At what point in your existence did you have a life-altering experience that you’ll carry until the end of your days? Was this experience something that peeled away what you deemed to be reality and placed you at the center and rawness of just how cruel life can be? For a while it was my understanding that the word “poor” or “poverty” referred to individuals who had absolutely nothing to their name and were the outcasts of a society centered on the motto whereby “only the strong survive”, rather than “together we are stronger and we can pull through.” I was born in a small, primarily sugar-cane producing town in the Dominican Republic, an island that is shared with Haiti. Growing up I never thought myself or my family to be “poor” since we ate three meals a day, had a roof over our heads and certain comforts, like a television and an old Vitrola, with its accompanying vacuum tubes. Those were the good old days. We were not rich by a wide margin, but for me, the above-mentioned amenities were something that few in my town had.
I lived a carefree life, eating fruits directly from the trees, enjoying the comforting Caribbean breeze that blew in from the southeast as I relaxed on the many tree branches. All was paradise. By the time I turned 6 or 7 however, I began to open my eyes to all that disparity and inequality can actually bear facing the human condition. You see, for me hearing the sounds of one of my neighbors’ four year-old child crying at night as he slowly withered away by starvation was that life-altering experience that I will carry for the remainder of my days. Eventually my neighbors’ child would pass away from one of the most preventable diseases, starvation. At the time I thought, it could have been me, that could have been my fate had it not been for the sacrifices of my parents, grandmother, uncles and aunt, but above all, the Creator Himself.
From that moment forward, food and Gratefulness walked hand in hand in my life, but most of all that experience allowed me to understand the plight and struggles that even children my age at the time and younger faced on their daily challenges to survive. One can say that, I carry part of the spark of his passing with me, not just in my memories but also as a beacon that aids me, guiding me as an active participant of many of the initiatives we have here at Earth Community to try and eradicate something as simple as hunger.
Rafael Pimentel
Rafael Pimentel was born in the Dominican Republic and moved to the New York, USA in the late 1980’s. His intercultural experiences spurred his creative desire to pursue filmmaking, photography and writing as art forms. He has published his own original works that include animations, science fiction and romantic comedies. He has written, produced and directed a short film titled A Day In Eternity and also published two books to date: 99 Views Of Love (haiku), Cherry’s Blossom & Stories Of My Soul (short stories) currently underway. Rafael is also co-founder and director of Earth Community Unethemba and gladly agreed to contribute to its Blog.