Beth's Music Notes: Meunier tu dors - fast & slow

Beth's Music Notes: Meunier tu dors - fast & slow

Farwell, Dominican Republic

From Friday, May 18 ...

Well, it's on.  Today is the last day for us in Paradise and its going to be one big hot mess (literally - no really, it's 42 degrees here and my house is upside down).  We are finishing packing up this morning while the kids are in school and then we have a going away party at the beach this afternoon.  I can't believe that it's over.  But that's life right?  We've said good bye to so many things this week that it's taking a toll on everyone.  it's not your normal "see you later" or "until next time".

It really is a solid "goodbye", the kind that means that we will most likely never see these lovely people and places again in our lives.  Colin and I figure that we may return someday, but things here change so quickly with people coming and going and with all of the land development, that if we do someday come back it will not be the same.  I feel bad for the kids and all of the friends that they made at school and within our circle of friends.  I'm not sure that they understand.  And now that we have a bit of the "adventure bug" we may want to try somewhere else next time the bank account allows it.  We've learned so much about life here.  Our lives, other people lives.  The way we live and the way it impacts other people.  We've seen both sides of having things and not having things and the joys and sorrows that both sides can bring.  I hope that we bring home and instill in our lives many of the things that we have learned here. We have learned to value time with the ones we love.  We have found so much joy in being together this year, relying on each other for our entertainment and support.  we've also had to deal with extreme sorrow this year with the sudden passing of Colin's step-father in April - only 3 days after returning home from a two month visit to us.  It has been difficult to grieve from afar but comforting to know that there is so much family support for Colin's mom back home.  She did however, return to us for the last three weeks to help us out - I like to think that we've helped each other out.  I'm sure that there is not a better balm for sorrow than gazing at the ocean on a deserted beach and then coming home to the hugs of your grandchildren. 

We've learned here that for the most part, things are simple.  Love, Laugh, Live.  I'm sure I've seen this on a scrapbook page somewhere, but I honestly get what it means now.  We see it every day in the Dominican people around us and hopefully try to mirror it within ourselves.  Really, what more is there?

We are so looking forward to coming home and reconnecting with our friends and families.  I'd like to think that we have changed this year and maybe you'll notice the changes and maybe you won't.  The challenge for us will be to instill those changes into our daily lives and not revert back to the busy, crazy way that we lived before this adventure.

Thanks for following along, and for your patience.  Your patience for when you see us staring dreamily into space.  You know what we're thinking about.

The Geissler's

Guest Post

My Mom is visiting and sent an email back to our family.  I asked if I could post it here for another perspective on this little adventure in the sun.

Today is Friday Feb 17. Yesterday I thought it would be a great idea to pick up some fresh fish at the fish market.  I walked down the beach, went into the shack they sell fresh fish from.  It has two freezers, a scale and a desk with the required calculator.  Everywhere you go to buy from the Dominicans they have hand held calculators and as you ask prices they show you the amount on the calculator.  Works well for those of us who don’t understand Spanish.  Anyway, back to the fish market.  I called Colin and asked about prices and then off I went.  I chose two lobsters and had the tail cut in half.  Then I chose (or rather they suggested) a filet of Dorado (very popular and inexpensive). The last time I bought fish I bought 2 whole fish and they showed me the gills (nice and red and still a little slimy) that’s the way you know that the fish is fresh.  I should have thought about that little lesson.  Anyway, I brought my fish back to the condo, washed them and put them in bags and in the refrigerator.  Cliff sounded the first alarm; He said that fish smells too much.  I wasn’t crazy about the smell, but you know fish.  Of we went to the kids place and Carmen and I went to the sailing club to pick up Cohen and then to our place to get the fish.  We both agreed that the Dorado was pretty stinky, so Carmen said let’s ask the fishermen that were just coming up the beach with one very large Dorado.  We opened the bag a million flies appeared out of nowhere and the fisherwoman said something in Spanish that made me realize that she wouldn’t eat that fish.  The lesson is, never buy a fish filet.  If you don’t want the whole fish choose a nice fresh fish and get them to give you a filet from that one, if they won’t do that, don’t buy the fish.  The lobster was fresh, but not as good as Atlantic lobster.  The meat is not as firm and sweet.

