Through The Eyes Of A Stranger

Some people say the best part of a vacation is coming home . "I dunno about dat I think I could have stayed another week "! Sun , surf and sand . What about that beautiful view "amazing" . Unless you leave the compound ! Then the view gets mighty bleak .
Our family went to the Dominican Republic this past week the hotel , the beach , the food , everything was great. Everything except the poverty ! This was the first time I've been to the Dominican but not the first time in the Caribbean and I've never seen sights like these . First I would like to say the people there are great , nice , hard working and have good family values . How do I know ? I talked to them . I found out most people who work , work in the service industry [ so please don't stop going there it could be worse ] others get by in less scrupulous dealings . Most of their teachers come from other country's but almost all children don't finish or even start school . Some of the lucky and talented kids get to go to art school but most become hotel staff or drivers [ drivers is a the only word I could think of ironically nobody on that island can drive ! If you have been there you know what I mean . "CRAZY" ! ] . Anyhoo... the wife and I decided to go on a couple of excursions . One was to take a catamaran cruise and snorkel with sharks and sting rays . If you ever get a chance to do this , do it ! My daughter had no fear out in the middle of the ocean swimming with nurse sharks , "she's nine" , brave little girl . We all had fun on that one . The other trip was a shopping excursion or was supposed to be a shopping trip . "What a fuck-up" ! First the van was late [ I know Caribbean time ] when he got there the van was a piece of shit Toyota half falling apart . I looked at wifey and said "ya gotta be kidd'n rite" ! " Wally I want to go shopping and get Christmas presents " . I'm like " Ahhh RRRR " ! Wifey looks at me " look you snob get in that bus 'NOW' "! " Besides we paid $70.00 and it's non refundable " " What da fuck ya talk'n about 70 bucks to buy trinkets " ? " Your fuck'n crazy "! Now guys who are married knows what comes next , you get on the bus . I figured eh " it's gonna rain anyhoo " . Sure ! And off we go . After about a hour we stop " nows peoples wes stop hears tos picks-up others peoples " our Guide mumbled . "Wa da fuck ya talk'n about , get me off dis bus now my f'n back is kill'n me " " Yous ca gets out and walks arounds" . " Thanx" ! As soon as I get out of the bus the smell hits me , waste , human waste , that smell is unmistakable . A little boy comes up to me " Mister , Mister I'm very hungry , very hungry " . I looked at his shoe box full of pop . " Mister do you want a drink " ? I dunno about you but I wasn't , nore will I be , that thirsty . I reached into my pocket and pulled out 5 bucks and gave it to him . " Ahh no pop thanx " . " Where am I " ? He told me the name of the village but I forgot what it was all I know it was poor , very poor . " Hey kid you want a job as a guide you speak better than ours " ! " He smiled and laughed he got the joke . This kids pretty bright , fuck did he get a rotten break . Just as I was gonna ask him about the area the guide chases the kid off " Vamos beggers " ! A half hour latter another piece'o'shit van pulls up and out pops eighteen very large black women . I look at wifey " Ya gotta be kidd'n rite " . " There's no way they'er gonna fit on this piece'o'shit " . " Shut The Fuck Up , they'll hear you " . " Sit Down And Shut The Fuck Up" ! My wife has a way of looking at things , a way most don't , she has real spiritual feeling sometimes . This was one of them , she said "We're here for a reason keep your mouth shut and learn a little " . I didn't get it at all . All I knew was these women couldn't get down the aisle . "Yous with di hat , Roots hat get up , moves ta do seat back " I think the guide was talk'n to me I look to the seat behind me and a large black women is sitting there and there wasn't much of a seat left maybe 4" . Ahhh Fuck , this sucks !!! I sit on my 4" piece of cushion and force a smile at the older lady. She smiles back " Honey you really got the short end of the stick today didn't you Mmmhhm" as she pushes her ass against the wall of the bus to make room for me . Her smile was real and not forced . I look over at the wife and she shoots me a look like don't say anything stupid you asshole . I look into her eyes and say " I'm Wally " . " Well nice to meet you Wally sorry I can't get over any further but as you can see I'm not a small person " . " Hey everyone Aida has a friend , son you're in for it , you are " the lady in the next seat piped