I don't mind his posts. He/she lives here, and I think the spouse is Dominican. He brings some balance to the DR forums that tends to be tilted in defending all things DR. There are pros and cons, here and everywhere. I may not agree with some statements but I truly believe are needed. We are all entitled to our opinion whether we agree or not with the rest.
- Thread starter latitude19
- Start date
CAUTION- Robbery near Kite Beach, CABARETE
Well, I haven't lived in the UK for 20 years and so to say 'again' is not in really on the ball. I have a home here and am living in it while we buy elsewhere. We still have roots in DR, and like I said we hope to return once we feel the attraction is there. Unless you are mistaking me for someone else I rarely bitch and moan about the DR, infact I was not here, if you call saying how it is bitching then it is how it is, I don't make stuff up. I was mentioning the decline over the 10 years I have known and loved the DR.
You speak as if there is some kind of bravery award or medal to be gained for people who live in the country. I've noticed this in your posts on multiple occasions, 'I've been here 7 years', 'in the 7 years I've been here', 'you know in all my 7 years', I mean do you consider you are a long term resident because you have been in the country for 7 years? a wealth of information, an authority on what you know, because if that is in your mind you need to slap yourself, get a grip. Surely in life it is easier for people who are free to be where they want to be, travel to where they want to be. I am expending my horizons, renovating more property, opening up new doors in yet another country, are you telling me that is a bad thing? To want to own property in various countries?
So tell me Mr long term till death Dominican Ex Pat Action man, why have you found yourself stuck in one place for life? I can only say because you don't have as large an expanse of horizon as me, you are easier pleased. So good luck, I wish I was easily pleased, but I'm not and so I keep on expanding myself and my experiences, internationally including the DR.
Unless you are unaware many posters here post from outside of the DR, including the owner. I have family and interests in DR and spent a long time enjoying my life and starting my family in the DR. It has a place close to my heart, roots I am very fond of.
So please Cocoboy, take your bandwagon elsewhere, no one has reason to jump on it here.
You are imagining my distaste for the country. As I've said we can be happy elsewhere for the moment, but we will always have ties to DR. Tell me, are you Dominican? If not then do you keep in touch with where you are from, where you have lived and an interest in what goes on where you have lived? If you have cut yourself off from your past then I find it sad, but like you have said 'you wouldn't be doing that', and I am not you and neither are the majority of people who visit these boards and don't live in the country. And I am pretty recently left and so no doubt over time I will visit less often, that is natural as I find new things to occupy my mind. No one is on here because they have something better to do with their day are they? So I'd reconsider your statement above, I don't think it is accurate, and if honest for you then fine, but I doubt so for the majority. But try harder to understand my posts, it is not as bad as you make out.
Hummm...i can identify with every statement here. But i'd like to just walk you through some of the changes i've noticed over the last decades that have made staying here easier and easier as each year goes by.
In the 70's, i was transported down here from Ohio and lived with my grandparents. they had no toilet; they only had an outhouse. i had never used an outhouse before--the mosquitos and smell were relentless inside--so i just choose to go to the bathroom in the field adjecent to our house. it was our field and land and it was hevily covered with brush. i often found myself aquatting down and competing with feral and house cats for choice spots and locations to bury my poop. i hated it at first, but like most things in life, you just acclimate and get used to anything after a while and it just becomes routine.
We had no 5-gallon bottled drinknig water in Bonao at the time, and there was no drinking water service that delivered to your door that i was aware of. So it was my job to walk a mile to the Falcon Bridge neighborhood and stand in line and fill up five 1-galloon milk jugs and walk back home with them. Everyone had to do this for their drinking water. most people arrived by horse, donkey cart, or truck or car--if you were lucky enough to own one. Luckily, we lived close enough where i could walk the 2 mile round trip without much problem.
Electricity was scarce in the 70's and no one i knew of had an inverter with batteries or a generator. everyone gathered around candle light at night. There was no such thing as cable TV either. There was very few motorcycles as well, and the ones that were around were japanese bikes--honda's, yamahas, and suzuki's mostly--and they were expensive. very expensive!! i only knew one person in Bonao who owned a Honda 250 in 1977. Remember, there was no such thing as Chinese scooters on this island in the 70's. None. Zero. and few people had a land-line telephone. People were stopping by my aunt and uncles house every few days crying, needing to borrow the telephone in order to call love ones back in the USA in order to inform them that their relatives were dying or had just died. people were always streaming out of the house at all hours of the night and day crying after using the phone. i think my aunt and uncle had the only phone within a very large peremeter of Bonao.
The 80's came, and still, few roads were paved, including the highway (Duarte) that stretched from Santiago to Santo Domingo--it had many spots that were unpaved because heavy rains were constantly washing away the roads and bridges in many spots--especially around Alta Gracia and Piedre Blanca. There was a speed bump in the middle of the highway near Alta Gracia as well...everyone had to come to a full stop before continuing down the highway on the way to either Santo Domingo and Santiago. There were lots of rough spots along the highway as well, so that, you frequently had to come to near a full stop before continuing down the highway.
