Yesterday (Sunday) was a low-key day. We were still tired from travelling and we were getting our bearings. We had no food, other than some snacks left over from the trip -- the night before we walked down to a swanky beach-side restaurant for a $50 meal including a hamburger, pizza, ham sandwich and a dish called the Dominican Flag (some chicken, rice, beans and fried plantains). Everything was good, but Chase didn't eat much.
The order of the day was to get some groceries and to go to the beach. Our hostess said she would give Carmen a ride in the morning to the grocery store, but forgot and left without her. When Carmen went to the main house, our host called his wife and some back and forth Spanish was exchanged (of course, Carmen could only hear one side of the conversation which included the only phrase she could pick out "el stupido"). He apologized and explained that they would arrange for a car to come and get us and bring us back.
Fantastic. We were all going on an outing. Cadence isn't a very good shopper in Canada. It turns out this is an international phenomena. We bought some eggs, bread, tetra packs of milk, cereal, dishsoap, tomatoes, apples, chicken, chips, diet coke and beer. In the grocery store everything is similarly priced to what we pay in Canada -- we need to find cheaper places to shop (and to eat!)
Upon leaving the store we realized that neither of us remembered what the Dominican man who drove us looked like or what his car looked like, either. The gentleman who insisted upon pushing our cart for us also insisted that our driver had gone to the main parking lot in front of the building. So we followed him there where we found the Scotiabank Instant Teller machine and a mostly empty parking lot. Carmen was sure we were abandoned. I held out hope; my hope flagged.
Here we are in the middle of town with three little kids and a bunch of groceries with no cell phone and probably 4k from where we are staying. Its Sunday, traffic is light and there really are no roving taxis -- sure, we can take a "motoconcho" (I think that is anyone with a motorcycle who is willing to give you a ride). Yup, two adults, three kids and groceries on a motorcycle ... uhhh, no.
Just as I, following in the footsteps of Champlain, was about to venture into the unfamiliar wilderness, our hostess arrived with our driver and two others in tow. She explained that in addition to the four of them, they could only take Carmen and the boys -- leaving me and Cadence on the street to fend for ourselves?!? She doesn't know that Cadence has an internal GPS that senses when Carmen is out of range and sets of a shrieking alarm.Luckily it didn't have to come to that.
If you are ever asked "How many people fit in a KIA Sorento?" The answer is nine.
In the afternoon, after some quite time (daddy needed to rest his eyes). We headed down the street (more like a muddy path) to the beach. Nice beach. Lots of fun. We met a couple of Canadians from Virginia and their teenaged son. They are staying just across the muddy path from us and we plan on dropping by tomorrow to say hi again.
The sleeping arrangements are not ideal for a couple reasons. We rented 3-bedrooms:
1. Only one bedroom in the main house has air conditioning. It is hot here. Hot like jungle hot becuase it is a jungle. The heat with the humidity puts it at about 42 celcius (feels like).
2. Two bedrooms are in one building and one is in another building between which is a swimming pool. Cohen and I slept in this room the first night with windows open (hot) and under mosquito nets (hotter). I don't think Cohen grasped the concept of the mosquito net because when I woke up in the middle of the night he was all tangled up in it. I de-tangled him but the next morning he had welts all down his face, arm, back and legs (tonight he was itchy and had counted 52 bites -- poor kid).
The other, greater, concern is Chase. About a month ago at our house in Canada, I was downstairs working late one night when Carmen heard a child crying in our front yard. She was a little shocked that a child would be out so late when she realized that only a few minutes earlier Chase had gotten up and gone to the bathroom. It was Chase on our lawn! He had not only sleepwalked down the stairs, out through the garage but around bikes and crud strewn throughout the garage to a man-door that mostly blocked by flattened cardboard boxes. That first night every time I awoke (which was often because it was so hot) I kept thinking about Chase sleepwalking to the pool. Honestly, I had to stop myself a couple times from checking on him in the main house -- I kept telling myself not to succumb to the fear, but I was still worried.
Now we are all in the main house with doors locked to prevent nightly excursions, but we are also sharing -- KK is sleeping in our bed as I write. This is fine as long as she keeps still and stays quiet, but she has a tendency to turn around (think Exorcist but the whole body spinning horizontally and in slow motion) and wake up way to early. BTW she really has picked up Spanish -- this morning she woke me up with a non-stop chorus of "Hola" and "llamo".
