Before my colleague Simon Lundh takes over the Blog from the Origen and reports live from Jordan and Azerbaijan for a few days, a few more lines from me.
I've been back for over a month now.
Sometimes this experience in the Dominican Republic seems like a dream, unreal and far away. Because: it was such a different life that I was allowed to live there, in many ways.
The work was so different from my job as a journalist, the country, the way of life, my whole rhythm of life was so diverse to my life here in Austria.
Then again I feel as if I had left the Caribbean only yesterday, because the people I was allowed to meet there are still so close to me and I miss them painfully. Homesickness for the distant Dominican Republic then comes up...
I needed a little distance to put in order my thoughts and feelings, probably because the impressions were so intense.
The trip back alone was a journey between worlds that could not have been more impressive: I spent my last weekend in a tree house directly by the sea between Sosua and Cabarete - a paradisiacal place, totally close to nature. With the off-road vehicle I drove through abandoned areas, over a high mountain range, could see a breathtaking nature - and many poor quarters.
One day later I was sitting in a plane, with stopover in New York, where a skyscraper jungle (no less fascinating than the real jungle!) was waiting for me and right in the middle there was high.end luxury on 5th Avenue.I consider it a great privilege that I can experience all this. But besides insights there are many questions I ask myself:
- Central America, North America, Europe (and all other continents): we are one world. I am lucky to be born in prosperity. What can I do to reduce these gaps between worlds?
- People in the Dominican Republic are many times poorer than we are. Why do they still seem happier, more relaxed, often have a smile on their face and are more friendly than we are here in Central and Northern Europe? What makes us people content? What makes us happy?
- Since my early childhood, I haven't had to learn as much as I did in the four weeks I spent working in the factory. Feelings such as frustration and anger arose, but also small daily successes and a love of manual work. Which I miss all the more now. What will I do with it?
These are just a few of the questions...I will travel again, continue to write and be grateful for every chance to get to know our beautiful earth better...
Many of you have given me feedback, which has given me great pleasure and is an incentive to report again via the blog. For example, a trip from the Danube Delta to Vienna is planned. With a captain who is a big cigar fan and knows all the smoking-friendly hotspots along the Danube. Great, isn't it?
Now I hand the torch over to Simon, a great writer who has been writing very lively portraits about the cigar scene in our Cigar Journal for many years.
Thanks to you, dear readers and see you soon,
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