up. " Oooooh Ha ha oooo !" the hole bus erupts with laughter . I didn't know if I should laugh or cry . " I'm Aida and this is all my sisters from our University's graduation class " . " This is our forty eight..." " Aida shuts you mouth it's our twentieth anniversary "one of the ladies yells. They all start laughing and off we go ...Again . About an hour down the road Aida and I are getting to know each other I've flirted with her and I've told a couple of off color jokes . Aida laughs at every joke with great vigor . She has a fantastic sense of humor with a great laugh , full of highs and lows . Aida told me all about her traveling adventures with some of the ladies . One stuck out though , when she went to China . Seems the Chinese don't see to many black people especially well endowed ones . The men would walk right up to her and stare right at her large bosoms . They would point at them and talk to their friends while looking down her top . That's f'n funny ! We are looking out the window at the sights , laughing and just as we come into the sugar cane fields I see a sight I've never seen before [ at least not in person ] ' real absolute poverty ' . Ran-shackled huts with no walls steel roofs , sugar cane and mud everywhere . The people are looking at us with downward eyes . I blurt out " Holly Shit My God " ! "Wa da fuck is this " ? Aida looks at me " LIFE" ! " Life for them" . " I look at that little girl over there and I see myself , I see myself as a child ". " Your kidd'n right it couldn't be that bad where you grew up "? " Child when I grew up we were segregated outside of Memphis , we had nothing " . " Yup when I look at dat child I see me " ! " You went to University, how could you afford the tuition " ? " My mother cleaned houses and did white peoples laundry" . " She worked very hard for me , also tuition's weren't that high then . I also borrowed from family and friends ". " Everyone chipped in for me to get an education " . I felt like shit . I blew my education when I quit school and left hockey . I didn't want to say I always had it easy . That I had schools after me to play hockey for them and I more or less told them to fuck-off . I was thinking I could have had a free ride through school just because I could stop a puck but I was to lazy , unmotivated , spoiled. As we drove through the sugar cane Aida told me about all the girls on the bus , how they are all doctors , social workers , lawyers , pharmacists ... all very successful women in their fields . Aida's field was school teacher for troubled children . Aida now lives in Los Angele's near Compton . If you don't know about Compton let's just say it's not Beverley Hills 90210 . I was about to ask why she moved to that area of the country when it dawned on my small brain , she moved there to give back . She could have gone anywhere but she picked a hard-luck area to help where it needed it most . OK now I know this is not your average woman . It took a bit , but now I'm there , now I understand . Aida told me about the south in the 1950's how blacks weren't even third class people that they didn't matter , they were around only to do menial labour . How most blacks who had any land , it was usually stolen with back taxes or sold at a very devalued price . Hood-winked . I guess I knew what the south was about but I never heard about it first-hand . " Yous given that boy a history lesson Aida " ? the woman in the next seat spying over ." No , not really we're just talk'n girl " . She wasn't given me a history lesson she was given me a life lesson I was think'n . The rest of the ride was rather dull except a river or two and a village built to emulate a village in Italy [ that was pretty ] but I couldn't get that sugar cane fields out of my mind and what Aida said . On the way back da wife looked over at me and whispered " How's your girlfriend " ? " Great I think I'm gonna take her on a motorcycle trip to the Grand Canyon " . Aida pipes up " I'm not go'n on any motorcycle and I've already seen the Grand Canyon" . I think Aida's seen more than the Grand Canyon I think she's seen and felt everything life has to offer the good , the bad , and the very ugly . She has reached up grabbed sky , reached down and pulled others up with her . It was a real pleasure meeting , talking , sharing life stories and I'm better for it . As we got off the bus I shook Aida's hand good-bye I felt bad that she wasn't going with us . Aida said " take care " . " Aida the pleasure was all mine ". I looked over at wifey " See I told you we were here for a reason ". " You learned a little something today didn't you " ! Fuck , is that woman ever wrong ? Love Ya Hon Da Wallycrawler .