The campo is closer than you think

ju10prd

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Finally today I made a long delayed visit to see some of the gf's family who apparently lived in the less than welcoming barrio of Santo Domingo named Manoguayabo.

Not so difficult a drive out via Luperon and 27th before turning into Av de Los Beisbolistas and then turning at the Cruz de Managuayabo.

But then we drove and drove and drove until soon after crossing the new ring road and into a very rural Managuayabo......... along way from beginning to end of this barrio.

Very simple surroundings on the edge of the city with the mountain vistas in the close distance and Rio Haina close by.

Got the usual excellent local family welcome and an excellent simple local Dominican feed in a simple wooden shack.

Now the family own a colmado alongside and the locals including a police colonel were already imbibing so we joined in. Frankly the most basic of surroundings and more basic than where I lived north of Villa Altagracia in the campo. Great.

It was superbly enjoyable and made me think back of the campo where I once lived for many years. A simple life without trimmings. Poor people enjoying their weekend relief with plenty of drink. Happiness Dominican style that not so many DR1 members see. A lot of legal Haitians too, living at the edges of the city where they can afford.

In discussions I quickly realized we were right next to Rio Haina and not far on the opposite side is the San Cristobel to Villa Altagracia road which is one of my favorite drives.

On the way back I was escorted to a dirt road which joined the ring road and took that road to Haina joining 30 de Mayo and was back home in less than 15 minutes albeit with a 100rd toll fee.

The campo is close to the city and I love it.
 

rfp

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Sorry, I cant get too excited about poor people wasting their money on alcohol. Poverty culture is sad and you could leave quickly to the comfort of your own home. Lets not idealize poverty, filth etc
 

mofongoloco

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Sorry, I cant get too excited about poor people wasting their money on alcohol. Poverty culture is sad and you could leave quickly to the comfort of your own home. Lets not idealize poverty, filth etc

It's not wasting, it is utilizing. struggle and celebrate. Otherwise, I'm quite in agreement with your sentiment.
 

notreallyconfused

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Sorry, I cant get too excited about poor people wasting their money on alcohol. Poverty culture is sad and you could leave quickly to the comfort of your own home. Lets not idealize poverty, filth etc

Simplicity is not filthy...d*ck
 

william webster

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Sorry, I cant get too excited about poor people wasting their money on alcohol. Poverty culture is sad and you could leave quickly to the comfort of your own home. Lets not idealize poverty, filth etc

Poor by who's standards ?

The Colonel is impoverished ?

Just a different life.

Personally, I am considered poor by some factions of society.....
 

Derfish

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Poor by who's standards ?

The Colonel is impoverished ?

Just a different life.

Personally, I am considered poor by some factions of society.....

I also have had jabs at me for being poor when I have admitted that I live on less than $1000.00 USD monthly, but most Dominicans live on less than half of that.
But I too am appalled to see people spending money on booze when their kids cannot go to school for lack of shoes.
Der Fish
 

AlterEgo

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Sorry rfp.

Our home is in the campo. Yes, many of our neighbors are very poor, but I have to say there is no filth. Their homes, as humble as they are, are always spotless and neat as a pin. The women are constantly sweeping, even outside. Before they paved the road, you'd see them out there every day sprinkling water on the dirt road in front of their homes.

They're also personally clean. Despite the heat, I've never smelled body odor from any of them, even construction workers.

Our maid is also our neighbor. She mops every floor in our house in the morning, cooks lunch [comparable to a big dinner in the US, for those unaware], and then mops again through the kitchen and dining area. I once asked her why she mops twice. "Because maybe some oil splattered, or I dropped something, we don't want mice or bugs to come".

Yes, everyone knows everyone's business, but almost everyone except us is related in some way.
 

ju10prd

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Poor by who's standards ?

The Colonel is impoverished ?

Just a different life.

Personally, I am considered poor by some factions of society.....

The point I try to make in this thread is that campo life, which is significantly different from often a very harsh city life, is found close to the city and at the weekends the people in the campo can put the hardships of their daily struggle behind them for a short time and enjoy a clean respectful simple life.

And the development that is occurring within this developing land is beginning to reach them. there is a the new ring road right on their doorsteps and they can now travel in guaguas quickly to the city.......one passed me coming of the new road. Equally just up the road there is a new school which will be receiving students again today.

The biggest moaners in this world are westerners who try and judge their standards against what occurs here in daily life in developing countries such as DR. Yet it is those same people who confine themselves to limited areas, sometimes drink themselves stupid at beach resorts and never share the life experience of the campo yet talk the talk.
 

notreallyconfused

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I can't believe what I am reading. So, If you have money than its OK to have a beer or two? Like spending a couple hundred pesos on a couple of beers on Friday or Saturday night is going to change their socioeconomic situation. Then others want to put poverty and filth in the same category is exactly why such class discrimination exists all over the world. Saying oh because they are poor..they must be filthy too...These exact perspectives is what separates human beings from each other even more, and perpetuates not only poverty but discrimination, and discrimination leads to disease, starvation, war, and death.... and to Derfish if you are appalled and really feel something...Go buy some shoes and hand them out..You can afford it!!!
 

ju10prd

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jul10

I understand your point.... and respect it, and share it.

as for others................. dunno


Getting out from central areas within the city to some nice campo is generally time consuming. I do like the western side of the city and as mentioned particularly the campo beyond Rio Haina with the mountains as a back stop. Rio Haina seems to be a barrier to further westward development....and that is good because the other side is lovely. So to get so close to the edge of development and then realize how close it was to my place on my return was a revelation.