I finally left for Ohio in the 80's and went to university before coming back in 93. My god...so much had changed that i almost didn't recognize Bonao and many other places. The huge 7up sign that was at the entrance of Santiago as one entered the city was gone; the highway was mostly paved; they had even paved most of the streets in Bonao. So many buildings were being built, and there were now Chinese scooters everywhere, and people were giving up their horses and donkeys as their main form of transportation in order to buy on credit the chinese scooters. It was a double edged sword--on one hand, horses and donkeys finally got a reprieve and were not abused as badly as they once were as the only form of transportation available for millions of people, but at the same time, the growth rate of chinese scooters started saturating the roads and towns and cities everywhere.
The late 90's came and they finally got rid of the speed bump along the main highway between santo domingo and Santiago, but the biggest transformation was that cell phones were finally arriving here and availabe for the rich. cell phones was by contract only!! there were no such thing as getting a chip and $15 cell phone and going on your way. that didn't come until much later. Suddenly, more and more people started getting cell phones and communication opened up a hole that had been closed since Christopher Columbus arrived.
Today, nearly everyone, rich or poor, black or white, Haitian or Dominican, has a cell phone and transportation---I.E a scooter. Nearly everyone has cable TV! Anyone with a little bit of money can have internet. Many of our wait staff and kitchen staff have internet at home in Sabaneta, Isla Bon, Gaspar Hernandez, etc. Internet in Sabaneta!! We now have supermarkets like La Sirena and PriceMart. We have Playero here on the north coast which has lots of American stuff like cereals and peanut butter and Hershey Kisses and cheesecake and really healthy stuff like that. They even have Belguim beer and croissants and Haagen Daaz...stuff that didn't exist here 20 years ago--which contributes to my stomach growing outward horizontally and then south.
Now we have any truck or car available for purchase, every motorcycle imaginable, paved roads in locations that was unheard of 5 years ago. The transformations going on right now is nothing short of amazing. condos are going up like dominoes and people are moving down out of the mountains, and restaurants are springing up as quickly as they fall. for someone who has been living here for a long time, the transformations are so enormous that it hard to get your head around sometimes.
I could go on and on but, i can relate to the OP here. it's not easy here. it's even harder if you do not have roots here. so many people come down here to live their dream and expect, or at the very least, hope that things here are like they are back home. For them, the transformation required in order to acclimate here is enormous, gigantic, stupendous. But for people used to camping and living out of an RV, you will find it not that big of deal. But for the others that come running down here to escape personal problems back home, escape addictions back home, escape relationship issues back home--well, eventually you just find yourself back in the same spot as which you left.
Unfortunately, the Carribean is a magnet for dysfunctional people, but it's also home to some scary intelligent, eccentric, ecclectic, fun loving, politically incorrect, sexually starved, down home, good loving folks.
Love Frank
In the 70's, i was transported down here from Ohio and lived with my grandparents. they had no toilet; they only had an outhouse. i had never used an outhouse before--the mosquitos and smell were relentless inside--so i just choose to go to the bathroom in the field adjecent to our house. it was our field and land and it was hevily covered with brush. i often found myself aquatting down and competing with feral and house cats for choice spots and locations to bury my poop. i hated it at first, but like most things in life, you just acclimate and get used to anything after a while and it just becomes routine.
We had no 5-gallon bottled drinknig water in Bonao at the time, and there was no drinking water service that delivered to your door that i was aware of. So it was my job to walk a mile to the Falcon Bridge neighborhood and stand in line and fill up five 1-galloon milk jugs and walk back home with them. Everyone had to do this for their drinking water. most people arrived by horse, donkey cart, or truck or car--if you were lucky enough to own one. Luckily, we lived close enough where i could walk the 2 mile round trip without much problem.
Electricity was scarce in the 70's and no one i knew of had an inverter with batteries or a generator. everyone gathered around candle light at night. There was no such thing as cable TV either. There was very few motorcycles as well, and the ones that were around were japanese bikes--honda's, yamahas, and suzuki's mostly--and they were expensive. very expensive!! i only knew one person in Bonao who owned a Honda 250 in 1977. Remember, there was no such thing as Chinese scooters on this island in the 70's. None. Zero. and few people had a land-line telephone. People were stopping by my aunt and uncles house every few days crying, needing to borrow the telephone in order to call love ones back in the USA in order to inform them that their relatives were dying or had just died. people were always streaming out of the house at all hours of the night and day crying after using the phone. i think my aunt and uncle had the only phone within a very large peremeter of Bonao.
The 80's came, and still, few roads were paved, including the highway (Duarte) that stretched from Santiago to Santo Domingo--it had many spots that were unpaved because heavy rains were constantly washing away the roads and bridges in many spots--especially around Alta Gracia and Piedre Blanca. There was a speed bump in the middle of the highway near Alta Gracia as well...everyone had to come to a full stop before continuing down the highway on the way to either Santo Domingo and Santiago. There were lots of rough spots along the highway as well, so that, you frequently had to come to near a full stop before continuing down the highway.
