“I took the hand of the little girl I had just met and was led blindly down a pathway in the opposite direction of my worksite and deeper into the village of Pomier in Dominican Republic. I was brought into a shabby little home owned by her mother to discover over a dozen women making the meal for the workers at the site and the rest of the village. They were all talking, laughing, and helping each other. Cutting, peeling, chopping, slaving over hot fires in the back. I felt such immense gratitude and an overwhelming feeling of happiness. This wasn’t labor to them this was a time spent together, working together, bonding, relaxing, and this is one of the many instances that strengthen my belief that family and communities should cook and eat together.
I believe in helping peel potatoes, or chopping onions, setting the table, collecting drink orders and sitting down all together as a family; this was a given when I was growing up. Time spent in the kitchen together, sharing the task of making dinner, becomes routine, like clockwork; people moving and working around each other, weaving in and out as boiling water is about to spill over or timers are buzzing or as dad motions to come try the sauce, it becomes like a rhythm. Everyone collaborates and everyone is able to enjoy the meal knowing they contributed. During dinner time everyone gets to share about their days, good and bad. I can still hear my mother “everyone say their rose and their thorn”, and we would all go around and talk about the best and worst parts of our day.
I frequently think back to the Dominican, to the people who had little to nothing; not running water, not electricity, not even bathrooms, but I think about the women squatted around the fires, laughing, talking, and seeming so happy and I think there is something to be learned from this. Life can be busy, and hard and its easy to get caught up in your own problems. We forget to ask others how they are doing so the dinner table was always the perfect place to keep an open line of communication.
Although cooking and eating with my family is much different than in the Dominican, dinner time was such an essential part of our day. We would come down from our stressful days, my sister and I would talk about school and friends, my parents could let off some steam about work. Long after the dinner was over we would still be sitting and talking for hours and it would be the most rewarding part of my day and that is why I believe in cooking and eating together.”