The only other area I can think of immediately in this vein is between Haina and San Cristobel. Once went to a big family daytime party there and it was surprisingly nice in some lowland hills and a winding road.
 

william webster

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The juxtaposition of Sto Domingo and the neighboring barrios must be staggering.

Out my way, there is not that much definition between the two...... city & barrio

You see the same in big US (even Cdn) cities.
Try driving out of Grosse Point in Detroit............
 

cobraboy

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If that's what makes them happy, and they harm no others, "what difference does it make?"

I have yet to see poor people in the DR---I don't mean the mentally ill---who were filthy. In fact, many poor elsewhere could take lessons in personal pride from the poor in the DR.
 

ju10prd

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The juxtaposition of Sto Domingo and the neighboring barrios must be staggering.

Out my way, there is not that much definition between the two...... city & barrio

You see the same in big US (even Cdn) cities.
Try driving out of Grosse Point in Detroit............

Yes. As an example Pedro Brand which is the end of the city when travelling out on Duarte to Santiago. A part of the original village has lots of very small narrow streets and the old north road (which you can take to avoid the toll) passes through what seems a more rural landscape....well it did a few years ago. Pedro Brand can be an hour or more away for someone living in an area such as Piantini and the escape into rural countryside heading north west. I used to do that drive in and out the city daily when working from the office in Piantini and commuting to north of Villa Altagracia and my campo home.

Back in 1983 I recall a bit about driving on the old Santiago road north out of the city through small communities which have all now been linked up. I remember the cardboard shanty slums too....there has been development in eradication of real poverty and lets hope it continues.
 

Derfish

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I can't believe what I am reading. So, If you have money than its OK to have a beer or two? Like spending a couple hundred pesos on a couple of beers on Friday or Saturday night is going to change their socioeconomic situation. Then others want to put poverty and filth in the same category is exactly why such class discrimination exists all over the world. Saying oh because they are poor..they must be filthy too...These exact perspectives is what separates human beings from each other even more, and perpetuates not only poverty but discrimination, and discrimination leads to disease, starvation, war, and death.... and to Derfish if you are appalled and really feel something...Go buy some shoes and hand them out..You can afford it!!!

Yes I do buy shoes and help buy uniforms for kids to attend school every year. I grew up in a family where alcohol was not used. My parents had 7 of us kids, our neighbors had only 4 kids their father sat on his porch every night drinking himself to sleep as he smoked thru 2 packs of cigarettes or more every day. Jim and Jill, Tommy and Diane ate at our house at least a couple of times a week for years because their daddy's beer was so much more important than food for the kids. Yes I am still appalled that parents are more in need of alcohol than caring for their kids. am not talking aboitthe ones you are, not those who have a beer or 2 on Friday night, but those who stay drunk and their kids stay hungry.
 
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Some people can handle booze and others cannot. But most of the people I know in Barahona drink perhaps once a week when they go down to the Malecon to party.
There are a couple of guys who get abusive when drunk, but most seem to just sleep it off.
"Dirty" is not a word I would to describe the poor Dominicanos I know.

And Derfish, you are a great guy to provide shoes and uniforms for those kids.
 

ju10prd

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Yes I do buy shoes and help buy uniforms for kids to attend school every year. I grew up in a family where alcohol was not used. My parents had 7 of us kids, our neighbors had only 4 kids their father sat on his porch every night drinking himself to sleep as he smoked thru 2 packs of cigarettes or more every day. Jim and Jill, Tommy and Diane ate at our house at least a couple of times a week for years because their daddy's beer was so much more important than food for the kids. Yes I am still appalled that parents are more in need of alcohol than caring for their kids. am not talking aboitthe ones you are, not those who have a beer or 2 on Friday night, but those who stay drunk and their kids stay hungry.


After seven years of living in the campo alongside hardworking families who work the land getting up before dawn and trekking deep into the land, where there are no roads, (been up there, done it and seen the toils of their labor where no car has ever been near within miles), on their mule and returning at dusk, I did not meet an alcoholic but met many drunk on a bottle of rum at the weekends. Maybe it is a city thing.

My immediate neighbor had 15 kids and worked his butt off with a couple of sons to feed the family along with hand outs from the likes of ourselves and charities including the Koreans, and there is no way I would decry him or his sons for letting their hair down at the weekend. Nor their tamboras and rhythmic vocals used loudly in enjoyment at times.

Makes me wonder why there are some posters who want to challenge a way of life they don't know and probably could not hack for one brief moment.
 

Bystander

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Many people are most comfortable with people similar to themselves.

Others, like OP, appreciate and learn from people dissimilar to themselves.

I prefer to be open minded. Thanks ju10!
 

william webster

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One of the hardest working men I know drinks a bit in his offtime...
those small rum bottles.

After a week of hard labor, why not a break ??

They aren't drunks.
They're exhausted workers trapped in their country and place....

Boredom and hopelessness are understatements.
 

ju10prd

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Many people are most comfortable with people similar to themselves.

Others, like OP, appreciate and learn from people dissimilar to themselves.

I prefer to be open minded. Thanks ju10!

True but perhaps my upbringing in deepest Gloucestershire in Cider with Rosie countryside makes me yearn for the simple life and here you find that in the campo away from the evils of commercialism.