I haven’t driven the quad since we got here so I drove yesterday.  Nice and easy, the road is bumpy the drivers are passing on all sides, and there are no rear view mirrors, so I took it easy.  When we got to the Condo, Chase had a coin and I had to pick heads or tails.  I chose heads and won, but found there was no prize.  Then it was Carmen’s turn, she pick correctly also, I asked Chase what her prize was, he told me that she got to drive the quad home because I drove to slow. 5 year olds looking to race with the rest of the people, what is this world coming to?

Today was grocery day. The two downtown streets make a one way loop.  We experienced a traffic jam, Hummers, SUV’s trucks, quads motorcycles, bumper to bumper the fume of gasoline was terrible.  We finally discovered the cause, a broken water main on a side street with a river of water rushing down the street.

Colin had the truck washed today for our trip next week to Puerto Plata.  They spray the whole underbody of vehicles here with oil to prevent rust, and they clean the interior with something that makes the cloth seats have a plastic film on them.  Colin said a friend of his didn’t think oiling the underbody was necessary; he ended up losing a wheel on the highway. 

Gasoline here is expensive I don’t know how much per gallon, because they don’t have it on the pumps, but they do have a meter that tells how much you owe.  The gas cost $ 743 DR I gave him $ 750 ($19) and he said God Bless you for the 7 DR Tip (20 cents CDN) Pretty cheap way to get blessed.

On Saturday Colin, Chase and I went snorkeling. 

On Sunday we went to Playas de Valle near Samana, short trip, long ride.  The high-way from Las Terranas to Samana is well paved but twists and turns, so KK had to throw-up a number of times.  At Samana we picked up gravol so the rest of the ride was uneventful in terms of KK.  We went to a waterfall where Colin, Chase and Cohen climbed to the top and dove in the water a few times, then off to the beach.  The cafe there had just got some fresh river shrimp, they were huge, as well as another type of fish, lunch was shrimp, fish, chicken, rice and beans, French fries and fried plantains.  Excellent food. 

The ocean at that beach has a very dangerous rip-tide so no swimming.  We walked around the beach to the end of the beach and beginning of the mountain.  Along the way we came across a very large sail boat.  I must have been 60 ft. long.  A fellow from Puerto Rica had sailing into the bay and his boat had been crashed into the rocks.  It was split in half, and the mast was broken into 3 pieces.  I wonder if there was more to the story.

Right now I am walking around with $8470 DR in my wallet (about $200 CND).  That is about how much the cleaning lady here at the condo gets paid for 2 months work.  I spent $750 at the grocery store today $350 for a bottle of wine, the rest was for a loaf of bread, dozen eggs, very small bottle of dishwashing detergent, 8 ounces of bleach, pack of gum and small slice of emmental cheese ($459 per pound). Of course we shop at the tourist market (maybe cheaper at the DR market, but it smells so bad there you can’t stay long enough to buy anything).

Some stores here are closed from 1 to 3 in the afternoon.  Full time employees work a 44 hour week.  They do not pay income tax unless they earn over $20,000 per month, but they do pay a small percentage for health insurance and pension.  They have a labor law here that requires an employer to pay 1 months’ salary to every full time worker on December 20 (Christmas Pay). Children can’t work until 16 but they are really busy at the supermarket, offering to protect your car, wash it (heaven only know what they will use to wash it with).  Colin and Carmen’s friend calls this child labour, I call them entrepreneurs. (Note from Colin:  I would call them entrepreneurs, too if I wasn't pretty sure there was a kind of "fagin" who takes most of what the children earn).

Frogs!

A couple weeks ago I was on a skype call in the evening with some colleagues in Canada. They asked me what the chirping noise was in the background. I said "Frogs." They didn't believe me. All day and late into the night our Dominican neighbors make lots of noise -- music, motorcycles, pleas to vote for one presidential candidate. At night the insects, amphibians and animals start up, too. There is a constant (and quite loud) background of frogs, crickets and chirping lizards. This will often be interrupted by barking dogs or some feral cats who are staking territory.

Carmen finds the noise disturbing. When he visited, her dad was frustrated because it is so loud that when trying to sleep it is difficult to block out -- the frustrating part is just when you think there is a rhythm it changes (try falling asleep to that!) I find the wildlife sounds (versus the wild life sounds of the locals) pleasant, but then in the summertime I also like waking up at 4:30 am to the bird sounds, then rolling over and going back to sleep.

