It isn’t that hard really. By the end of 10 days, even I was picking up habits.
Top 6 reasons Joan is so Dominican:
1. She feeds her cat people food. This one was a dilemma for her: I was telling her she was weird for feeding her cat EVERYTHING that she ate and the people of her village told her she was weird for buying cat food. What is one to do? (see picture)
2. She speaks with their accent. Even if you know Spanish you can’t understand what they are saying.3. She goes to meetings late. And I mean late, like ½ hour to an hour. Basically time means
nothing to Dominicans.4. She got her toes professionally done, pink with floral designs… to match her dress.
5. She no longer craves chocolate after every meal and lives without cereal.
6. She can dance!!
But, I make better tostones. (Below, Joan and Richard making "tostones", or fried plantain)
Pretty much it takes forever to do everything. At times it made me feel a little impatient but I was on vacation so I tried to enjoy every minute of it, knowing I was heading back to my reality in too short of time.The bigger cities, like Santo Domingo and Nagua, I didn’t like so much. Nagua is the city close to her town. If you read any travel guides for the DR, they will tell you not to go there. The cities were full of stray dogs, cars, scooters, and litter. Joan’s town had all the same but the stray dogs looked healthy, the cars were almost non-existent, the scooters were fun, and I got used to the litter. Except for the moment Joan threw a straw wrapper on the ground! My heart almost stopped.
(A view from Las Terrenas)
The beaches were so pretty and the water was so warm. We went to two that were touristy – Puerto Plata and Las Terrenas, and the one by her village. All beautiful. One of my favorite things of the trip was the fruit. I ate more mangos and pineapple than I have in my lifetime. And the fresh juice was so good. The people were also really nice. The first thing everyone says when you meet them is “this is my house, if you need anything…” One of her neighbors, Nina, cooked us many meals and was so proud that we liked them. We then made them brownies. This is real treat because they don’t have ovens.
(Tara with Richard)
We were involved in two fender benders. The first- we were on an overcrowded guagua on our way to Puerto Plata. As we made out way through a congested area our driver hit the car in front of us and took off. The second- we were in a Peace Corps truck and were rear-ended in Santo Domingo. The divers traded info this time. No one was hurt. I actually think it’s quite comical and surprised it doesn’t happen more often. Traffic laws there are merely suggestions. I have to say though, I didn’t usually feel nervous, and I am a nervous passenger; they know what they’re doing… or at least look like they do.
I was sad to leave. (Although, I did get a marriage proposal at the airport from one of the security guards and contemplated it for a moment. He was hot, but I know better.) As I was getting on the plane to go home the stewardess made a remark that everyone getting off the plane was smiling and everyone getting on looked so unhappy. I guess we were all sad to leave.
Tara
