up-to-date info

Jennie McEwen

New member
Sep 3, 2003
22
0
0
DR

One should learn to differentiate between 'copping an attitude' and deploring bad manners.
To the people who have supplied information I thank you
Regards
Jennie
 

XanaduRanch

*** Sin Bin ***
Sep 15, 2002
2,493
0
0
Apology Accepted.

But he did differentiate. He was polite enough at least not to say you had bad manners.
 

carrot

New member
Aug 4, 2003
10
0
0
Jennie, oh Jennie!

Jennie, with the greatest respect, with that attitude, stay in Spain. Don't make DR another place in the world where i'm ashamed to be British!!!!!!!
 

Criss Colon

Platinum
Jan 2, 2002
21,843
191
0
38
yahoomail.com
What you may consider "Bad Manners" we consider

"Telling It Like It Is"!The guys you accuse of "Bad Manners" are Americans,and thats just a sign that you have been "accepted"One is from NewYork,and even the rest of the United States think they have bad manners! Basically you are being told that,"Fore Warned,Is Fore Armed"!Come here for a time and see if it is right for you.
Crime,"I saw 10 year old girls walking alone on the country roads leading to Sosua a few weeks ago.Seemed miles from the nearest house.That would scare the hell out of me in the USA,I would be afraid she would be kidnapped,raped,and left for dead!Not here!CCCCCCCCC
 

mobrouser

Bronze
Jan 1, 2002
2,350
107
63
jennie, if you don't like the way you are being answered here, then you will not enjoy living in RD.

the first time you try to deal with a problem at codetel or the bank, for instance, you will find out. you will not get a straight answer, you will find the rules change hour by hour, your paperwork will be lost. and everytime this happens to you, getting angry will only make things worse for you.

mob
 

Peter & Alex

Bronze
May 3, 2003
700
0
0
www.rainbowsenddr.com
No! I think it was me/us!!! We're Brits as you know and I was being a bit sarcastic too, I must admit it!! BUT .... it really is difficult to bite one's tongue when someone picks out all the misrepresented bad stuff from hundreds of threads, insists on getting answers to what are really trivial questions and obviously misreads every bit of help we've all tried to give her. Then again she's probably Scottish(?) and surounded by others of the gang of Brits who reside in Spain cos' it's so like being at home but with the sunshine.
Sorry Jennie but my manners are atrocious, my sarcasm childish but we're happy here thanks.
I did like the bit about having to buy clean water to shower in though??
 

Escott

Gold
Jan 14, 2002
7,715
6
0
www.escottinsosua.blogspot.com
Well THANK GAWD it wasn't. Oh well too bad, I shall try try try harder next time out of the gate. Imagine a Brit being more sarcastic than a New Yourker...

Only kidding. I really like helping people and if they are halfway decent I don't want to really piss them off.

Now that Communist is another story! LOL
 

Hillbilly

Moderator
Jan 1, 2002
18,948
514
113
And to think I havenot added one iota to this thread.

Jennie, the best advice you can get is to read more and more. then come for a prolonged stay, say four of five months.

Then you can see if the laid back way is what you want.

HB
 

GringoCArlos

Retired Ussername
Jan 9, 2002
1,416
40
0
Good luck. (And get a thicker skin if you are going to be here on dr1, or live in the DR, OK??)
 
Last edited:

wtf2001

New member
Aug 22, 2003
52
0
0
Insurance clarity

Hello, this is in response to GringoCarlos's last post, but I welcome any reply.

Specifically about the family insurance. Can you tell me whom to contact in advance of our move to cover my family for health insurance? My company coverage will lapse soon as I am soon to be a private contractor remotely rather than an onsite staff. Insurance will be our own burden.

Our planned exodus is March/April of the coming year. The next 4-5 months are the set-up phase of things.

