The past few weeks I have been realizing how unhappy I am here. I have also realized how woefully unprepared I was for this move. It took a ton of effort and organizing to pack up my life back home and in retrospect, I didn't spend enough time preparing for life here.
I also feel humbled, as I assumed that speaking Spanish and living in other countries in Latin America would spare me some of the difficulties, the "gringo tax", etc. Not.
By choice, I moved to a very Dominican city and have found it very difficult to make Dominican friends. I had the misfortune of hooking up with a fraudster foreign lady here who made my first few months very difficult. I put my trust in her, which was a mistake, and recovering from that and the blow to my self-esteem has been hard. She fooled me and I did so much to help her and she screwed me over and took advantage of the fact that I was new here.
It has been expensive and frustrating and I am not sure what kind of a future I see for myself here. I do love the weather and find it a beautiful country, and dealing superficially with some Dominicans has been OK, although I have been ripped off, lied to and cheated, and every day some attempt is made to part me from my money.
I feel exhausted and fed up. I do not know if this feeling will pass! I invested a lot of time, money and effort so far, and I don't know if I should throw that away. I have a nice home here but that's about it. I work online, so I am not tied to any particular community here, or to the country.
I do not know if I should try a community where there are more expats or if my goodwill in general towards the DR has come to an end and I should just go.
I have contemplated moving to Colombia, or Panama, but there are times I wonder if on balance it would be any better.
My biggest issue is not the electricity or the garbage, I can definitely work around the inconveniences, as there are also conveniences that help like the colmado and pharmacy delivery, the frequent and inexpensive transportation, etc.
It is the cheating and the corruption and the lying and the general lack of values that I can't deal with. I understand ALL the many reasons for this, survival, poor education, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah blah but I hate it, it's awful.
I appeal to the wisdom of the board in this sh!tty time? keep trying? Throw my shoulder into it and see what happens? Or cut my losses.
I would be especially interested to hear from posters who have left the DR for another Caribbean/Latin American destination and how that worked out.
Thanks everyone!
I also feel humbled, as I assumed that speaking Spanish and living in other countries in Latin America would spare me some of the difficulties, the "gringo tax", etc. Not.
By choice, I moved to a very Dominican city and have found it very difficult to make Dominican friends. I had the misfortune of hooking up with a fraudster foreign lady here who made my first few months very difficult. I put my trust in her, which was a mistake, and recovering from that and the blow to my self-esteem has been hard. She fooled me and I did so much to help her and she screwed me over and took advantage of the fact that I was new here.
It has been expensive and frustrating and I am not sure what kind of a future I see for myself here. I do love the weather and find it a beautiful country, and dealing superficially with some Dominicans has been OK, although I have been ripped off, lied to and cheated, and every day some attempt is made to part me from my money.
I feel exhausted and fed up. I do not know if this feeling will pass! I invested a lot of time, money and effort so far, and I don't know if I should throw that away. I have a nice home here but that's about it. I work online, so I am not tied to any particular community here, or to the country.
I do not know if I should try a community where there are more expats or if my goodwill in general towards the DR has come to an end and I should just go.
I have contemplated moving to Colombia, or Panama, but there are times I wonder if on balance it would be any better.
My biggest issue is not the electricity or the garbage, I can definitely work around the inconveniences, as there are also conveniences that help like the colmado and pharmacy delivery, the frequent and inexpensive transportation, etc.
It is the cheating and the corruption and the lying and the general lack of values that I can't deal with. I understand ALL the many reasons for this, survival, poor education, etc., etc., etc., blah, blah blah but I hate it, it's awful.
I appeal to the wisdom of the board in this sh!tty time? keep trying? Throw my shoulder into it and see what happens? Or cut my losses.
I would be especially interested to hear from posters who have left the DR for another Caribbean/Latin American destination and how that worked out.
Thanks everyone!