Hello Everyone, I am new to this Forum although I have been reading posts for almost two years while researching our move. Who are we? We are a Canadian family of 3.5 (baby number two on the way). I have traveled all through central america and many parts of the Caribbean. I lived for a year on a sailboat as a teenager with my parents, sailing through all of Mexico and Central America. It was there that I gained a love for all things Latin. Later in my early twenties I lived in Haiti for 2 years as a volunteer. That experience forever changed my life. I speak English first, then French (all of my High school years were in French) and Haitian Creole and Spanish fluently. I have a background in Construction and Civil Engineering/Land Development. My beautiful wife who is Latina and from El Salvador spent her childhood in El Salvador and then moved to Canada with her family. She speaks English and Spanish fluently and bits and pieces of any language she ever had a chance to study either in University or elsewhere. My wife is a Social Worker. We both love different cultures and love to travel and have quite a bit since we got married. After our first son was born we moved to Belize to work with a volunteer organization there. We chose to speak only Spanish with him since he was born, he'll learn English later. He is two and I'm pretty sure he considers himself to be Latino even though he's as white as I am. We now have another boy on the way and plan on making the break from our cold Canadian winters once life has returned to as normal as it can be with a baby and a toddler. Probably when baby number two is about 4 months. We have decided to give the DR a shot for at least eight months... or longer...
Here's what we're are thinking, Renting in Puerto Plata or thereabouts for the first while while we get ourselves settled in. We're not stuck on there specifically and sometimes feel that we would prefer a smaller city. But who knows. We would like to volunteer with some existing humanitarian organizations to see what some of the local difficulties and needs might be and then from there if the DR is a fit for us we would like to start our own humanitarian effort working with the people there. Dominican and Haitian alike.
We look forward to meeting many of you in the near future.
MJP35
Here's what we're are thinking, Renting in Puerto Plata or thereabouts for the first while while we get ourselves settled in. We're not stuck on there specifically and sometimes feel that we would prefer a smaller city. But who knows. We would like to volunteer with some existing humanitarian organizations to see what some of the local difficulties and needs might be and then from there if the DR is a fit for us we would like to start our own humanitarian effort working with the people there. Dominican and Haitian alike.
We look forward to meeting many of you in the near future.
MJP35