dd

Ripening at the Center of the World

The author, Donald Batchelder, wrote this story about the unexpected moments that he faced while traveling in rural Brazil. His story began when he was riding his ancient jeep along the Brazil mountain road and his car radiator started to leak. In order to deal with this leak that overheated the engine, Donald decided to stop at the nearest village. People came to see if they can help, when they noted that the water was flowing from the holes in the radiator; one man said “That’s easy to fix,” and asked a boy to go and bring some green banana. Donald wasn't sure how the man would use green bananas to fix his radiator, but instead of thinking about that, he preferred to ask the man about the huge rock formations around them, “Do you see that tall one right over there?” Donald asked the man. The man responded by saying “That rock marks the center of the world,” he, the man, added “the absolute center. Everyone around here knows it.” At that instant, the boy brought the green bananas and gave them to the man who sliced one of them in half. He used t...