A DAY IN THE LIFE

Not planning on it any time soon, that's for sure.

Bob K

ItŽs wash day, which means caos in the household but a learning experience on Dominican customs. No convenience of tossing loads into the washing machines, then the dryer.  Here its pre-wash in buckets, swirling in detergent in the lavadora which is slightly bigger than a bucket and hanging out to dry in the sunlight.
  I still canŽt figure out the  custom of turning clothes inside out to wash and dry.
   I've gotten several explanations for this centuries-old practice:
  (1) It keeps the outer surface from gathering dust. That's probably an anachronism from the days when horses kicked up dust clouds along unpaved streets.
(2) If the clothes fall from the clothesline, it doesn't soil the outer surface.
(3) More reasonably, I'm told that it keeps lint from showing. 
Regardless of the reason, it's frustrating to search your closet only to find a lot of unidentified shirts and pants.

Yes laundry is interesting here. Another reason for drying inside out - it helps prevent fading from the sun.

Dominicans also believe that if a little soap is good, then more is better and way more is even better.

And here cloro - bleach - goes on bloody well everything.

I do my own laundry.  Cleaning ladies are never ever allowed to do my wash!

It has taken us 6 years to "train" our housekeeper to do the wash and that a 1000 gram bag of detergent should last more than 4 washes. Now we are at point that we only have to remind her every couple of months.
Still better then doing the wash ourselves.

Bob K

Good for you Bob!!!! I  just didn't bother, I  prefer to wash my own, but heck they can iron my clothes PLEASE!!!!!  I hate ironing.

Actually she has damaged more clothes with a scalding iron then with the cloro.

Bob K

I've been lucky on that front then. Only ever lost one item of clothing due to bad ironing...

Today was a very unusual day.  After sleeping badly ( had to put two dogs down last night)  my friends and I headed to Sosua Bay beach!!!! 

Organizing a group to stay on time..... well is challenging.  We left 20 minutes late but it didn't matter. On arrival at the  beach area we parked the car and dealt with the "parking nazis" (my friends term)  it is locals who pretend to "watch" your car and really extort a few pesos out of you! I don't mind it but some do.  Final price US 1.

We walked from the west end of the beach entrance to a spot about  1/3 way down. we rented beach chairs - US 2.50 each, umbrella and tables to hold our drinks. We got settled and enjoyed our day.  We swam, walked the beach,  had a great time. The people we rent chairs from also run a restaurant - excellent food. I sure which I knew what it is called so I can recommend it! 

By 4pm we were all beached out!  We had a really nice time.  If you are coming to the north coast make sure to check out Sosua Bay! 

By the way, you can bring your own food, drinks and chairs,  its a public beach! 

Now I am showered and later will go out for some mid week dancing.

Now you know why I spend every Tuesdays and most Thursdays on that beach.  One of my favorites.

Bob K

Hey Planner
It has been a while since we last chatted, you also BobK. But Rachel and I have been here since October. Stayed in Ocean Dream (Cabarete) just about the only place that would allow our little dog (12 yo, blind, diabetic (many thanks to Sonja for her help)). Said we would try it for 6 months, at 5 we decided we could stand staying at least another year. Started looking for a place with more privacy than a tourist resort.  Took a while, but finally found a villa in Perla Marina that we liked and met our budget restraints. Just moved in last week. We had bought a car to get around. I am a member of a local theatre group that will be putting on an evening of short plays the second and third weekend of June. And we are making a home.

Please do something about the rude employees at La Serena. They have, for the most part, no idea of how customers are king and pay their wages. There are exceptions. Cute checkout girl that insisted we get a Serena points card because we were buying so much (fixing up the villa). But the rest of them, and the loud verbal carrying on between themselves while customers are standing there really should be addressed. I know that customer service is not apparently important to them, but it should be to their employers.   When I was first in PP in 1982, i was told that there was a special school there that only trained hotel, restaurant and business employees in proper customer/tourist relations. Is this school no longer in existence?

