Fish and Salt

 

Fresh tuna being processed at the Salinas landing.

The supermarket visit in the DR is never complete without that strange whiff of salted fish as you walk by the end of the meat row. It knocks at your senses like an unexpected visitor at the door. This very Dominican experience was brought full circle by a recent day trip to the fishing village of Salinas, about an hour West of  Santo Domingo. Unlike the resort filled beaches to the East, Salinas’ dark sands and desert-like environment have kept it less developed. First impressions leave me with three images; fresh fish, sea salt, and kite boarders.

After trying out a training kite for kite boarding, a possible new thing to learn, we stopped at the local fish station to see what the day’s catch was. Although my buddy was disappointed to find no Dorado, I was more than pleased to bring home a few fresh tuna steaks (seen being cut). The extra bonus was that it was a rarely found bargain- about $8 for over four pounds of tuna steak.

After the fish purchase, we stopped for a brief photo shoot at the salt fields. I felt as though I was in a movie as I watched the silhouettes of men pushing carts of salt along the teetering  tracks raised high on a wood trestle. The late afternoon sun continued to drum its heat and the salt piles sparkled as if the crystals were gems. This place begs for a return with the better camera and a notebook for observation.

Below you can see some other pictures from life in town. I am happy to report that we have both purchased great used bikes. The feeling of riding around is like that of sliding on favorite slippers. Wow- we love bikes! We use them to cruise the long narrow park near our house and to get to and from school. As you pass through the park on a weekend morning there are groups of kids playing a version of baseball with a stick and fruit pit as the essential equipment. Since there is little open space, they incorporate the trees into the field. A recent favorite outing was a trip down the park to a Chinese Dim Sum place, where we gorged ourselves on dumplings and other salty yummy dishes in small aluminum steamers.

Pile of sea salt.

Strange sightings and events report: boy catching a ride by hanging on to the spare wheel mounted at back of SUV (driver unaware), our doorman taking road repairs into his own hands by mixing concrete and filling potholes (created road blocks with huge barrel trash cans), the “No guns or knives” sign at our health club, the reading of eighty-eight degrees in our kitchen every afternoon, meals with nothing green on the plate.

Just click on any of the pictures below to enlarge them.

 

 

 

 

 

Bikes improve life. The red one is borrowed. We now both have mtn. bikes to navigate the heavy terrain that is Santo Domingo streets.

Our apartment gets a bit of decoration.

Typical scooter bike in salt fields.

Shoreline of Santo Domingo.

A Quick Update as We Settle

The DR is full of slow and now I am officially part of it as you can tell by my lack of blogging. Actually, we have been limited by the fact that we did not have functioning internet at our apartment util this week. We hope to be up and rolling with that very soon and then get all kinds of fun stories and images up on the blog. We are here now. Somewhat unbelievingly, we realize that future trips out of the country will lead us returning to Santo Domingo instead of Portland. Here are some pics of what awaits for visitors and for us over the next few years.

 After our first blog post one person responded by asking for me to share more about the emotions behind our experience so far. In short it has been exciting with a mixed bag of wows and woes. We find ourselves sometimes questioning how it is we have chosen to live in a crazy, hot, and polluted city outside of the US, but would never think of doing so inside of the US. When we occasionally fill with frustration at the diesel exhaust from generators that are on due to yet another brown out, we also quickly remind ourselves of the joy that comes from fresh tropical fruit, abundant sunshine, Merengue music, and the seemingly endless smiles of our Dominican coworkers.

Sometimes we feel a sense of loss at the thought of our former community, our garden, and our weekend activities. We also  feel a sense relief that comes with the total shift of lifestyle patterns. We have more time and of a huried never caugth up feeling, at least so far. There is almost a buffer from reality and I keep waiting for mortgage, tax, and investment worries to come crashing upon us. Can we run away from all that? Do we want to?

More to come now that we have some functioning internet at home! Here’s some info on subscribing to the blog shared by other readers.

1) You can subscribe from within Firefox, under the bookmarks page, choose ’subscribe to this page’

2) If you have a Google account, it’s pretty easy. Go to http://feedburner.google.com. You can set up email subscriptions or an RSS feed. It’ll walk you through it.

Welcome to Santo Domingo

Finding a slice of paradise.

We are officially residing of the Dominican Republic. Within the last ten days we have seen the island two coasts, survived the video game like experience of driving, almost overcome the traffic sounds that besiege our apartment, and made many new friends through our work places. After leaving Portland in the throws of a one hundred seven degree heat wave, we went through the blurry passage of time and travel that is red eye flights plus foreign country. As our minds cleared and our energy returned, we were happy to find a host of helpful people that proved key in assisting our speedy creation of a new home.