However, the one sound I don't think anyone appreciates is the rooster who lives across the street -- mind you I haven't heard him in a long while. Perhaps he stopped crowing to become a lovely stew.

Big Bad Lionfish

On the left is a fish. The Lionfish is an invasive species in the carribean. It originates in Southeast Asia and in 2000, was spotted in this area. It outcompetes other native species and has venomous barbs on its back.

On the right is my new speargun. I bought it today and took it out this afternoon. The Lionfish was no match for the tri-tipped barbed spear.

Tomorrow, we have Lionfish for dinner.

P.S. Congratulations to Joachim for catching a lobster during the same outing.

Day to Day Living

We are finally settled in and just finished with our first visitor this week.  My mother-in-law was here for the last two weeks which was a lot of fun.  It was nice to show off all of the things that we have been trying to explain to people.  And having another set of eyes on the kids didn't hurt either.

We have no babysitters here so we really enjoy when the kids are off at school.  We could have a ton of babysitters if we wanted, but of course they all speak Spanish, which probably wouldn't work well when Cadence is hiding behind the chair and refusing to go to bed....

I talked to my music teaching partner at my school yesterday about x-mas concert preparations and it made me realize that I do miss it (a little bit).  As crazy as this time of the year is, it is one of my favorites.  But I get over the nostalgia quickly by telling myself that I will have plenty more concerts to look forward to in the future.  The boys talk about missing tobaganning and we tell them that they will have the rest of their lives to tobaggan so enjoy boogie boarding while you can!

The kids have settled into school and are having a good time.  Chase and school have a love/hate relationship unfortunately.  He hates being dropped off (severe seperation axiety which is full on panic), but loves school once he gets settled in.   I can't imagine trying to get him on the kinder bus if we were in Canada this year.  He never would have gone.  Cadence is in playschool four mornings a week and is really having fun there too.  I spend my mornings puttering around town running errands on my quad (yes, that is what they drive here, I love it.  And yes, we fit all five of us on it).  We do also have an suv that we use for longer trips or if we have a lot to carry.

Our typical day looks like this.  We get up at about 7 am (Colin is usually up by 5 or 6).  We have a typical Canadian breakfast of toast and cereal.  School starts at 8 and it takes about 15 minutes to get there.  The boys do not catch a bus to school, we drive the quad.  There is a bus and it is crazy.  Things are so wild here that you just have to shake your head at some things.  The bus is a rickety rusted 9 passenger van that they squish about 20 kids into.  It's like a clown car with them all sitting on each others laps and of course there are no seatbelts ... and the principal rides in the front seat home as well:)  A lot of kids go to school and back home on the back of hired motorbike taxis or in the font seat of their parent's SUVs.

Here is the first minute or so of our morning commute ...


At 9, Cadence has school.  A couple days a week Colin and I also have Spanish lessons.  If we aren't studying then I am usually taking it easy by the pool or out running errands.  I pick Cadence up at noon and we head back to the house.  The boys finish school at 1:30.  We usually have lunch at about 2 pm.  After homework the kids usually go in the pool for an hour or so.  Our goal is to get to the beach 2 or 3 afternoons each week plus weekends which often depends on Colin's meeting schedules but rarely on the weather -- even when it is overcast, it is still really nice.

It starts to get dark about 6 pm about when we usually have supper.  Then there are dishes, showers, a little TV and bed time stories.  It is pitch black by 6:30 and we are usually ready to turn in about 8:30 to read, catch-up on email and maybe watch some TV.  Some nights we will douse ourselves in DEET and go sit out on the terrace.

I can't believe that there is only six months left of our journey here.  Colin and I are taking Spanish lessons and have really improved the last few months.  However Colin just told our handy man who was fixing our broken doorknob yesterday that "I am a doorknob", instead of "I buy a doorknob".  Our handyman is so patient with us, he just smiles and nods.    As are so many people as we practice our Spanish on them.

More adventures are in store with the holidays coming up and more visitors from home.

Qualities of life

Talking about quality of life is tricky because the differences between our home in Canada and here in the Dominican Republic can be measured on different scales. 

Climate plays a huge role.  A few days ago I got my vehicle 'oiled'.  Frequently you need to get the underside of your vehicle cleaned and a high pressure coating of oil applied.  The closer you live to the sea, the more often you need to get this done.  I have been told that not doing this may result in things like wheels breaking off while driving. 