And ORANGE, forget it. The girls at the Orange store in front of Ocean Dream always made me feel like I was disturbing their days when I went in to buy more minutes. 6 months of that. Now I hope to find better service from Orange in Sosua.

I will be adding my "day in the life of" stories as I good forward.

Hi David,  welcome to our world.  I do customer service consulting on a regular basis and I can tell you emphatically very few here take it seriously.

The school is still open and let me tell you, you get what you pay for.  The school is mostly supported by the gov't so almost no cost to students!  Not worth much quite frankly.

All that being said we all celebrate the victories,  finding someone who understands customer service!  It is awesome when we do find it. 

Keep posting to this thread!!!!

I need to find enough time to do an update, unfortunately  work and real life keep interfering!

Hey planner, still here in Cabarete, just curious, how did that thread end with that member that was requesting your info?  I saw that Bob K adviced you to be careful, and for some reason when I tried to go back and check the thread, I saw that it was no longer active.  Hope all turned out well.

      Still enjoying my time here in Cabarete. Yesterday I was treated to a great home cooked Dominican meal, at my girlfriends family's house, and I have plans for another dinner at her cousin's house later this week.  Would really love to stay and not go home, but really still stuck on where to start job hunting since I have no residencia.  There are plenty of Massage Therapist, and as far as personal trainers go, Im not sure if there is a market for that.  I have been out of the office environment for at least 15 years, but prior to my current career, I have worked In Medical and Financial customer service, I have also done sales, and managerial work. I have a bartending license from N.Y. but I hear that job does not pay much here, plus this is a seasonal type of town. 

       I'm sure there is lots I could do here since I'm fluent in Spanish and English, but very few people are willing to share info about the online jobs that allow you to work remotely; to be honest, I have received more help from the locals than some of the foreigners I have met in town.  You and Bob are great with all the info you share, but I have noticed that very few are as forthcoming with valuable help as you two have and a few others, It's almost as if they are saying: No one helped me when I got here, so you will just have to figure things out just like we did.  I appreciate the wisdom that you both share, beleive me, you are doing a great service to the neewbies.  :-) If you have any advice as to where I can search for job postings by International companies looking to hire skilled employees, I would really appreciate, at least that would allow me to work legally, and not worry about the residencia issue, would like to spend some more time here before deciding if a residencia is for me or not.

By the way planner, my profile says I'm from Panama, but that is just my birth place, I have lived in New York since I was a teenager and I'm a U.S. citizen.  Love the U.S. but like most New Yorkers, I'm a bit worn out by the cold weather afte 30 plus years of being there, snow has never been my thing LoL. Snow in N.Y. Looks great when it first falls, but after a few hours, all you have is brown slippery slush :-/ No muy bueno.

Hi Dave,
Welcome to the forum.  Glad things are working out for you and that you have reupped for another year.
Customer service is not in the Dominican lexicon.  It is a rare breed that really gets it.  It is funny we had a guy at Orange in Puerto Plata (one the main office could fix our problem) that worked on our problem for 8 months and finally this month he was able to resolve it though no fault of his.  It was the system and the "head" office that was the problem and he was as frustrated as I was, but to his credit he kept working on it to "make the customer" happy.  He will go far in this country but again he is a rare breed.

Bob K

MASSAGEWIZ Sorry I cannot help with the job search.  You will find that the longer you stay here the less impressed you will be come with the general help of most expats.  In fact many are worse scam artists that the local population. You will however over time develop a core of expat friends that are helpful and caring it just takes time to weed out the bad ones. However again there are some real good ones here.
Keep us posted on your progress and let us know how we can help

Bob K

Thanks Bob will do, once again, your wisdom and expertise is always appreciated.

Thanks Planner for doing this. I live in South Carolina US and spent 11 days in Jarabacoa. Went to meet a lady I had been communicating with on LatinAmericanCupid.com Lovely lady and we are continuing our relationship. I was located in a very noisy and dirty area -- almost (the operative word) got hit by a scooter as I stepped off a curb). Would like to hear from folks who know about the area. Did spend a day at a hand-hewned cabin with a great mountain valley view. Once again, thanks.

