the wonderful world of transportation: i wouldn't say the public transportation system in the dominican republic is safe nor comfortable nor very enjoyable, but it certainly is convenient and affordable. there are 2 basic forms of public transportation in the dominican republic. the first is the motoconcho, basically a motorcycle taxi. they are all over san pedro and pretty much everywhere you go in the country. anywhere you walk there are herds of men sitting around with their motorcycles, waiting to take you where you need to go. there are some who actually have official "motoconcho driver" vests, but for the most part you can pay anyone with a motorcycle to take you where you need to go. and dominicans do not like to walk, so they will be seen taking them for just 2 or 3 blocks. they are certainly not safe... they drive crazy, weave in and out of traffic and there are definitely no helmets. it was a scary experience the first couple times, but now it just seems normal... which probably isn't a good thing! i try to not take them a lot, but sometimes you have to... sorry dad!
the other main way to get around is called the "guagua" or bus. there are 2 basic types of guaguas. the first is the small guagua or "guaguita"... these drive within the cities. they are mostly 12-15 passenger vans that just drive a certain route around the town all day. once you get to know the routes, you just stand on the side of the road where ever you are and hail one down. then when you want to get out you just say "déjame" (leave me) and they let you out. they cost 15 pesos (less than 50 cents) no matter how far you go. then there are big guaguas that take you from city to city. for example in san pedro there are different guagua “stations” depending on what city you are going to. however, there are no schedules, so you just go and get on the guagua, wait til it’s full, and then it leaves. even if you don’t make it to the stop, you can basically stand anywhere on the road between where you are going and where the guagua comes from and when one passes by you just hail it down and get on. and they’re only a couple dollars, even if you’re going all the way across the country.everything about the guagua system fascinates me… especially the 2-men teams that run the guaguas. every guagua has a chofer (driver) and a cobrador (money collector). the chofer drives and controls the music, which i have learned is a very important part of the guagua experience. depending on your chofer you might get merengue or bachata or reggeaton. he also controls the volume… there are two options… loud and really loud. the cobrador has a more active and dangerous job. he stands and is basically hanging out the door the whole time. on the little guaguitas, there usually is no side door, or it’s just always left open. so he basically hangs halfway in and halfway out, always looking out for potential clients. he’s usally always yelling at people, letting them know where he’s going and trying to get them to come along. if he finds someone that wants to come onboard, he bangs the side of the bus really hard and the driver will know to stop and pull over. then when you are on the guagua, you tell him when you want to get off and he again bangs the side of the guagua a few times and the driver stops to let you out. and most of the guaguas are completely falling apart... broken windows, doors, no seatbelts, ripped up seats... but it all just adds to the adventure. when you don’t know what you are doing, it can be quite stressful and overwhelming because it’s so loud and everyone is yelling and it all happens so quickly (people driving vehicles are the only people in the dr that move with any sort of urgency)… but once you get used to it, it’s kind of fun. don’t get me wrong, nothing beats the convenience of going wherever you want, whenever you want in your own car, but as far as public transportation goes, the dominicans have got quite a system figured out.
the hiss: the hiss is the most prominent, yet my least favorite, part of dominican culture. it's basically like a whistle, but not... because they are actually hissing... like a snake. and everyone does it... and it's super annoying. my first couple weeks i noticed it as i would walk around the streets… all the men are hissing. and they hiss and hiss and hiss until you look at them, and then it’s followed by some sort of “i lobe you baby” comment. so, at first i thought it was just their version of a cat call… because for some reason white woman are very fascinating to dominican men. but, over time, i have come to learn that not only is it really annoying way to get women's attention, but everyone in the country hisses. the hiss is mostly used to get someone’s attention and although it seems really rude, i don’t think they consider it rude at all. people will do it to get someone’s attention if they want to buy something or to ask a question in stores or out on the streets. it’s even sometimes used by the teachers in the classroom to get kids to be quiet. even the kids hiss! we laugh because dominicans are known for never saying the "s" (like "buen dia" instead of "buenos dias" or "adio" instead of "adios"), so we joke that they use up all their s's hissing at us and each other that there are none left for the words!
