zahra, I take it you are a woman? Oh well, i could be wrong.
i am a pakistani-american (now a converted dominican) living in santiago for many years. So now I will get to the point:
people are very polite to us if you present yourself in the positive manner. many uneducated people will joke about taliban and may even confuse us for arabs but this is all in tongue and cheeks. I am personally sick and tired of explaining to them that i am not iraqi or taliban and certainly i do not have 4 wives at home. Idiots are all the same everywhere you go.
Santiago has almost no pakistani presence (apart from myself) but I hear santo domingo is full of them. many are medical students but others have decided to stay there and have gotten married to dominican women. but unlike tourists, these guys are married to professional grade, educated dominicanas.
I have started to work in capital as well but so far, I have only spent a day there working. I am already in contact with other pakistani doctors and I will soon get to meet them in person. there is a mosque here (santo domingo) but being the sinful infidel i have become, I have yet to see the doors of it. I hear they have many followers and many dominicans have also converted to islam. the community is peaceful and domincian people are very tolerant towards us. they do not get the urge to bomb us or to make us look like terrorists in every movie which is about us.
So you will have no worries and you will fit in just fine if you watch your steps. We are here to help you if you need any assistance. Feel free to send me a PM.
AZB