George

Thanks for all the feedback and questions!!!!  Finding a job here can be tough.  the gov't is cracking down on  illegal employees so it can be extremely hard without your residencia! 

Bob makes an excellent point, sometimes the expats are the worst.  Some are jaded, some are con artists and some just don't know how to help.  Speaking for us here on the forum, we are glad to help out when we can.

Messagewhiz - get your residencia so we can help you find a job. 

Geofryer - welcome to the forum.  I don't know a lot about  Jarabacoa but it is on my list to visit in August.  At the risk of offering unsolicited advice, be very careful of anyone you met online and particularly that site!

Regarding the individual asking for my personal info - we had that thread closed down!  And thanks Bob.

Now back to regular life here............LOL   FYI today I am going with clients to Zip lining!!!!  I will definitely need to post about this and the last few days.

Geofryer be very careful. Know what you are getting into before and I stress before you do anything that you can not undo with out a lot of difficulty.  These sites are well know for finding young (very young sometimes) ladies for "older" gentlemen. Many if not most are gold diggers and are looking at you as a wallet and a way out!

Planner I hope you are going to Monkey Jungle.  You will love it. For the last two years (just retired "again" last month) I ran the free medical clinic on site.  All the profits from the zip line and monkey habitat go to support the free medical and dental clinic that is provided for the local poor.  Great cause.
Have a great time.

Bob K

Your thoughts are well taken. Having said that, I would like to have some contact with someone knowledgeable of Jarabacoa and the surrounds.
George

Geofryer - best thing you can do is start your own thread.  This one is about a day in the life.  Start a specific thread with your questions.  Thanks!

My apologies.

No worries Geofryer, we all started out......  Hopefully we will get you some answers!

Hi, Geofryer!  There's a young lady named Michita that's from Jarabacoa and would be able to answer some of your questions or offer guidance.  As Planner said, open a thread saying something about Jarabacoa... that will catch her attention or anyone else's living in the area.

Good luck!

Yesterday was one of those days that answers the question many ask me “what do you do all day” and a I usually answer that “I have no idea but it takes all day to do it”
Started the day off by going to the vegetable lady in town. She has a small hole in the wall veggie stand that has great products and very good prices.  The place is usually pretty crowded.  Monday morning and Thursday morning she gets in fresh produce right from the farms.  You can see the various trucks outside the shop unloading.  So I got:
5 very large potatoes
5 yellow onions
1 huge (the size of a bowling ball) cantaloupe
4 large carrots
6 plum tomatoes
4 bananas
5 pounds of yucca
1 eggplant
4 peppers
1 pineapple (large)
The total cost was around $320 pesos ($7.30US) not a bad deal
Then off to Playero for some deli meat, eggs, and a carton of juice.
Then back home and cleaned my desk (took over 2 hours), worked on the computer, had lunch and then that was enough work.  So spent part of the afternoon on the pool deck and terrace reading a very good book, enjoying a good Dominican cigar and a glass of wine. 

So did not do much but who is complaining…….. All in all a pretty good day.

Bob K

I tried that but didn't have enough knowledge to get it done. Are there instructions somewhere to help me? Many thanks.
George

My day -  left puerto plata this morning at 8:30 - picked up a friend in Playa dorada,  drove to Santiago - fought morning traffic.

Stopped for coffee and a small snack.

Back in car, drove to Santo Domingo,  fought with traffic.  they are MANIACS on the road here.  Stopped at Agora mall - changed money - checked out WIFI devices,  shopped for capris, had lunch - great salad at Quiznos.

Got back in the car and fought traffic out of the city.  Drove to Punta Cana,  arrived without issue. LOTS of progress on the new highway around La Romana.

Checked into inexpensive but quite nice small hotel - cost  US 27 (go figure)  then to dinner with friends at their new apartment.

Back to hotel,  shower and now I am whuppped - time for bed!  That was my day!

Why go to PC via Santiago and Santo Domingo?
Have you taken the new highway from Nagua to Santo Domingo?
Cuts the drive by 2 hours or more and avoids all the traffic in Santiago and Santo Domingo.
Try this way next time.

