You are right TW - as always!!! I DO charge a fee. I ask anyone I help to bring me in some pipe tobacco &/or decent chocolates that I find it impossible to buy up here without paying exhobitant import duties. I expect to pay for them when the people get here of course, the people I help are just the carriers of my vices!!
I agree US $8,000 is NOT sufficient to live on for more than 4 or 5 months, even up here on the north coast (according to your previous information, so much cheaper than Santo Domingo), but with careful accounting, sensible budgeting & a LOT of humble starting of a new life, coupled with a reasonably quick commencement of work, US $8,000 is not IMPOSSIBLE to live on! I DO know some who have done it on less, but it is not something I would recommend unless I know the person will find an income immediately (which is normally doubtful!).
Hope this puts your mind at rest that money & how I am percieved by others is NOT as important to me as it appears to be to you. I do not HAVE a job as such, I immerse myself in helping others & live off my investments, income from England AND (dare I say it?) the large income my pertner earns from her retirement pension. YES TW, I am (partly) a kept man!! - Grahame.