?Ok, so you want to have a life here in the D.R..
This is a Tropical Island, one that has a beautiful atmosphere, from it's gorgeous beaches which go for hundreds of miles, the paradise like weather that is almost constant year round, to the native women.?
Well??.on first reading this post, I thought that I, too would like to have a life here in the D.R.
Certainly there are plenty of gorgeous beaches. I haven?t found any that stretch for hundreds of miles, the longest I?ve found is in Nagua, but I?ll keep looking. I don?t want to change the focus of this thread to the quality of the beaches (although Playa Rincon is excellent).
I, too am ex forces, a Flight Sergeant, RAF (for those in the know I?ll admit to being in the CCF at the time- enough said).
My wife is also Dominican? although she tells me she has no desire to become a U.S. citizen.
I also work in a free zone, but not Haina.
After reading all the praises, I thought I would follow some of the advice given in the original posts.
The money advice was a little confusing, having to convert pesos
to dollars, to my own home currency, back to dollars, then back to pesos just got too much, so I?m committed to thinking in pesos, dollars and all other currencies can all look after themselves instead.
Trying to find out what exceptionally good, good and mediocre salaries people earn was a challenge. It wasn?t that people didn?t want to tell me what they earned, far from it, they were very forthcoming with their answers. I suspect, though that many were exaggerating a tab, if not downright lying. I decided though that whilst my salary was not exceptionally good, certainly not by ?American? standards ? whatever those standards are, because unlike the media would lead you to believe, a very high proportion of Americans don?t earn very much at all ? my salary is good.
I didn?t get to have the first look of our first apartment ? my wife insisted that I wait at a colmado drinking presidente. I told her what I wanted and where I didn?t want it, apart from that, we calculated how much we were able to spend on rent (and we took the time to find out what is a good rent and what is extortionate). After a few hours, my wife told me she had seen about five apartments ? the only one she liked was in Los Cacicazgos ? a nice part of the city, she had checked the asking rent and maintenance and now wanted to show me. Great. She did all the work, I got sloshed and the prospective landlord didn?t know I was a ?Gringo? or appeared to be one. The flat was perfect, RD$12,000 a month plus RD$800 maintenance, modern, two big bedrooms, full generator, etc.. We later discovered a French person lived in the same building ? he was paying over $800!
One of the most difficult things was first getting my place ?americanized? ? we had running water, an installed hot water tank and a constant supply of electricity, I turned to friends and asked them what it meant to get a home ?americanized?. Suggestions were the barbecue, ours is on the building roof, the ?Welcome? mats ? mine say ?Go Away? on the other side (how I laughed when I first saw them), the car (I wish I?d picked a Japanese or European car, I just can?t seem to get the parts for mine, and believe me you need them), I have a waffle maker and a washing machine that you put the clothes in at the top. I?ve sacrificed the kettle that I would normally have, but I?m told Americans don?t use them.
My neighbours call our place Little America too, and they call me Gringo. My wife insists on telling them I?m not a gringo, but what the heck.
It makes my day when the locals come ring the door-bell to hear my stories, with their big smiles on their faces. When they?ve finished listening, I give them RD$5 or RD$10, because I know how poor they are. They always come back to hear more ? wonderful!
The neighbours say they are a nuisance and insist the security guard shouldn?t let them past the front gate, but I pass him a few pesos as well, and he says we are best friends. He invites me to his house every weekend, but it?s getting a bit embarrassing as whenever I mention it to my wife she tells me to forget about it. Actually, the fact he keeps asking me is starting to get on my nerves, I?m beginning to think it was a mistake to have given him any pesos in the first place.
Her family live quite close too ? I still haven?t decided if that is a good or bad thing yet ? her mother keeps telling us the way to arrange the decorations in the house. Framed photos all over the place, all of their family though. We have plenty of photos of my immediate relatives, but apparently she hasn?t got around to framing them yet.
The father-in-law, loves his whisky. Won?t come round any more unless I have a new bottle. The problem is, he keeps drinking the bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue, that on the advice of this post I bought for the lawyer friend.
Those private moments with the wife, we only have one child, but countless maids. We decided that the best thing for us to do was lock the bedroom door ? not exactly the advice given previously, but it does seem to work.
The best bit of advice has to be about getting friends in ?important? positions, you never know when you may need to ask them for help. I have found though that this leads to endless amounts of tedious conversations that are basically ?name-dropping?. Many a time I have been with fellow ?gringos? and one will say, ?I know General X?, and another will tell his tales of his mate the Chief of Police. Luckily, my wife knows some very important political dignitaries, .....etcetera, .....etcetera.
Actually, I?m not sure if I have followed any of the help or advice in this thread, and I?m not sure why people are so interested in it. I really can?t be bothered to relate any more, but these are the conclusions I have come too:
1. Get help or advice by all means, but learn from your own experiences. It?s much more entertaining for any future grandchildren.
2. Switch off your computer, go outside and do something. Anything you do has to be more interesting than this ?my experience? story.
3. Anyone who spends RD$19,000 at a supermarket is bound to have a lot of people in his house.
4. This bloke is eventually going to get robbed.
5. There is something wrong with people who would like Rob to make this required reading.
6. The only person who talks any sense is Criss Colon.
Maybe I?m not being fair to all posts in this thread, but I almost fell asleep trying to get through them.