sign language: i have learned that, as in most cultures, there are some things you can say without using any words at all. there are two things here that i can say just about every dominican does and that i have definitely started doing myself. the first is the finger wiggle. (imagine baboo from seinfeld... "you very bad man, very bad man.") this, obviously, means no… but everyone does it all the time. like the hiss, it seems rude to me, but it’s just what they do. adults do it, the kids do it to the adults and to each other and it’s a very popular form of communication out on the streets. it's funny because sometimes it’s the only thing that works. sometimes the guagua or motoconcho drivers are quite relentless and they keep persisting that you take a ride and no matter how many times i shake my head or scream “no!”… they just won’t let go… but (usually) one wiggle of the finger, and they back off. it’s really funny.the other thing i do now is what i call the nose scrunch. basically if a dominican doesn’t understand or hear something, instead of saying “what?” or “excuse me?” they scrunch up their nose. sometimes it’s just one big scrunch or other times it’s a couple scrunches up and down really quick. either way, when i see it, i know i have not been understood. and since there are so many times that i myself don’t understand what people are saying or what they want… now i have started doing the nose scrunch. when i came home to visit in february, everyone was like, “what is wrong with your nose?” and i'm sure now after 4 more months, i’ll be doing it even more!
whatever you want, whenever you want, in whatever quantity you want: there are two good sized super markets in san pedro... one comparable to a frys and the other is more like a walmart. we do most of our shopping there, but your average dominican would do their shopping at a "colmado", which is basically a little corner store.... they're like dominican style circle k's (without the fountain soda!!) they have your basic soda, beer and snacks, but you can also do your grocery shopping there. the average dominican can’t afford to stock up costco-style, they usually only have enough for today, so at most colmados you can buy anything in whatever quantity you want. for example, if you want a ½ pound of rice, they pour some from the big bag into a smaller bag and there you go. you can do the same with sugar, laundry soap, and basically anything you need. you can buy 1 egg or 1 piece of gum or even 1 diaper. the other interesting thing is that you can buy stuff everywhere. there are always venders lining the streets, selling fruit, meat (usually the cow or pig head is hanging there too to show you where the meat came from), cell phones, popsicles, and all sorts of snacks. if venders don’t have a spot on the side of the street, they are usually walking down the middle of the street in traffic, selling their products through the windows of cars and guaguas. you could probably get everything you needed without ever leaving the car. and if you happen to need something at a colmado, just hand a few pesos to the cobrador and he’ll jump out at the next corner, grab it, and jump back in the guagua. i thought drive-thru’s were convenient!
the dominican bandera: ah... good old rice and beans... or the "dominican bandera" (literally, "the dominican flag") as they call the national dish here. it is basically rice, beans and any type of meat... and sometimes a little salad, which is some cabbage and maybe a cucumber or tomato. and it’s not just one of those things that the country is famous for, but people literally eat it every single day (and it’s not just in the orphanage, it’s all over). now of course there are variations, the rice can be cooked differently or the type of beans can vary, but i think a day without it would seem quite incomplete for a dominican. i don’t know why, maybe it was the speaking spanish, but i was thinking/hoping that dominican food would be a little like mexican food, but unfortunately, it’s nothing like mexican food. there are no tortillas and the dominicans are afraid of anything spicy, so jalepeños and salsa or definitely out. basically they cook with garlic, salt, oil and these little chicken bouillon cubes and that’s it. it was a little bland at first, but i've come to like it quite a bit. it's almost like a comfort food… everyday you know the beans and rice will be waiting for you at lunch. 
pica pollo: when dominicans are not eating rice and beans, they are eating "pica pollo". it looks and tastes like normal fried chicken, but the dominicans assure you that it is more than just your typical fried chicken (i still can't figure out why). but they are crazy about their pica pollo. “pica” is what they say when something is spicy, but as i mentioned above, they do not like spicy food, so it means more like that it has flavor… or a different flavor than the majority of the food. i still haven’t learned the history of pica pollo, but somewhere along the way the creole and chinese food came together and created what is now called pica pollo. the main food is the pollo, or the fried chicken (basically just kfc style chicken) and then you get a side. you can get chinese stuff like lo mein noodles or fried rice, which i guess is where the chinese part comes in, but the dominicans favorites are either french fries or tostones (fried plantains). and of course, everything is smothered in ketchup. it's the strangest mix of things to me, but the dominicans love it, evident by the fact that there are more pica pollo shops lining the streets of the dr than probably starbucks and mcdonalds combined in the us. and for most people, especially in the orphange, it’s like a delicacy because they don’t get it that often, so their eyes just light up when you talk about it. i personally, wasn’t too impressed… it’s really greasy and i think they just make big batches of everything in the morning and then it sits behind the glass window under the florescent lights the rest of the day, so if you don’t get there early, it gets pretty shady. i will be sticking to the rice and beans until i get home.
