innocently how he can explain dinosaurs if the Earth was only created in 8 days. This is an extremely well educated man, with a university degree, who believes in scientific principles. In my mind science and religion play almost a warring game with each other since their defining characteristics is in they way they approach the mental aspect of man. With science, you can literally question the hell out of everything. Nothing is off limits, especially if you can prove it with mathematically logic, principles, and equations. Whereas, to a certain point, religion is a leap onto a cloud that might drop you to your death or levitate you to another world. Just thinking about religion, makes me laugh about some of its issues. The funniest one to me is how Jesus is portrayed. I feel like I can almost guarantee this one, but Jesus was NEVER ever white. Jesus I’m sure looked closer to Osaba Bin Laden than Jim Caveziel. He was born in the Middle East (at least most people agree with that), hence Jesus could never be a WASP. Hell if I was black, I would have him as black because that argument is a good as the WASP one. That’s right, Jesus with a jerri curl or cornrows or an afro. That Jesus looks cool in my head. Haha!
Well onto another topic, which severely angers my soul, because I am white, I am automatically gorgeous. Don’t get me wrong, I think I am actually good-looking, but any white person here is automatically treasured. If you are an American or at least European, you can get the most attractive women/men here no matter what you look like. Every time I see a telenovela, and there is absolutely no one who is of any color, my heart and brain are just shouting on the inside. It’s just soooooo much accepted racism. Imagine that a population of a country is about 98% dark, but they only show white people in a position of power. What’s even crazier, is that the Spanish are revered here. At least in the US, Americans think they are the best in the world, at least enough to think that they would never revere the English. However, here, after all the terrible things the Spanish did here, they are still looked up at. Spanish colonialism, it’s like a serial cheater. You can’t be morally better person if you are the one who is cheating all the time. In America, racism is usually just in the background at least, but here it’s in your face. Take for example, my hair is here called pelo bueno (literally translated as good hair), and a stereotypical black person’s hair is called pelo malo (bad hair). I was in a discussion with 2 Dominicans about this and I asked them to explain to me why my hair is good and your hair is bad. They said that my hair can straighten and theirs can’t. I think dreds are some of the coolest thing on this earth. And then I asked, why can’t your hair be good and mine bad? Who gave those meanings to my/ your type of hair? I took the stakes even hair, by asking this question, What kind of hair do the Spanish have? And then I was going for more audacious, what would have happened in the Africans had colonized the Spanish? Who would have pelo bueno and pelo malo? Unfortunately, my vocab couldn’t produce that question? Damn! I am not afraid to ask these questions, especially when I ask them in an innocent tone (So devilish!). However, I just love controversial discussions, and Dominicans like talking about these as well so I can innocently question any topic I desire. Breaking balls sweetly! And I know, as my vocab/grammar improves, I’m going to ask even more difficult questions. Remember, no tengo verguenza! I’m pretty sure Peace Corps would never approve of this, and you can add getting naked everyday and taking baths with kids, teenagers, and adults. People ask me all the time, how I am adjusting and I always say, it’s not that hard to adjust here. I always lived a simple life, I love getting naked and peeing everywhere (the last 2 things I do not say…hahaha!). I want to automatically apologize ahead of time when I come back to the US, cause every second will be hard to not drop my pants and pee with unforgiving, unabashed freedom!
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