Our apartment is in a seventies style concrete complex. It is a spacious place with two large bedrooms, two bathrooms, big kitchen, basic furnishings, and all the street noise you could ever want. Being on the fourth floor allows us easy access, via one more flight of stairs, to the excellent rooftop. One can enjoy the lovely breeze from the roof while gazing out at the Caribbean Sea two miles to the south. A rustic shade tarp and old gas grill are complimented by sun weathered patio furniture with a host of plants rounding out the funky hangout out space. So far we have enjoyed most of our meals up there and made good use of the grill. A few insane shopping tips to one of the many enormous “one stop shop” stores allowed us to gather essentials like brooms, trash cans, dishes, pots and pans, curtains, ironing board, vases, food, cutting boards, etc.

The best part of living in our building has been our great neighbors. Noel and his partner Thomas live next store. Noel is actually from Mexico and has been super helpful assisting us with translation and access to his Internet. He is also very fun and warm hearted.  Sofia lives two floors down and has been driving us around despite being in the “any day now” stage of pregnancy.

Our first impressions of Santo Domingo are that it is a city full of potential. The Colonial Zone is by far the most lively and interesting place to walk around. The rest of the city lacks charm in both structure and color, but is full of warm people and modern convenience. Street food is harder to find than large shopping complexes and cell phone stores are easier to find than restaurants. We live on the edge of a posh neighborhood in the western section of the city.

The cheapest way to travel around the city is in a public car, which is a cross between a taxi and bus. Most of these cars seem to meet a minimum requirement of being complete junkers. They are small sedans and seating consists of two in the passenger seat and four in the back. There’s no AC and with a ninety plus degree super humid climate, it is easy to feel connected not only by space, but by sweat.

One highlight of being here is the the very cheap membership to the Club Fiesta Hotel health club. For a mere eleven dollars a month we get to use their huge pool, clay tennis courts, ping pong center, and sauna (if it ever really cools down here). There are also free classes. We are eager to establish some routine of exercise.

In general the country is kind of expensive. Prices are comparable to the U.S. on many things and the 16% sales tax makes everything that much pricier. With all that tax revenue one would expect better infrastructure and public services. Most people claim that the money disappears into the pockets of political corruption. I don’t know the facts enough to truly evaluate it.

Work has been mixed experiences for us. We are both in the stages of staff orientation and training. For those who may have forgot, Kris and I are at different schools. So far that has meant different experiences. Kris’ school is smaller and while instruction is in English, the staff orientation had plenty of Spanish to navigate. She seems to be rolling now and in a later blog she can update you per her own experience. My school has been excellent  in facilitating a smooth transition to our new life here. They clearly know what they are doing and have the resources to do it. English is common and I’ll need to make efforts to speak Spanish in adventures beyond campus. I’ll give more descriptions of work in a future blog.

We have not wasted time in doing a bit of exploring. This past weekend we rented a car and explored some beach options on the North Coast. Although not all beaches here are equal, the pictures say it all when you find a good one. The driving is totally insane as there are no obvious traffic laws, no dividing lines, and frequent potholes that are nearly a foot deep.

We are thinking of you all. I know this first blog is a sketch rather then a detailed drawing. Please feel free to send respones and we’ll do our best to touch base  when we can. Remember you can also subscribe to the blog by clicking on the drop down menu in the upper right corner. Warm and humid wishes to you all.  – Zach

Getting Closer

 

Hello Family and Friends,

The rain, never too long in absence in the great North West, has mellowed our summer Sunday enough to try blogging and Facebook. I’m not sure about any of it so far. The main goal is to keep informed those curious about our experience living and working in the Dominican Republic. We will try to post pictures, perhaps some video, and journal style entries. Facebook will serve as a way to let my extended community know about this blog. The blog will be accessible to all who care to follow along, whether they are Facebooking or not. Please feel free to send replies as updates on your own adventures.

We are leaving for the DR on July 29th. Kris starts work as a counselor/health teacher on Aug. 2nd and I start as an 8th grade U.S. history teacher on the 5th. We’ll miss Portland, our friends, the garden, the rivers, mountains, and funky progressive bike awesome life. We will also miss our annual East Coast migration this year, but hope to see you all next summer. We welcome visits to the DR. We expect to be there for at least two years, but if things go well who knows what will happen.

At the moment I’m unsure of how to email you when I update this blog, so the best way to follow along is to bookmark it and check back every few weeks. This would be a great help. Feel free to also check-out any of the links in our side bar, such as those to our new schools (Carol Morgan and MC).

 

We won't see much of this next year. Kris in Cascade winter wonderland.

Best, Zach

Zach doing one of his favorite NW activities.

Our packing room.