A Slice of Life

Casa // House
I've had trouble sleeping in on my days off, because if I sleep past 8am, I wake up burning hot without fail. Today I realized why: the roof is made of zinc and heats up the entire room like an oven when the sun is up. An interesting circumstances that will force me to keep a regular sleep schedule.


There is a fan in every room of the house. The most powerful one doesn't start on its own (i.e. you need to spin the blades to get it up to full speed), and as a result the front cage is never on. The thing scared the bejeezus out of me at first, but now I'm pretty used to it.


We have a family of chihuahuas in the house: a mom (Samantha), a dad (Cuco) and a baby (a female, still to be named). They sleep in the backyard, but are allowed in the house during the day. Like most animals here they are obviously not spayed/neutered, but otherwise well taken care of. Everyday they are fed leftover rice, beans and meat. Samantha is a very sweet and affectionate animal, but receives none from the humans of the house. 


Comida // Food
My host mom is always asking what I want to eat, and she serves me salads (lettuce, tomato, cucumber, sometimes with avocado) at lunch with my rice/beans/meat. When I arrived, she served a lot of (overcooked) boiled vegetables that I had to struggle to choke down. We asked if she'd serve us those vegetables (broccoli, carrots, green beans) raw, and apparently that's not a thing here, even if you do wash them in good water. She has stopped serving them, and has been serving salad instead.


Breakfast is usually some combination of two or three of the following: eggs, bread, mango, pineapple, cheese, salami.


Dinners are sometimes random. Last night, for example, was mashed potatoes and cheese with fried onions. But more often than not its pretty typical: rice, beans, meat, vegetables, fried plantains (maduros which are a good dessert or tostones which remind me of french fries)


Fresh juice is served at every meal. We've been drinking chinola (passionfruit) mostly, but have also had tamarindo. Dominicans sweeten all their drinks, almost too much. Batidos (smoothies) are the same way - fruit and ice blended with sweetened condensed milk. Half of one does me in - its so so so sweet.


Mangú is another interesting Dominican dish. Its like mashed potatoes but with plantain instead of potatoes.


A friend from the hospital threw a major party on Friday to cook sancocho for us. Sancocho is a rich stew with meat (usually pork), yucca, potato, carrots, etc. It was one of those events that we thought would be pretty low key, just us gathered around the table with a couple others. However, they pulled out all the stops with a big crowd on the roof of her apartment building; the rum/coke was flowing; the music was playing and the actually dinner didn't happen until 9pm. It was a blast.


Familia // Family 
My host mom has two boys (one 6 years, the other 15), but only the youngest one stays with her. He is rambunctious and often runs down the street in his underwear. The older one lives with his father and is an aspiring baseballer. He visits on Thursdays. One of her nieces has also been staying with her since I arrived. It sounds like she will return home when school starts next month.


There are always people visiting the house, and they often come and go without notice. I have trouble keeping all the relations straight but the words tia (aunt) and sobrino/a (niece/nephew) are used often. It seems that these familiar terms are used relatively loosely, but who knows maybe all the neighbors are actually blood relations.


A señor (older man) that lives alone down the street because his wife and kids are in the states. He often comes to sit on our patio for some company, and my host mom often cooks extra food to bring over to him. 


Transporte // Transportation
Its not always easy to get around in this town, but there are some cheap options.
Carros públicos (public cars) are essentially taxis that run up and down the main drag. You pay RD$20 (US$0.50) per person to ride, and as many people as fit will pile into the car. Carritos, as they call them, because they run up and down the Avenida, can only get you so far.


Motoconchos (motorcycle taxis) are another cheap (but demonstrably dangerous) option that will pick you up at home and take you where you need to go for RD$50 (US$1.30). There are also regular taxis available, but are significantly more expensive: usually about RD$200 (US$5.25) to get you somewhere in town.


Guaguas are buses that run a particular route and are pretty cheap, but similar to carritos, will pile in as many people as can fit. The routes and stops aren't marked, so you just kind of have to get to know the system of routes and wait until one comes.
What's most commonly seen on the roads is throwback models (mostly Toyotas) from the mid-1980s. Just like my childhood, but tripped out with subwoofers, etc.


Música // Music
It is everywhere here. Even when the electricity is out (which is at least a couple times a day), music is always audible in the street. There are certain songs that seem to crop up everywhere that I want to share. [Let me know if any of the links don't work; I know there may be videos here that may not be visible in the States and viceversa]


Pa'lante by El Chuape : I hear this song at least a couple times a day. Represents a Dominican style called Dembow, akin to reggaeton, but somehow uniquely Dominican. The song sounds raunchy (and it is), but its so catchy.


Desesperado by Zacarías Ferreira : This bachatero played a concert nearby SFM last Saturday. A few of us went and saw part of it (more on that later), and todo el mundo sings along at the top of their lungs to everything he sings, including this song with which he opened the concert.


Promise by Romeo Santos feat. Usher: Another good bachata jam that we hear all the time here. This song is pretty popular in the States right now, too. 


Vocabulario // Vocabular

• Un chín de [lo que sea] // A little bit of [whatever]
• Ese chivo // That guy (literal translation: that goat; an expression meant to talk about someone in their presence without them knowing, derived from the days of Trujillo, who was known as El Chivo)
• Que lo que // What's going on? 
• Heavy // Cool
• ¿Novedad? // Right? (a Dominicanization of ¿No es verdad?)
• No es fácil // It's not easy. Used in reference to just about everything!