Anyone who has lived in a hot, humid climate knows that you periodically need to remove anything made of fabric or leather from closets, chests or boxes and let them air out in the sunshine.  We have learned how quickly mould forms on things like shoes (leather in particular) and even our nylon luggage.  I can't imagine having to haul all the junk out of my basement to make sure it isn't getting mouldy.  Which is probably why even if you had the money, you wouldn't accumulate a lot of stuff here.  You also don't need that box of winter hats and mitts to store for 3 months (or is it the box of summer shorts and t-shirts stored for 9 months?).

Buildings have to be different, too.  In the Northern climates we build air-tight structures that need specific fresh air systems.  Here there is a 1 inch gap above and below every outside door.  Our windows have screens, but no glass.  If really bad weather is coming (e.g. Hurricane) you need to invest in some plywood if you want something "closed".  We regularly find frogs inside the house in the mornings -- sometimes big frogs.  I guess they come in through the gaps in the doors, but I can't see how. 

There are 'airtight' houses and buildings with closing glass windows but then you need air-conditioning to, primarily, dehumidify the rooms and second, to cool them. 

A/C is expensive because electricity is expensive.  Our house doesn't have A/C and we pay about $200 a month for the fridge, lights, pool pump (no heater - doesn't need it) and ceiling fans.  Propane tanks fuel the water heater and stove/oven.  The house next to us has A/C.  Last month the power bills for our complex were delivered to us by mistake.  The neighbors house which was rented for maybe 7 days out of the month had an $850 power bill -- most of that was the A/C.

We don't run the pool pump all day -- too much power.

There are other key differences too -- like taxes.  From what I understand there are no property taxes.  There are import duties (particularly on luxury items like the 32" LCD TV I brought as luggage which I paid about 80% tax on -- but it was still cheaper than buying locally).  There are "fees" like the $150 to change a vehicle title.  Every tourist pays $10 to get into the country and another $20 to get out, too.

But property taxes and the things that they buy is non-existent.  So things like roads may exist, but decent roads are hard to come by.  We have a road in front of our place.  It is made of dirt.  Occasionally there might be some gravel.  Continuously there are ruts and holes.  There is only enough room for one vehicle at a time which often means having to back up to the main street or pull into a little drive-way mid way down the block when there is head-on traffic.

Since getting here there has been incredible progress on road construction.  There is a brand new highway that  connects the airport and the town.  When we arrived it took an hour up bumpy-rutted mountain roads to get here.  Now, those bumpy roads are mostly fixed taking 45 minutes -- OR the new highway takes 15 and it is an amazing drive along the coast.  Part of this highway was completed in the past 3 weeks.

There were days where we would drive to the beach  ...
- on dirt roads that were being tilled up to return an hour later to a packed and graded surface.
- on newly graded dirt/gravel to return an hour later on new asphalt. 

Instead of signs saying "Department of Highways Project -- Your tax dollars at work" instead the signs say "Minister of Tourism".  Yup, no taxes so only the things tourists use get any attention.  However in this case the toll on that new road is $23 round trip -- which is more than double what many people here earn in a day.

One thing that is the same -- dedicated, caring teachers.  We have found really good teachers at the kids schools (albeit  a private school).  People would be wrong to think that teachers who move here from Europe are only trying to collect a paycheck before high tide.  For example, Chase's teacher does surf in the afternoons but it is obvious from how his classroom is structured and what he does with the kids that he knows what he is doing (and he does it well). 

Of course there are all kinds of other differences -- like you can't leave the bread bag  open on the counter or it will be infiltrated by tiny little ants (which I personally don't have a problem eating …) or the young chicken that somehow got over our 8ft walls onto our terrace ...

Then there are times like the other night when Carmen and I were having supper at a good german restaurant (on the patio because there are no 'inside' tables).  She was remarking on how the smoke from the burning garbage looked so nice, like fog, in the hills with the fading sunlight passing through it.  Riding our quad on our way back home through the pitch black streets, feeling the wind whipping through our hair we passed by the ocean, the water crashing against the beach, before turning down our street. 

Autumn days

Mind you, our autumn has been on average 30 celcius, 96% humidity and sunny most days.  Here are some pictures of our adventures so far ...

