Must make you feel good to be so patronising - when you can fly back to the USA/Canada and be cocooned in smug hypocrisy.
I'm not sure who you are aiming to p-o with this comment, but IF you read my thread from the beginning, you'll see that this is a way of COPING for those of us who for one reason or another don't have the luxury of importing all our things perfectly. Many of us are here as legal residents, living, working and schooling our families. Yes, we CHOSE to come to the DR with our 3 boys (9, 12, and 17) but we don't have the jet set lifestyle you seem to think all Americans have here. One reason we chose to live here is for our children to learn Spanish and see what life is really like in a developing country. I volunteer ALL my time at a local orphanage clinic when I could be earning a 6-figure salary in the US. Yes, my Dh works here, but not at US wages (better than DR but certainly not what he was making in the US even cost adjusted.) Our children go to school in San Pedro and I make frequent public health "house-calls" to the batays. Our eldest volunteers his time at the orphanage in between schooling and when he is going off to study in the university in the US.
I suggest that you come and spend a day with me helping at the orphanage prior to making such snotty comments.:bunny::bunny::bunny: