And You Think The Subway is Packed

My legs haven’t looked this ugly since I was five years old. They are covered in more scabs than a young Tony Hawk practicing for a skateboard competition. No, I’m not skating down here in the DR; however I am getting viciously attacked by the mosquitoes like I just performed an act of terrorism against their home. They are worse than the lotuses from the Egyptian plague. They are EVERYWHERE! In the house, outside the house, at school, in the movie theater they are even in my shower. Getting bit isn’t even the worse part; it’s the aftermath when the itching occurs. It’s gotten so bad that instead of scratching with my nails I use my scalp brush to ease the itches. So if you ever decide to visit Santo Domingo, bug repellent is a necessity.

Now that I’ve gotten that out, I realize that I haven’t been discussing the CULTURE as much as I should. So that’s our topic today. Be prepared for randomness because my brain has a tendency to jump (I told you I have a monkey mind), but here we go.

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION: To get to and from school each morning, Arcena and I, as well as other students here, take a public car. The public car is a combination of a taxi and a bus. They ride up and down the streets and pick you up so if I need to go 10 blocks up the street it will take me and I just tell the driver when I want to get off. The thing about public cars is that you aren’t the only passenger. The drivers try to cram as many people in the car as possible, normally 4 in the back and two in the front passengers seat into a tiny old boxed 1990’s Honda. These cars are the definition of “to’re up”. The doors are literally hanging by their hinges and the insides are sometimes missing cushion. So you’re crammed into these little cars that could possibly break down at any moment with six strangers who only speak Spanish in 88 degree weather. Pretty awesome, right? I have officially been packed like a Mexican. I actually wish we had them in the US because they are extremely convenient. They are only 20 pesos which is less than a dollar and they run frequently so you don’t have to wait 20 minutes for a bus or pay $20 dollars for a cab back in the US. I just wonder what would happen if the driver got into a wreck and you got hurt, who would you sue? I think that’s why they are illegal in the States.

There are over 1 million Dominicans living in New York City. I now understand why they live there because it must remind them of home. Dominicans drive like lunatics! If there are two lanes, they create four. They run lights, I’ve never seen anyone use a turning signal, and motorcycles regularly drive the wrong way on a one way street. It’s chaos. But ironically, I have yet to witness an accident. Organized chaos is what my friend calls it.

The Dominican Republic is a third world country so I was expecting our money ,to be worth WAY more down here, however I was mistaken. The things down here are just as expensive as they are in the US if not more expensive down here. Especially the food and beauty supplies. I went to the farmacia (pharmacy) to buy some sun block and it was 750 pesos. That is over $20 US dollars. I think it’s so expensive because it is imported and since the US produces almost everything, it’s more expensive out here. For some reason I thought all countries were like us and that they had their own brands. They do have some like Rica, which produces their milk and juices, but they don’t ---> [public car driver] make nearly as much of their own materials as we do which is probably why they have more poverty and higher unemployment. If they had the funds to develop better technology to create and export their own materials they would be able to stimulate their economy however they rely on the US and other countries for most of their supplies. Gas here is about $6 per gallon... so next time it rises in the US, I will not complain!

-The Girl with the Monkey Mind