Autumn Days Photos

A great weekend in the community.

We had a really great time this weekend.  A little bit of hanging out at the hacienda and also out and about around the community.  One of the reasons we chose this little town is because of the sense of community -- and the variety.  This weekend was the Etno-Mix festival.  For Edmontonians you will know this as a much smaller version of Heritage Days, where every cultural group has a booth with food and other cultural representations.

Along with the Dominicans, there are also French, German, Swiss, British, Mexican, Italian, American and a small group of Canadians too.  So we spent part of the afternoon and evening on the beach eating great food and meeting great people.  The kids had a great time as some of their friends from school were around -- so the ran, played, climbed trees ... At events like this in Canada we are often conscious (if not worried) about where they are, but here it is a much smaller community and we felt good about letting them have more autonomy.  There was, in many ways, much less to worry about.

Sunday we went to a birthday party for a boy Chase's age.  His considerable number of Dominican relatives were at the party along with a number of foreign families.  It was a great day at the beach and a really laid back time to mingle and play with all the kids.

There is so much caring and love for children that is evident here.  For example, we went to a beach restaurant a few weeks ago and one of the owners came over.  This was the first time we had met and as we chatted with him, he was absentmindedly and gently touching Chase's hair -- just like any member of our family or friends might do.  Many people here are so natural and friendly, especially with the kids. 


I think it has something to do with the size of the town, but also to do with the diversity and acceptance of people from all over that makes this a great community.

Pictures, pictures, pictures.

Here are some pics in the pool and at the beach. The later ones are from our Thanksgiving trip to Puerto Plata.

September 2011

A post from Carmen

Carmen wrote this in an email to some friends while I was back in Canada last week ...

First off, I miss all of you and I can't believe that it's almost October.  I have to start thinking about Thanksgiving and what that's going to look like here.  And do they celebrate Halloween here?  I don't know, I'll keep you posted.  Thank you for all of your lovely emails and I've never had so much time to read my e-mail so keep them coming.

People keep saying that they can't believe the craziness and trust me, things have been a little bit crazy here, and my life seems unbelievable even to me at times.  There are times when I think about what I am doing and I think "am I really doing this?" or "is this really my life?", and it's certainly not about fun things like sitting on a beach or drinking a pina colada.  It's about digging the sausage sized dead caterpillars out of pool in the morning or shooing the frogs out of my kitchen after a hard rain.  Or, killing the three cockroaches that I found this morning :|)  It really is surreal at times.  Like Colin says in the blog, there are just some things that you take for granted in Canada.  And it's more than just clean water, it's just having things clean.  No bugs, animals, mosquitoes, opening your cupboard doors without a fear of what you are going to find.

But, despite all of this, I am not ready to pack it in and come home.  There were moments at the beginning particularly after the bad night with the mosquitoes that it had crossed my mind and then I pictured what that would look like.  I.e. Colin and I working non-stop, rushing around in the mornings, dropping the kids off at the babysitters, driving them to all of their lessons and activities, facing the dreary winter etc.,  and I just couldn't imagine going back to all of that right now.

So here we are.  Things have changed in the last few weeks.  I faced off with a cockroach the other day, I went in to the laundry room and saw him on the shelf and I just thought "you stay over there, and I'll stay over here and we'll all be alright"  (and then I left and then called Colin to come and get him:).  But a month ago I would have been totally freaked out.  Colin's in Edmonton this week and I had to laugh when I went back into my bedroom this morning and I saw the state of my bed.  I took a picture for my memory book.  Here's a list of the things that I slept with in my bed last night, of course all underneath the mosquito net:

1. my earplugs
2. my e-book
3. my cellphone
4. my ipod
5. a tube of "afterbite"
6. a can of "Raid"

This was another one of those surreal moments in my life.  Who sleeps with a can of Raid? I do, to spray at the mosquitos that are hanging onto mosquito net waiting for any chance at getting inside.

Chase has now had two, yep TWO cry free mornings this week.  Can I say that that's "on a roll"?  well, he did tell me that after I left yesterday he went into the bathroom and cried for "just a little bit" but when he came out he was ok.  What a heart-breaker. [Update:  Most mornings have been 'cry-free'.  WooHoo!)

