Rita

It would be very easy to write more often about the idiots that I deal with on a regular basis. Normally, if I am dealing with a Dominican there is very little good to say about them. In fact, it is very hard to include people in a post who are normal, I deal with so few. For those reasons, I am delighted to write this post.

I noticed when I first came here that when traveling around I would see groups of women with children out together on weekends. I was struck by how often I saw this. It didn't take long before I realized that the reason behind this was that men here think nothing of having children and then abandoning the mother and the children. The responsibility becomes too much. It's easier to just get out. So they do. Of course, this puts an awesome responsibility on the mother, a responsibility with which, most of the time, they are not equipped to cope. They do the best they can, OR, they give up as well. They can't really just leave the kids so they do the next best thing. They give the children to their grandparents, again usually just the grandmother (the grandfather split a long time ago). Now the grandmother has the burden of raising her grandchildren. It wasn't enough that she raised her own kids, now the grandchildren become her responsibility as well. I would have to guess that usually this does not work out well. However, sometimes it works out great.

Rita is Massiel's grandmother (she still lives with her husband). Massiel's mom gave her to Rita to raise shortly after she was born. She took her back at age 7. She lived "with her mother" for four years. Well, actually she was being cared for by someone else, but they were in the same country for 4 years. Then Massiel came back to the DR and lived with her father for 2 years. Then it was back to Rita. Sometimes I make fun of Massiel, but she is really a wonderful person, maybe the nicest person that I have met in the DR. She is honest, smart, hardworking, and just really a good soul. (I am getting laid tonight,with or without this testimonial.) I believe that people's upbringing determine the type of adult that they become.

Massiel's aunt, somewhere along the way, decided that raising her three kids was too much for her. She dumped them on Rita, as well. The boy, Jose, has moved out of the house and is working. He is a very sweet young man. The two girls, Jessica and Kiara are amazing. They are as good as you could ever hope children would be. One is 12 and the other 14. They often come to our house to sleep. When they do, as soon as they enter the door, they take out their books and start doing their homework. They work hard. They have become wonderful students and share all of the qualities that I find so appealing in Massiel. I believe that they are as they are because of Rita.

Tonight, Mother's Day, we took Rita out for dinner, a small and woefully inadequate show of appreciation to a really wonderful woman.