Today we achieved some measure of freedom ... we rented a car. We went for a little drive to find a cellphone, get the stroller tire fixed and then some groceries. BTW, in the Dominican everything shuts down at 1:00 pm and re-opens later in the afternoon about 3 or 4. Unfortunately we arrived at the grocery store as it was closing down because it took over an hour to get a cell phone.
So we stopped for lunch. Another fun-fact: Dominicans call an omlette a "tortilla" so lunch was a suprise not only that we had omlettes, but that all told we had $20 worth of omlettes (we really need to find cheaper places to eat). Chase didn't eat much.
After lunch, because we now have a car, we decided to drive around a bit. Carmen and I were here about 18 months ago for a day. We were shown around town by a realtor, so we wanted to drive and see the properties and places she took us to. I am impressed at how much I remember. We drove down little streets and muddy lanes to find houses we had looked at in the past. We ended up at a remote beach called Coson. The trip was filled with pot holes and noisy kids but WOW! What an amazing place. The tide was coming in and the surf was crashing against the beach. The boys and I went out to body surf and play in the waves. Carmen and Cadence walked down the beach to explore.
It happened gradually, but the three of us started to get pulled into the bigger waves until the rip tides had started to worry me. At one point I had both boys in my arms and was unable to move into shore without being pushed by a wave. Cohen put his mask up on his forehead while I was pulling us back in -- when a wave came and stripped it from him. He didn't understand that his mask was gone and that we weren't going to find it. Poor kid. He felt really sad. We felt really sad for him. He moped around for a long time.
One minute he was a happy boy playing in the waves; but the next he was sad and regretting even coming.
That is kind of every day for Carmen and me, too. There are times where we are just so happy and excited. But there are also lots of times where we think how life in Canada is really easy -- why should be subject ourselves to the heat, the insects, the risk of illness, some basic comforts. Don't get me wrong -- we are in no way living in squalor or without neccesities, like many people here do. Then we remind ourselves that we chose this so we can see that happy boy playing in the waves.
If you subscribe to our blog you will get an email everytime it is updated. We plan on posting some photos but the internet connection is slow. I will get that figured out soon. We also enjoy getting your emails and comments.
The order of the day was to get some groceries and to go to the beach. Our hostess said she would give Carmen a ride in the morning to the grocery store, but forgot and left without her. When Carmen went to the main house, our host called his wife and some back and forth Spanish was exchanged (of course, Carmen could only hear one side of the conversation which included the only phrase she could pick out "el stupido"). He apologized and explained that they would arrange for a car to come and get us and bring us back.
Fantastic. We were all going on an outing. Cadence isn't a very good shopper in Canada. It turns out this is an international phenomena. We bought some eggs, bread, tetra packs of milk, cereal, dishsoap, tomatoes, apples, chicken, chips, diet coke and beer. In the grocery store everything is similarly priced to what we pay in Canada -- we need to find cheaper places to shop (and to eat!)
Upon leaving the store we realized that neither of us remembered what the Dominican man who drove us looked like or what his car looked like, either. The gentleman who insisted upon pushing our cart for us also insisted that our driver had gone to the main parking lot in front of the building. So we followed him there where we found the Scotiabank Instant Teller machine and a mostly empty parking lot. Carmen was sure we were abandoned. I held out hope; my hope flagged.
Here we are in the middle of town with three little kids and a bunch of groceries with no cell phone and probably 4k from where we are staying. Its Sunday, traffic is light and there really are no roving taxis -- sure, we can take a "motoconcho" (I think that is anyone with a motorcycle who is willing to give you a ride). Yup, two adults, three kids and groceries on a motorcycle ... uhhh, no.
Just as I, following in the footsteps of Champlain, was about to venture into the unfamiliar wilderness, our hostess arrived with our driver and two others in tow. She explained that in addition to the four of them, they could only take Carmen and the boys -- leaving me and Cadence on the street to fend for ourselves?!? She doesn't know that Cadence has an internal GPS that senses when Carmen is out of range and sets of a shrieking alarm.Luckily it didn't have to come to that.
If you are ever asked "How many people fit in a KIA Sorento?" The answer is nine.