Bob K

Not from Puerto plata it doesn't  Bob,  I have to go all way to nagua from puerto plata,  doesn't save any time at all!

If not time certainly saves traffic and you don't have to drive through SD

Bob K

One of these trips I will have  to try it Bob!

today I left Punta Cana about 4pm to drive back to Santo Domingo!  It took about 2 1/2 hours,  pretty easy trip as not a lot of traffic. Of course there is always one or two morons on the roads!  But still the new highway is so much nicer.  They are working like mad on the only incomplete section  around La Romana.  Should be open in a few months!

Today is mothers day  here in the Dominican Republic! This is a big deal! 

Today I drove from Santo Domingo to Puerto Plata,  I was up early and on the road thinking there would be  no traffic.  WRONG WRONG WRONG.... lots of traffic. Cars are full of entire families going to visit mum / grandma.  And almost every car - someone has a large bouquet of flowers!!!!

Even with cars full to the brim they drive like maniacs....... in a big big hurry always.

The trip was uneventful though and arrived early and in one piece. 

Tonight we will go dancing and enjoy the evening....

I recently had the "joy" of moving some of my things across the country.  While I work all over this country, I have places in both Puerto Plata and Santo Domingo! 

My work has greatly expanded in Santo Domingo so most of my things crossed the country - most of my furniture, all my work related items and of course alllllll my clothes and shoes.  To avoid confusion in the move, I organized all my  items and packed extremely well!  (by the way NOTHING got broken or lost)

So the truck arrives at 8 am - ON TIME - Oh my goodness. BUT my helpers did not! hehehe  go figure.

They arrived about 20 minutes late to proceed to tell ME how to pack MY things.........  almost 10 years has taught me to shut up, listen and nod,  then direct traffic. You need to imagine  5 Dominican men discussing how to pack MY stuff...... We were loaded and on the road in 40 minutes!

There was a driver and his helper and me in the front of the truck! No radio, so to amuse himself the driver started singing  church hymns!  The other guy started snoring on my other side........LOL  It was a long 4 hours my friends.

Pouring rain half way to Santo Domingo reinforced my decision to pay more for a closed truck.  You will often see small pick up trucks here LOADED with stuff as someone is moving - everything is thrown on top of the pile and off they go. Me - no way - closed truck thank you very much.

Deciding I was hungry, therefor they MUST be hungry I asked for a stop. We went to this unbelievable roadside cafeteria.  Pork, chicken, beef, 3 kinds of rice, potato salad,  green salad, and stuff I didn't recognize -filled 2 plates heaping and one regular,  3 drinks - 400 RD - about US $10!!!!!!  now that was lunch.

We unloaded part of my things for storage in one location and the rest in a second location!  Efficient, quick and mostly painfree. The pain was  informing both driver and helper that NO I do not want to be your girlfriend!!!

By 3:30 I was in a partly settled.  Cost: covered truck (fairly big) with driver and helper 12,000 RD, additional helpers 1,000 RD, lunch 400 RD,  move with no damage - priceless!

Good job.

I had to suffer on the beach in Sosua today

Bob K

How horrible Bob!!!! Sorry you had to suffer like that.

Yesterday we had to go to get a B12 shot for Rachel. Found the pharmacy across the street from CMC could give her the onjection for $100RD. Not too bad. Then we went to Playero to do our weekly shopping. We had bought a filete des rez there the week before and when we cooked it we found that it had an absolutely terrible smell to it. This was the first time we had bought the filet there, we used to get it at Janet's when we were living in Cabarete and it was always good. Don't know why the Playero meat was funky, but we decided ot to eat it. Just in case. So, yesterday, we did not buy any beef at Playero. Instead we stopped at the German butcher shop and met the nicest, knowledgable young Haitian working the counter. This kid spoke French, Creole, English, Spanish and German and knew his meats. He gave us samples of hams and bologna, cut pork loin chops just as we like them, found us a filete des cerdo and in all was just a perfect host and representative for the shop. Prices were very reasonable ($400 RD) and the meat (had the chops last night) was excellent. Being as Rachel speaks Creole they got along famously. Highly recommended. Where else can one find beef and chicken of good quality in Sosua? Puerta Plata?