Cohen's handwriting has improved a lot.  Once a week the class goes to another teacher for English and Cohen's teacher keeps him back to work on his handwriting.  He was very proud to show me how good it's getting yesterday.  

Cadence is still loving her school.  I have agreed to come and do some musical stuff with the kids a few times a week starting next week.  And then yesterday the teacher mentions that there is a big multicultural festival (like heritage days) in two weeks and would I be able to teach them a few songs to perform?  Of course I agreed, but this is now starting to sound like work. I'm going to pretend that it's not.

Colin comes back on Saturday (yay!) and we have high hopes for things starting to become more normal in October.  I'm ready to leave behind the moving and unsettled-ness and craziness of September and start living in October.  I tell people that I'm done moving, I'm ready to start living.  The kids are in a running club on Tuesday afternoons, I have registered for Aquafit two times a week and Colin and I have got a family membership for the sailing club down the street.  We plan on signing up for Spanish lessons and Colin wants to start working on his dive certification.  

So many things to do and the time is ticking away.  Right now I am o.k with time moving on.  I have crossed off September and counted 8 more months to go.  I miss my friends and family and my life in Canada and I look forward to next summer when I get to see everyone again.  But right now, I'm looking forward to the next 8 months and seeing what they will bring.  (no more bugs or critters please!), and hopefully some visitors to fill up our guesthouse ;)

Love and miss you all!

A bientot!, Hasta Luego!

Carmen

Lessons Learned

Things are getting settled down.  We have been really busy the past while getting our lives all setup.  Now we have keys and a place to put them.  On the same day two-weeks ago we moved into our new place (owned by some Canadians from Ontario) and purchased a vehicle.

The house is great – three bedrooms, big open kitchen and living room, pool and a one-room guest ‘cabana’ beside the pool. There is also a fully equipped gym – Carmen says we should start selling memberships.  The kids spend most of their free time playing on the deck, in the pool or watching TV.  Today Cohen was watching Phineas and Ferb in Spanish (even the them song was translated).  We went to the beach today for the first time in a couple weeks.

Our vehicle is a 2003 Mitsubishi Montero Sport, which is kind of like a Toyota 4Runner in size.  It is a 4x4 but I am not planning on going anywhere that I will need it (however, some people in this hilly town need it to get to their homes – sometimes our flat beach road with its potholes and mud might require it too).  Doing anything in a language you don’t speak or read is difficult.  Buying a car privately is really difficult.  We made it through with a combination of a dictionary, Google Translate, an excellent friend and a patient mechanic.  At one point I sat at the mechanic’s house on his computer having a conversation using Google Translate – because my dictionary didn’t include phrases like “tie-rod ends”, “wheel camber” or “door gasket”.

Schedule

Weekdays start at 7 am by getting the boys ready for school.  We usually get to the school at 7:45 over the single-lane, bumpy, muddy last half kilometer.  The problem with a single lane road is two-way traffic.  It is an interesting negotiation between lines of cars as to who goes when and it actually works rather well.  Will that road ever widen to fit two lanes?  A new house is going up at the mid-way point of the road across from another house.  By the placement of the fences there is no possible way this road can widen.  There is about a 400m stretch of our beach road that is one lane, too. If anyone ever decides to develop the empty lot in the middle of that stretch there will be almost no way to allow vehicles to pass one another.

Most days Cohen cheerfully hops out and goes into the main schoolyard.  Chase still has issues.  He acknowledges that he likes school – everyday when we pick him up his day was “great” or “awesome”.  He just doesn’t like getting to school.  Some days he cries – a couple of days he has melted down.

Cadence, on the other hand, loves her little school.  It has toys – lots of girl toys.  There are the usual blocks, puzzles and paints but there are also princess dresses, fancy shoes and critters.  She loves all the animals.  The school has two hamsters, a hermit crab and a jar full of tadpoles; plus all the stray dogs around the school.  The other students are girls and I think she is really starting to figure out how to play with people who are not her brothers (which usually involves far less screaming, crying and somebody sitting in time-out, I hope).

Her school starts at 9:30 to 12:00 and that gives Carmen a little time to re-group.  The boy’s school ends at 1:30 after which we have lunch. 