In the afternoon, after some quite time (daddy needed to rest his eyes). We headed down the street (more like a muddy path) to the beach. Nice beach. Lots of fun. We met a couple of Canadians from Virginia and their teenaged son. They are staying just across the muddy path from us and we plan on dropping by tomorrow to say hi again.
The sleeping arrangements are not ideal for a couple reasons. We rented 3-bedrooms:
1. Only one bedroom in the main house has air conditioning. It is hot here. Hot like jungle hot becuase it is a jungle. The heat with the humidity puts it at about 42 celcius (feels like).
2. Two bedrooms are in one building and one is in another building between which is a swimming pool. Cohen and I slept in this room the first night with windows open (hot) and under mosquito nets (hotter). I don't think Cohen grasped the concept of the mosquito net because when I woke up in the middle of the night he was all tangled up in it. I de-tangled him but the next morning he had welts all down his face, arm, back and legs (tonight he was itchy and had counted 52 bites -- poor kid).
The other, greater, concern is Chase. About a month ago at our house in Canada, I was downstairs working late one night when Carmen heard a child crying in our front yard. She was a little shocked that a child would be out so late when she realized that only a few minutes earlier Chase had gotten up and gone to the bathroom. It was Chase on our lawn! He had not only sleepwalked down the stairs, out through the garage but around bikes and crud strewn throughout the garage to a man-door that mostly blocked by flattened cardboard boxes. That first night every time I awoke (which was often because it was so hot) I kept thinking about Chase sleepwalking to the pool. Honestly, I had to stop myself a couple times from checking on him in the main house -- I kept telling myself not to succumb to the fear, but I was still worried.
Now we are all in the main house with doors locked to prevent nightly excursions, but we are also sharing -- KK is sleeping in our bed as I write. This is fine as long as she keeps still and stays quiet, but she has a tendency to turn around (think Exorcist but the whole body spinning horizontally and in slow motion) and wake up way to early. BTW she really has picked up Spanish -- this morning she woke me up with a non-stop chorus of "Hola" and "llamo".
Today we achieved some measure of freedom ... we rented a car. We went for a little drive to find a cellphone, get the stroller tire fixed and then some groceries. BTW, in the Dominican everything shuts down at 1:00 pm and re-opens later in the afternoon about 3 or 4. Unfortunately we arrived at the grocery store as it was closing down because it took over an hour to get a cell phone.
So we stopped for lunch. Another fun-fact: Dominicans call an omlette a "tortilla" so lunch was a suprise not only that we had omlettes, but that all told we had $20 worth of omlettes (we really need to find cheaper places to eat). Chase didn't eat much.
After lunch, because we now have a car, we decided to drive around a bit. Carmen and I were here about 18 months ago for a day. We were shown around town by a realtor, so we wanted to drive and see the properties and places she took us to. I am impressed at how much I remember. We drove down little streets and muddy lanes to find houses we had looked at in the past. We ended up at a remote beach called Coson. The trip was filled with pot holes and noisy kids but WOW! What an amazing place. The tide was coming in and the surf was crashing against the beach. The boys and I went out to body surf and play in the waves. Carmen and Cadence walked down the beach to explore.
It happened gradually, but the three of us started to get pulled into the bigger waves until the rip tides had started to worry me. At one point I had both boys in my arms and was unable to move into shore without being pushed by a wave. Cohen put his mask up on his forehead while I was pulling us back in -- when a wave came and stripped it from him. He didn't understand that his mask was gone and that we weren't going to find it. Poor kid. He felt really sad. We felt really sad for him. He moped around for a long time.
One minute he was a happy boy playing in the waves; but the next he was sad and regretting even coming.
That is kind of every day for Carmen and me, too. There are times where we are just so happy and excited. But there are also lots of times where we think how life in Canada is really easy -- why should be subject ourselves to the heat, the insects, the risk of illness, some basic comforts. Don't get me wrong -- we are in no way living in squalor or without neccesities, like many people here do. Then we remind ourselves that we chose this so we can see that happy boy playing in the waves.
If you subscribe to our blog you will get an email everytime it is updated. We plan on posting some photos but the internet connection is slow. I will get that figured out soon. We also enjoy getting your emails and comments.
