Two weekends ago, I spent a weekend with one of the kindest, most caring people I have ever met in my life. Emilce, a woman of about 70 years old was my home stay mother. Conviniently for me, she lives about two blocks down the road from the center, and is the aunt of one of my favorite staff members here. Her life was so unique to me, within approximately a two block radius from her house, six of her six children and their families resided, along with at least five of her ten siblings. Everywhere we walked, looked, or traveled to was filled with family members and their family members, all of whom were both welcoming and complimentary. Not one of her or her family members spoke a word of English, which was an amazing experience for me. I had asked to stay with a family who wouldn't speak to me in English and that is exactly what I got.
Upon arriving at Emilce's house, we talked for hours. Actually, that is mostly all we did. While some students went to the beach or hiked, Emilce and I talked about our families, her husband, my lack of a boyfriend, religion - anything and everything. She continuosly complemented me on my communication skills, which I felt could still be enhanced (but I have to admit, I was a little impressed with myself). We drank coffee and cooked, she taught me how to make different kinds of bread, we napped and talked some more, walked around, visited, and did all things that retired 70 year old women do. It was nothing short of the perfect weekend. This past Friday, Emilce came to our host family thank you dinner, and our adoration for each other certainly didn't fade. She is very concerned about my mother traveling here speaking no Spanish, and of course offered a room for her to stay in if she needed one. Also, since my mom will be leaving on Easter, I am going to stay with her that night. I can't imagine a bigger blessing having walked into my life. Emilce and her family made me feel at home in a totally new way (which was enhanced by the incredible wifi and hot shower) and I could not be more grateful for having met them.
The week after the home stay weekend we had reviews and midterm exams, which made me realize how quickly this semester is flying by. Over the past weekend we had a weekend away, and I traveled to the Miami beach esk beach called Jaco where I got to relax on the beach and eat some of the most delicious sushi I've ever consume. This upcoming weekend we have a hiking/camping trip to Santa Rosa national park, followed by a few days of classes, a week long trip to Panama, another weekend away, and Spring Break. It's so incredible all the things they cram in to three months.
Last night, we watched a documentary called "Food Inc.", one I would encourage anyone to watch. While it didn't inspire me to be a vegetarian, it did make me understand why a lot of people would want to be. There were a few different things that I wrote down during the film that I thought spoke to our culture and government
- "We've become a culture of technicians" one farmer stated, in regard to a problem with cows having e.coli. Factory farm raised cows are fed corn, which is not part of their diet, and that creates ecoli in their stomachs. If they cows started to eat grass, 85% of this e.coli would go away, and they would be eating what they're biologically wired to eat. Instead, companies have developed meat fillers that kill the ecoli, which in my opinion is absolutely repulsive. Ammonium is used to wash out all of the meat, when it could just be avoided in the first place. This technology, in my opinion, is in no way sustainable.
- 1 in 3 children born after the year 2000 will develop early onset diabetes, and 1 in 2 in minority groups. This is attributed to the high costs of healthy food in relation to the low costs of processed fatty foods. I could go on about this for hours, but I think the statistics speak for themselves. But I do have to add in, if people can't afford healthy food, how might they afford medicine to keep their diabetic children healthy?
- In certain meat packing factories in North Carolina, they are busing employees in from 100 miles away due to the dangers that come from working there. Almost all employees have contracted some type of infection or disease and are forced to leave. In a highly impoverished area with tons of unemployment, having to look 100 miles away for people willing to risk disease is just unfair.
- It is illegal to publish pictures of any factory farms or meat packing companies. This absolutely blows my mind. Sex tapes and personal photos of celebrities, the president, or absolutely anyone can be on the cover of a tabloid or the headline of E! News, but it is illegal to show the country what we are eating? That, is just scary.
- Not as scary though, as the fact that as of 20 years ago, the USDA has no authority to shut down any factories that have consistent outbreaks of e.coli or any other disease. Prior to this law, the USDA would shut down any company that had more than 3 outbreaks, because it was evident that their system was not sanitary. This is no longer the case. If the USDA has absolutely no authority to halt infectious food from being produced and sold, who does? They literally have zero power over the five meat packing companies that produce the meat for the entire nation.
