Vive Republica Dominicana!

Over a year ago my husband applied for the  opportunity of a lifetime to work in the Dominican Republic.  Throughout the application process his interview was rescheduled about three times.  During that time, he decided the opportunity with all the unknown, wasn’t worth it and he was ready to forget it about it.  But the day he told me he was giving up was the day I verbalized my support.  I told him it’s just an interview and to not give up before you’ve even tried.  With my support, he continued, got the job and we began a life in the Caribbean. 

I remember that first month living in the hotel with a four month old baby.  It got lonely during the day as I cautiosuly explored the city while my husband went to work.  At night I proceeded to gain a few pounds trying all the restaurants and foods available in this new part of the world.  Finally we moved into our apartment where I spent the first month shopping every day trying to furnish the place and make it feel like home.  Note to self: never do that again, decorating is not that important and you can take your time.  Overall it was a rough beginning.  I didn’t know where I was, the Spanish I knew wasn’t enough and I didn’t have any friends.  I was sad.  Everyone from home made comments about how lucky I was and thought I lived at the beach which made things that much harder.  I didn’t live at the beach but was in the inner city with lots of people and a feeling of un-safety and even helplessness. Others I knew were from here or lived here for a time and told me the great things about the country and I was still upset because their experience wasn’t my experience.  I was just a mommy feeling alone and I couldn’t get past all the differences. Not to mention when people tried to help or compare themselves to me....I was prideful and I'm sorry.

One day, by the grace of God I’m sure, I got my head on straight.  I started to really like it int the DR!  We found our church and met so many wonderful people.  People that were willing to serve, people that invited us over for dinner, people with young babies and people that became our best friends.  Not to mention, Jesus’s family that helped us every step of the way and became our constant companions.  I even started speaking Spanish, more than enough to get by, I learned how to joke around and was able to hang out with my friends and have normal conversation which I thought would never happen!  I’m still not fluent but who cares.  Not only did people help me but I learned how to live without a car.  It’s not so easy to get in a taxi and have to carry your convertible car seat in one arm with your baby and the diaper bag in the other for every little thing from paying the cable bill to getting groceries.  If I wasn’t taxi-ing, I was pushing Joaquin in his stroller a mile away for errands in 90 degrees.  Well I finablly learned.  I simply stopped running errands during the day.  I only went when Jesus was off work or on Saturday and life became so much simpler!  As for Joaquin, I’ve managed to find a few more things to do with him.  Sometimes we played at the McDonalds play place for lack of a closer playground and we made baby friends to have playdates with.  My friend Maribel, and I started working out three times a week and I became plenty busy with the youth at church and teaching English.  The youth are another thing that really changed my life in the DR.  While I served them, they served me.  They even walked me home every night in the dark after youth activities or after our English class.  I really have so much to be grateful for!

With that said, let me recap some of my favorite things about Republica Dominicana!

       It’s tropical.  Mango, avocado and coconut trees all in abundance including fresh fruit stands around the neighborhood.

fresh fruit, cut, peeled and ready to eat

Platano trees

The colmados.  Colmados are the corner stores that always blast live music and make life feel like a party.  They deliver to your home and even sell bottles of water, for under 3 cents American, that have helped on my hot walks outside. “Hola, yo puedo tener un aquacate y un coca cola?”

        Walking outside. This one I don’t miss for running errands but I have spent a lot of time visiting friends and doing service for church and these walks are my favorite.  I often went with at least one other woman and we always feel like little missionaries as we walked miles around the city and see all different people and all different neighborhoods from those with fruit trees or chickens to those whom live in shacks or nice apartments.  I feel I’ve gotten a good grasp of life in the DR and the different classes, if you will, by experienceing this.

    Restaurant delivery for everything!

McDonalds Chicken Mac...they don't have that in the US.

   Seven dollar pedicures

          Riding in the conchos, the public car, crammed with 8 pople in a five seater just trying to not fall out. Actually I won’t miss this but I’m glad I tried it a couple times for the experience.

I didn't hava a good photo of this so I stole it from http://cosasdelcibao.net/2011/12/22/choferes-aumentan-el-precio-del-pasaje-en-santiago/

The beach.  I didn’t get to go often because it was like taking a vaction to rent a car and book a hotel to make the trip worth it but getting there was always worth it.  Who doesn’t love an ocean view?

8     The people selling things on the street.  This is a double edged sword because at any intersection in a car or during any walk outiside, you are bombarded with people heckling you to buy anything from fruit to cell phone chargers to ice cream to making donations.  While that was frustrating and at times scary, it was fun to be able to buy sugar cane for the first time or a freezie in this heat.  Just don’t buy the Yun Yun, A Dominican shaved ice, because even the locals will tell you you’ll get diarrhea from the water.

Freshly baked Dominican torta (resembles corn bread) from a woman and her cart on the side of the road in the country.

        El Monumental.  A beautiful tourist spot in the middle of Santiago with well kept grounds, people jogging every evening, and delicious restaurants surrounding, including our favorite, El Tablon.

        Long drives to new cities.  While most of the drive is going through mountains and trees, you always pass communities called “campos.”  The homes are farther apart and people are always gathered outside, often because of no electricity inside, but it’s fun to see all of the fruit stands, colmados, and homemade products all being sold to one another in the neighborhood.  These areas basically remind me of camping because they are surrounded by so much nature and clothes hanging on the line. Although they do have homes and not tents like camping, they're often small homes put together with nails and wood.  Of course there’s big homes too but the majority of the country lives in poverty.

1      Humility. When Americans think of poverty, I don’t think the Dominicans agree.  I have visited so many people in the tiniest of homes with outdoor bathrooms and rain rolling off the shingles of the roof just missing the inside and the people don’t care.  They are just happy to have a home.

      Dominican music and dance.  Parties at our house, parties at our family's homes and even church    parties.  The ward Christmas party here was unlike any in the states with a big dinner, loud music and dancing until late. Loved it!

party at the church

party in our apartment

What I know is that our lives are in the Lord’s hands and it’s an interesting feeling.  As I’ve talked with people about this, many have said to me that the Lord needs us in the US.  My guess is that’s very true but the difficult part is I may never know why.  I felt that way when we came here and we did do a lot of service, helped people get things they need, taught English, provided jobs cleaning our home or watching our baby and made lifelong friendships.  But it felt so fast like we weren’t done.  Was that it?  Is that really what we were needed for?  On the other hand maybe moving to the DR was for us. I think we’ve both grown a lot through this change and it’s honestly something I never would have done had I not married Jesus to give me the extra push.  Hopefully I’ve expressed some of my growth through other blog posts. So maybe coming to the DR was for ME.  Funny thing is while I know what I’ve learned personally, I still don’t know what the Lord’s plan was in it all.  However I’m grateful.