baseball & dominoes: baseball is definitely the sport of this country. i think something like 15% of all major league baseball players are from this little island... so needless to say there is baseball being played everywhere. in every little town or village or batey there is at least some sort of baseball field… even if it’s just lines drawn out in the dirt with rocks for bases… there are always young boys playing. i think over 20 baseball teams also have training camps in the dr and all year long they are filled with mostly dominicans, but also other young ball players, coming to get in shape and hopefully make their way up to the big leagues. within the dr there is also a league that plays when the mlb is in the off season. there are 6 teams from 6 different cities throughout the country and most of the dominican players that play in the mlb will come home and play for their teams. here are some dominican players you might recognize...Felipe Alou
Alex Rodriguez
Sammy Sosa
Vladamir Guerrero
Manny Ramirez
Pedro Martinez
Alfonzo Soriano
(and the list goes on and on and on...)
Alex Rodriguez
Sammy Sosa
Vladamir Guerrero
Manny Ramirez
Pedro Martinez
Alfonzo Soriano
(and the list goes on and on and on...)
omega: when i first got here, the kids called me "mega". for some reason they couldn't quite pronounce the "n" at the end. but i didn't mind... i thought it was cute. then after a few months, everyone started putting an "o" in front of it and calling me "omega"... which was fine with me as well, but i couldn't figure out why! then everyone started telling me that it was part of a song, but i had still never heard it. finally i heard the song and found out that not only does the song say "omega" but the singer's name is omega too. he's a dominican reggeaton (latin/hip-hop) singer/rapper... everyone is all about him right now and his songs are being played everywhere... and he's pretty ghetto-fab so it's pretty awesome. 
plastic chairs and presidentes: i think if they ever made a movie about the dr, it should most certainly be called "plastic chairs and presidentes" because i can not think of a better way to summarize this country. if you watch the office, possibly you remember the following conversation where michael is telling pam about his jamaican vacation:micheal: got to see how jamaicans live. it's great, you know. they just relax, they party all the time.
pam: it's kind of an impovershed country.
micheal: yeah. it's great.
that basically sums it up for me, and i’m always thinking of that quote while i'm here... because the people are just so relaxed, hanging out and having a good time.... and sitting in plastic chairs. the dominicans love their plastic chairs. it i could buy stock in dominican plastic chairs, i would. they are everywhere... and everyone has them... and they sit in them... all day. most of the dominican adults i know would be content staying in that plastic chair all day. i don't want to be rude or judgemental... i know that i grew up much differently, in a completely different world... but i do know that dominican life would not be the safe without the wonderful plastic chair.
and of course, the only thing a dominican likes better than sitting in a plastic chair, is sitting in a plastic chair with a presidente in their hands (presidente is the beer that everyone drinks here). people love their presidente and there is no wrong time to drink a presidente. 9 am... no problem. there is also no wrong place to drink a presidente... while the plastic chair is ideal, i've seen people with them on the guaguas and even people riding a motoconcho around town, steering with one hand, sipping the presidente with the other hand. i tried one and i don't really like beer to begin with, and it tastes pretty much just like beer to me, but it is a hot item here.another random thing, but just kinda goes along with the crazy, yet super laid back and relaxed culture here... all the car washes turn into "discotecas" or dance clubs at night. so basically once all the cars are gone and the soap and hoses are put away, the loud music and presidentes come out. people just dance and party all night at the car wash... and of course if you get tired of dancing there are plenty of plastic chairs sitting around for you to take a rest in.
all in all the dominican culture is pretty one of a kind. i've seen and experienced some things here that i don't know i would experience anywhere else in the world. it's a unique little place and probably will always be a part of me in some way or another.
No comments:
Post a Comment