Some Things Are Hard To Get Used To

[william webster]

No - not the rules of the road.....

Rainfall - we had torrential rain last night...
My pool tells me about 1 foot or more..... unbelievable !!!

Clear as a bell this AM.......

The amount of rain in such a short time astounds me....

Life in the tropics !!

What things astound you about Rep Dom ?

 

[chico bill]

The thing that astounds me most is why the Dominicans do not respect their environment.
Even near their own home they dump or ignore trash.

Seems a shame as it could be a much more majestic place with little effort.

 

[william webster]

Absolutely !!

I've learned to ignore it.... but , you're right

 

[JD Jones]

The thing that astounds me most is why the Dominicans do not respect their environment.
Even near their own home they dump or ignore trash.

Seems a shame as it could be a much more majestic place with little effort.

The lack of respect is the root of almost every problem in the DR.

 

[NanSanPedro]

As someone who has lived in the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic, I find the plethora of fresh fruits and veggies 365 days/year amazing. I love it. Especially with all this Wuhan Flu nonsense, you can literally eat your way to good health.

Regarding the trash discussion above, I find it perplexing. Both Dominicanos/as and Haitianos/as are clean people inside or directly in front of their homes. You see them sweeping the trash in front daily. Most personal hygiene is above reproach. But yet they will litter the countryside or the roads with anything and everything. I know it's cultural but it just goes against everything I learned.

 

[Auryn]

On my in laws entire block and the next one up from them, everyone keeps it clean. My father in law cleans the street every morning around 6am. There are a couple of houses that don’t bother too much, but the neighbors sweep and clean those after they do their own.

They’re an exception, and the previous blocks throw all their trash in the gutters even though there is regular garbage collection.
Last visit we were sitting in the front along the street and a car stopped directly in front of us, rolled down its passenger window, the guy blew his nose and threw his soaking, snotty tissue at my father in laws feet. Suegro is 71 and sometimes he talks about how Trujillo was bad, but not as bad as some people say.

 

[bob saunders]

On my in laws entire block and the next one up from them, everyone keeps it clean. My father in law cleans the street every morning around 6am. There are a couple of houses that don’t bother too much, but the neighbors sweep and clean those after they do their own.

They’re an exception, and the previous blocks throw all their trash in the gutters even though there is regular garbage collection.
Last visit we were sitting in the front along the street and a car stopped directly in front of us, rolled down its passenger window, the guy blew his nose and threw his soaking, snotty tissue at my father in laws feet. Suegro is 71 and sometimes he talks about how Trujillo was bad, but not as bad as some people say.

One of the problems is they sweep all that garbage into the storm sewers which in turn takes it into the rivers.

 

[Auryn]

One of the problems is they sweep all that garbage into the storm sewers which in turn takes it into the rivers.

They bag it- leaves or trash. Garbage trucks pick it up.

 

[DR fan1990]

Trash everywhere is what I don't like about this country. You'd have to go to the tourist areas or upper class neighbourhoods to not see that.
But I hate how Dominicans love to take care of their looks (hair, clothing, grooming, etc) while at the same time dodging the trash laying in the streets as soon as they step outside with their brand new shoes on.

Their well-groomed look vs. the constant trash in the streets they are walking on is a disturbing contrast.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

They bag it- leaves or trash. Garbage trucks pick it up.

Where does this happen

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

The lack of respect is the root of almost every problem in the DR.

Well unfortunately the most common theme, across my nearly 20 years in nice towns as well as ghettos, is "it's my house y yo hago que me da la maldita gana". I've heard it used as an argument in court countless times. Everything from music, to garbage to violence, renters etc.

 

[Auryn]

San Pedro. He sweeps sweeps everything into piles early morning. Later in the morning, my mother in law comes along with a long handled, extra wide dust pan that she collects the leaves and other refuse in, then my father in law holds open the extra large red Jumbo bags for her. After that, he goes across the street to help the neighbor sweep his frontage when he seems him, and so forth. Frank across the street also bags his, but I can’t speak for everyone on the block.

I don’t know when trash collection is or how frequent. But I’ve seen the truck go by. Those street bags usually don’t have much household food waste, so they might sit for a bit without drawing attention.

 

[Auryn]

Their street also has some beautiful old trees growing out of the sidewalk, and a few nice front gardens. People take pride in that I think. Street is paved, luz goes out maybe once a week, 2-3 hours max.

It’s not Hazim, but it’s not Barrio Blanco either. If you know San Pedro, that gives a bit of a comparison.

 

[El Hijo de Manolo]

Their street also has some beautiful old trees growing out of the sidewalk, and a few nice front gardens. People take pride in that I think. Street is paved, luz goes out maybe once a week, 2-3 hours max.