On the way back home I noticed that the car wash was closed and thought that maybe it was because of the rain. Didn't really notice anything else on the drive. Got home and realized that I had needed to go to the ferreteria to get some paint and things. Got there. It was closed. Corpus Christi day. Most businesses were closed.  Went back home empty handed. Must find a list of all the many local holidays.

Being as how it was a holiday, I decided to pick up a book and read until dinner. Good chops, mash potatoes and fresh green beans with a side of German Golden Apple applesauce. Mmmmm Mmmmm Good.

Thanks for sharing!!!!!

David, nice post. We have been using that butcher for years and NEVER disappointed.  The only ther place we will buy meat is at la Sirena in PP and occasionally at Playero but I don't like shopping there.

Bob K

Electricity is very expensive here, as has been noted before. Where we were living before it was included in our rent. Not here! And if you go over a certain level of kwh's (I thinkmit is 750 kwh) the cost explodes. So, you have to pay a lot of money (still don't know what a lot means, but we have been told everything from a hundred or so more per month to a thousand or more. Don't really want to find out) for a/c or learn to go without. Mosquitoes love me ut the feeling is not mutual. So, the first thing I did after moving into this place was to put screens on all the windows (I am handy like that).  With the screens in place and the windows open it is surprisingly cool here at night (at least right now end of May. That may change by August) and with the ceiling fan going you really don't need a/c.  But you have to be willing to live with the frogs singing to you at night, all night, and the birds waking you at 6am just because they are up. Now, Rachel does not like the air from the ceiling fan blowing on her at night. Feels like creatures crawling on her skin (of course, that could be also). So, yesterday I went to the ferreteria and bought a pedestal fan. Really cool. 3 speeds, rotating head, cool color. I thought I had it made. Except when I got home I suddenly realized...I didn't try the fan in the store before buying. Darn. What if it doesn't work? Will they take it back? Probably not, or so we have been told. Always try anything that runs or powers before you buy. We were actually told by the checkout girl at La Serena to try out lightbulbs before taking them. We said really and she responded that they were GE and probably would be OK. Anyway, to continue, I put the fan together and plugged it i. Pushed one of the buttons and voila... It worked, but was really turning fast. I figured I had selected the high speed and so pressed the upper button only to have the fan almost take off for New York. Really powerful fan and probably really good for lots of applications, but what I wanted was to have a soft breeze blowing over my body at night while avoiding Rachel. I had my doubts, but decided to try it for the night. I had dreams all nights that there was a squadron of turbo prop airplane passing by my window all night. Going to have to find a less powerful fan.

One very loud, probably a drug smuggler, airplane went by my window at 6am and woke me up before the birds could. I am sure they were upset being upstaged by a mechancial monster, but they will have their day later. Realized that there was no airplane outside, but decided to get up because I had a dentist appointment this morning. I hate dentists! But I have heard a lot of goodmthings about dentistry, in general, in the DR. So, after asking lots of people for recommendations, I found my new dentist. And she is so good and caring and cute. Dr. Monica Garcia in Sosua. If you need work, call her. 809-571-9949. She speaks English and her office and equipment is very modern.  I am in the middle of a very difficult root canal on my left lower molar. Dr. Monica farms this kind of work out to a specialist that comes over from Santiago every Friday or Saturday to see patients. Dr. Sabine (don't remember her last name) is very good, caring, trained and, also, cute. Add 3 cute office staff and assistants and itnis a lot of fun going to the dentist. Anyway, had a lot of novacaine (4 or 5 injections) and finally got down to the root of the problem (Ha ha, funny) after 2 hrs in the chair. But inexpensive compared to anything ever found in the US. 4 star recommendation ****.

Now back home. Novacaine depression. Squeezed some fresh orange/carrot juice and am getting ready to watch the Memorial Day 3.

Later.