Gotta agree with HB.......
He knows what he's talking about..........
Reminds me of a little shoeshine boy we met, the first time we came here, in San Pedro.......We left the resort to go to town to buy some T-shirts and some medicine for one of the group that suffered a reaction to the sun. When we got off the bus in SP we asked a little boy about 8yrs old where to find a pharmacy. He not only showed us the pharmacy, he took us on a tour of SP,showed us everything there was to see (even the picture of the three founding fathers), took us to a "local" store where we could buy the T-shirts cheaper than in the "tourist" stores.It was three years before we understood just everything he had showed us-the cathedral,the fire hall etc.because we didn't understand him very well at the time.
We bought him lunch (argued a bit with the restaurant owner who didn't want him in the restaurant) and gave him about 20 pesos at the end of the day. Every time we went to SP for years after that this "boy" would spot us and come to accompany us, carry our bags to the "parada" etc. We always fed him, gave him a few pesos and one time even bought him a new outfit (shorts,T-shirt, and flip-flops). He's now a young man-employed, and still comes to visit us in JD at least once a year when we're here.
The only thing he has every asked us for was one year he asked if we could "help" a friend of his get a "Visa" to the USA. He even brought his friend's passport & cedula to show us that his friend was legal and had his papers. I wish I could have helped but we're not American......