It’s not Hazim, but it’s not Barrio Blanco either. If you know San Pedro, that gives a bit of a comparison.

Sounds like a lovely place Auryn

 

[Auryn]

If you go a block or two in any direction, it can be a totally different story as with most barrios. It might sound pastoral, but there’s no shortage of drama.

We used to (as in 2013-2018) sit out on the sidewalk laughing and visiting with people passing by until 11-11:30pm, especially on weekends. Now, we’re inside by 8:30pm-9:00pm and the gates are locked any days of the week. The people stop passing at that time as well. Just kids with huge dreads and a baseball cap perched on top, with skinny jeans and giant shoes screech by on pasolas occasionally after that.

People ask if it’s Hazim because that’s the “nice” barrio behind Jumbo. My husband says you don’t go into Blanco without a longtime resident and even then you could get shot. 🤷🏻‍♀️

 

[DR fan1990]

I understand there is 0 recycling service in this country ?? Literally everything including plastic bottles and other recyclable items just go straight to trash, then to landfills ??

And what about all the plastic bottles and plastic cups from hotels and resorts - and I know there are tons of that everyday considering the huge scale of tourism - do the resorts just throw all that recyclable plastic to trash ??

 

[bob saunders]

I understand there is 0 recycling service in this country ?? Literally everything including plastic bottles and other recyclable items just go straight to trash, then to landfills ??

And what about all the plastic bottles and plastic cups from hotels and resorts - and I know there are tons of that everyday considering the huge scale of tourism - do the resorts just throw all that recyclable plastic to trash ??

There is electronics recycling and Metals recycling.

 

[JD Jones]

I understand there is 0 recycling service in this country ?? Literally everything including plastic bottles and other recyclable items just go straight to trash, then to landfills ??

And what about all the plastic bottles and plastic cups from hotels and resorts - and I know there are tons of that everyday considering the huge scale of tourism - do the resorts just throw all that recyclable plastic to trash ??

Yes, there are many recycling services in this country. Fairly low key and very little of it is govt. backed or sanctioned. I see trucks loaded with plastic bottles, cartons, batteries, and metal almost on a daily basis, but to be fair I live in an area where there are a lot of recycling centers.

The city of Santo Domingo does a yearly "Plastic bottles for bicycles" campaign that encourages children to recycle.

 

[bob saunders]

CIMER – Yeyo Ochoa Group

www.yeyoochoagroup.com

 

[NALs]

The thing that astounds me most is why the Dominicans do not respect their environment.
Even near their own home they dump or ignore trash.

Seems a shame as it could be a much more majestic place with little effort.

Depends on the place. In many towns and campos the streets and public outdoor places are quite clean. In those places people include the cleanliness of the place as part of their pride. These places tend not to be near tourist areas (they themselves tend to be clean, but the government makes an effort of creating that for the sake of the tourists. Elsewhere it really depends on the residents and their habits).

It wasn't always like that. At first it may seem that during the Trujillo Era Dominican towns and rural areas were spotless because of Trujillo (Santo Domingo was considered one of the cleanest cities in Latin America), but then there are things as the following which predates the Trujillo Era.

This is how Alpheus Hyatt Verril describes the DR in 1914 (a trip that included traveling through much of Puerto Rico, the DR, and Haiti).





Before Trujillo was born Samuel Hazard in his "Santo Domingo Past and Present and A Glance at Haiti" never mentions the sanitation issue of the DR (Santo Domingo is the country, not just the capital) and he traversed much of it, but he does mention that Port-au-Prince is "the Paris of the gutter" and that the only times the streets are cleaned is when it rains strong enough to flood them and form torrents of water towards the bay. This was in 1871 and both are based on his eyewitness through a much more thorough traveling through the DR while the parts of Haiti that he visited were Cap Haitien and vicinity, Port-au-Prince and vicinity, and Gonaives. He visited those three Haitian towns because the steamer heading from the DR to NY stop in those three ports prior to starting the sea route to NYC. He also mentions how the steamer would glide off the coast of Haiti and all they would see are "verdure clad mountains" and a natural "beauty in the extreme." When he toured the outer area of Port-au-Prince he mentions how the forests covered the mountains, but along the rivers their was many logs from cut trees floating to town, presumably to ship them abroad and sell them.

Anyway, the DR garbage problem is something that appears in modern times. Reading accounts from not too long ago all the way to colonial times, the cleanliness of the streets wasn't an issue. Ironically, when it comes to Haiti, accounts mentioning the garbsge problem appears almost as soon as it became an independent country.