Thanks!
 

guacaraganix

New member
Sep 28, 2003
3
0
0
healthcare: I pay $750 US annually to insure my wife and daughter fully, with access to the best clinics etc. A good plan, especially for a poor, developing nation. And healthcare in general is not too bad really. My appts for my daughter (9mos old) are 400 pesos, and this is at a very modern, hip and cutting edge kind of place. My daughter was born at UCE, and I was able to participate in the birth. All natural. COst me only $1200 US (this was before I found out about available insurance plans--dont have the name of the company, sorry, with me, but I can find out for you. Everyone down there knows it is the single best option.)

Residency: went through that last year. My Spanish is fluent,a nd my knowledge of the country pretty deep, but even I was a bit flummoxed from time to time by the bureaucratic paperwork. still I didnt spend as much as everyone else. You can go to a lawyer and spend about 20,000 pesos to have them do it,, which is probably easiest, or you can learn first hand how things work, save a bit of money, lose a bit of time, but there are advantages to this baphometic initiation. You willl learn alot about the country and its workings, and knowledge is one of your most important weapons if you mean to survive here. It is not anything like a developednation. Anyway, $1500 is way too much, ridiculous . You operate in this manner here, and you will always be a pendejo, someone to be taken advantage of. You will have lost before you are even out the gate. This is a tough place for gringos to make it; the culture is just too different. You need to learn how to think like a dominican.

Employment/financial ops: tough. You cant make any money working for others. Forget it. DR's greatest resource is its cheap andplentiful labor. Forget teaching english, etc. Pay is miserable. You have to come up with good business ideas that will survive a very tough inflationary environment (with a badly devalued peso, a terrible mix). Almost all the gringos I knew four years ago here to invest money have lost out and moved on. Study the environment, think like a dominican. What services can you provide that the average dominican can afford and wants? There are in fact many but you need to think carefully. One advantage: you dont need much to start up if you think along these lines, so you dont lose much either if things go bad. However, I would strongly advise thatyou maintain some financial link to currencies/economies outside the DR in order to ensure that you are not overly dependent on the vagaries of the DR economy---vagaries which are NOT merely temporary but the very essence of its entire history. Study the history and you will know the country for what it truly is.
 

stan chapman

New member
Nov 28, 2002
143
0
0
Unco' Guid

I would guess Jennie is English. Oh wait, she already told you that!! Maybe Luis's advice to read applies to some others. Oh dear, am I being sarky?

That said, Jennie these guys(unisex term) live there. I only take extended vacations there but I have found the advice & info to be very useful. Thanks especially to Ken & Hillbilly. They don't tend to try to wind you up.

We vacation in the Samana with side trips to Santo Domingo and Santiago. We are obviously Brits, late 50's and do all the things the AI's tell you not to do. Walk in the towns/ cities/ beaches at night, go gunk holing in the hills by motor bike, buy food from local stores and street vendors etc. etc. etc.

The water in our cottage was brackish, ok for showers and cooking. Washing veggies, drinking & the like, bottled water. When we left in April/03 a 19 litre jaug of drinking water cost 20 pesos in Las Galeras and about 10-12 in Santiago. Petrol was 55 pesos per litre in Las Galeras and 45 in Samana. Las Galeras is in the boonies, very few Brits & I love it!! I'd retire there if I wasn't too lazy, but maybe I'll stop procrastinating, one of these days. Stan.
Peter & Alex said:
No! I think it was me/us!!! We're Brits as you know and I was being a bit sarcastic too, I must admit it!! BUT .... it really is difficult to bite one's tongue when someone picks out all the misrepresented bad stuff from hundreds of threads, insists on getting answers to what are really trivial questions and obviously misreads every bit of help we've all tried to give her. Then again she's probably Scottish(?) and surounded by others of the gang of Brits who reside in Spain cos' it's so like being at home but with the sunshine.
Sorry Jennie but my manners are atrocious, my sarcasm childish but we're happy here thanks.
I did like the bit about having to buy clean water to shower in though??
 

stan chapman

New member
Nov 28, 2002
143
0
0
Re: Unco' Guid

stan chapman said:
Petrol was 55 pesos per litre in Las Galeras and 45 in Samana.

Correction: That's the price per Gallon (4 Litres more or less) although up country you usually buy it by the beer bottle. Stan.