I finally left for Ohio in the 80's and went to university before coming back in 93. My god...so much had changed that i almost didn't recognize Bonao and many other places. The huge 7up sign that was at the entrance of Santiago as one entered the city was gone; the highway was mostly paved; they had even paved most of the streets in Bonao. So many buildings were being built, and there were now Chinese scooters everywhere, and people were giving up their horses and donkeys as their main form of transportation in order to buy on credit the chinese scooters. It was a double edged sword--on one hand, horses and donkeys finally got a reprieve and were not abused as badly as they once were as the only form of transportation available for millions of people, but at the same time, the growth rate of chinese scooters started saturating the roads and towns and cities everywhere.
The late 90's came and they finally got rid of the speed bump along the main highway between santo domingo and Santiago, but the biggest transformation was that cell phones were finally arriving here and availabe for the rich. cell phones was by contract only!! there were no such thing as getting a chip and $15 cell phone and going on your way. that didn't come until much later. Suddenly, more and more people started getting cell phones and communication opened up a hole that had been closed since Christopher Columbus arrived.
Today, nearly everyone, rich or poor, black or white, Haitian or Dominican, has a cell phone and transportation---I.E a scooter. Nearly everyone has cable TV! Anyone with a little bit of money can have internet. Many of our wait staff and kitchen staff have internet at home in Sabaneta, Isla Bon, Gaspar Hernandez, etc. Internet in Sabaneta!! We now have supermarkets like La Sirena and PriceMart. We have Playero here on the north coast which has lots of American stuff like cereals and peanut butter and Hershey Kisses and cheesecake and really healthy stuff like that. They even have Belguim beer and croissants and Haagen Daaz...stuff that didn't exist here 20 years ago--which contributes to my stomach growing outward horizontally and then south.
Now we have any truck or car available for purchase, every motorcycle imaginable, paved roads in locations that was unheard of 5 years ago. The transformations going on right now is nothing short of amazing. condos are going up like dominoes and people are moving down out of the mountains, and restaurants are springing up as quickly as they fall. for someone who has been living here for a long time, the transformations are so enormous that it hard to get your head around sometimes.
I could go on and on but, i can relate to the OP here. it's not easy here. it's even harder if you do not have roots here. so many people come down here to live their dream and expect, or at the very least, hope that things here are like they are back home. For them, the transformation required in order to acclimate here is enormous, gigantic, stupendous. But for people used to camping and living out of an RV, you will find it not that big of deal. But for the others that come running down here to escape personal problems back home, escape addictions back home, escape relationship issues back home--well, eventually you just find yourself back in the same spot as which you left.
Unfortunately, the Carribean is a magnet for dysfunctional people, but it's also home to some scary intelligent, eccentric, ecclectic, fun loving, politically incorrect, sexually starved, down home, good loving folks.
Love Frank
We will not miss you in DR. All that I hear when I read your comment is..... nah nah nah nah nah nah nah hey hey goodbye
It would be unusual to miss what you never knew so probably best not to get the hankies out.
'We', who are 'we', oh, you speak of me to your loved ones? thanks!
And odd you never mentioned my nah nah nah nah up until now, what's had your tongue? Or is that obvious, hope the hangover is not too bad!
Speak up in future next time you see my nah nah nah, like I've said to someone else, it's in your imagination, I only say what happens, I don't control it.
I tell you what, speak up when I speak untruths please, just keep an eye and do that. I don't live behind rose tinted anything, and by far I don't slag the country, I mention what IS true. If I didn't I would get slammed down on here, and I don't so....................
You don't need a bandwagon, if you see BS then call it.
Love,
Dog X
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Come on jrhartley- dont ruin the fun. Its raining, they have to do something else besides looking at their novellas. :cheeky:
Actually, it's na na na na, na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye............By Bananarama....
At least get the lyrics right............lol
B in Santiago
Now, if we are getting technical, The song was written and recorded by studio musicians Garrett DeCarlo, Dale Frashuer, and producer/writer Paul Leka at Mercury Records studios in New York City. This single was attributed to a non-existent band which they named"Steam" because they didn't want their names on a release that they thought was terrible. Paul Leka and the studio group recorded the first album. They were actually part of a group called the "Chateaus"...............
The song was written in 1961.............released in 69
B in Santiago
The song was written in 1961.............released in 69
B in Santiago
Isn't that "Barry"......... as in Manilow ?????????
We have a celebrity in our midst.
Call in Sedaka and Anka.....
We have a celebrity in our midst.
Call in Sedaka and Anka.....
So do I...............and that makes us.......how old......
When it was released in 1969 I already had a son......
And, working on my second wife........lol
Who would have dreamed I would retire here...
B in Santiago