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Contact Jim: jim@dollarhide.net 4:00 AM. Quito, Ecuador. 5/26/06 A 23 Hour Day. 6/2/06. Yesterday was the BB King Homecoming in Indianola, Mississippi, an annual event that BB does in his hometown. We tagged along and captured a day-in-the-life of BB when returns to his home to visit with family, friends and he plays three events: A Blues Workshop at Mississippi Valley State University, a free concert in a park, and a midnight gig at Club Ebony - the last of the Mississippi Juke Joints. We got home at 5:00 AM. And all that was just 24 hours after getting back from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, LA, and Pittsburgh. The Dominican Republic was fabulous. These locations we are visiting for Habitat for Humanity are quite exotic. On Monday, we went westward out of Santo Domingo for about 3 hours and shot some scenes of Habitat homes in coastal towns. Around noon, our expert guide, Steve Little from Habitat, suggested a restaurant in a small fishing village near Barahona. We arrived and the place was empty. Not a soul there. In a few minutes a portly little woman, clearly in her 70s or older, arrived and told us the fish we fresh and she pointed at the water -- about 50 feet away across the beach. There was a lot of talk in Spanish and she left. An hour later she and her daughters returned with creole conch, fresh grilled fish, rice and beans. Simple but incredibly good. Off on the road with BB for a few days. More later. |
(Just got home from Watts in South Central LA and Ecuador -- we leave in a week for Kyrgyzstan, Tanzania, Vietnam and India). However it is not a working vacation. Due to the mission of Habitat, we are visiting some of the most impoverished areas of these countries. But one thing has become certain: It seems (at least outside of the US), that the more poor people are -- the ones who have the least -- the ones who aspire to just make it through the day -- that they are the nicest, most warm, loving people we meet on our journey. It is a totally humbling experience. I can't say enough about that. It makes us all feel so Blessed to have what we have.