Dominicans typically have a later lunch (after 1:00 pm) and often don’t work again until 3:00 or 4:00.  Some sleep; others just try to keep cool.  This means that many businesses (like the grocery store) aren’t open in the afternoon -- which coming from Canada is hard to adjust to.  You can’t drop by the supermarket for a couple things because it isn’t open.  They do open again in the late afternoon, which is also the best time to be at the beach (best surf, although we have yet to start boogie boarding).

My work day still isn’t regular by any definition.  The goal is to get up early, work until lunch then occasionally have some meetings in the late evenings.  With our Indian teams 10.5 hrs ahead and the main office 2 hrs behind it should be possible.  Currently though I am getting up early, working throughout the day, getting online in the evenings – this is all inter-mingled with errands, interruptions, dips in the pool and in the later evening, mosquito control.

The sun goes down at about 7:00 pm and the mosquitoes start their assault at about 6:45 pm.  So every night just around supper-time we are closing up the house to try to keep the blood thirsty CO2 magnets out.

Mosquito Patrol

Right now the mosquitoes are quite a problem.  First, there is something about me that mosquito’s love (honestly, what is not to love?).  Second, I seem to have passed this gene onto my children – which is unfortunate for them.  Third, the concept of “weather stripping” isn’t a strong one here, so although the windows have screens, there is a 2 cm gap above the doors and between some of the windows.

Our first night in the house the kids were eaten alive.  Carmen put calamine lotion on Cohen and counted 176 bites.  I fogged the house that day with insecticide.  The next night was better but there were still new bites.  The worst part is if you do keep covered up with a blanket (remember it is still 28 c / feels like 38 c with humidity every night) they bite your face.  Poor Cadence looks like she has chicken pox with red welts all over her face and neck.

So, we try to keep the bedroom doors closed during the day to keep them mosquito-free.  In the evenings I have a kind of electrified tennis racquet that I carry with me and I swing at anything that flies.  I usually patrol the house and bedrooms 3 or 4 times.  Our last trip to Santo Domingo we purchased mosquito nets for over the beds.  I will be looking for a chemical called Permetherin to soak those nets in which is safe for people, but not safe for insects.  The goal is to keep most of them off of us and any that try to get at us through the netting – they will die.

We are also having the property sprayed.  Don’t get us wrong, we understood that mosquitoes, spiders and cockroaches were going to be a daily part of life.  But when your children are covered in welts … that is a different story.

Back to Canada for a week

I am back in Canada right now to be back in the office and to take care of some last minute things at our house.  We packed (most) of our stuff into our basement and will be renting the house for the next year.  We don’t plan to be away the whole year, but finding a place to live when we come back is a ‘next year’ problem.

Right now, however, some of the stuff that we didn’t pack needs to be put away – along with some other things like having the carpets shampooed and whole house cleaned.

One of those things that you learn the hard way through experience caused us some grief and travel last week.  It all started when we remembered we had some banking related to our mortgage back in Canada.  As everything is jointly held the bank requires both of us to be present to sign the mortgage papers.  I am back in Canada; Carmen isn’t.

So, the bank indicated that power of attorney is the best way to allow me to sign the documents.  In Canada you would have a POA witnessed by a Commissioner of Oaths or have it notarized.  Our bank didn’t think it would accept a foreign lawyer’s notary stamp so we were in a pickle – how do you get a signature on a document authenticated in another country?

Had Canada and Dominican Republic both signed the Berne Convention of 1981 it is a relatively easy process.  But they didn’t.

I went on the Canadian Embassy in Santo Domingo’s website and saw that the embassy could act as a Commissioner of Oaths and could notarize documents.  I called and spoke with someone who said this would be possible.  The bank sent me the boilerplate POA that they would accept and I prepared the documents.

The idea was to get up early, drive to Santo Domingo, get the papers signed, do a little shopping and head back.  The kids would miss a day of school and we would be cooped up in the car for most the day – but it was either this or Carmen would have to fly home in a couple weeks to sign the documents.

We got up early, but not really early and it took us way to long to get going.  We wanted to get to the unfinished highway (which cuts the travel time significantly), rather than taking the twisty, turny, jaw-dropping-scenery, finger-nails-in-the-dashboard mountain road.  But to do this we had to get there before the security guard arrives.

Between the security guards at the beginning and the end of this highway, the road is mostly done.  It is completely paved while there are a couple places where it has been patched, but there are no lines, lights, reflectors or guard rails.  This road goes through the mountains too – but not as high.  We know this because on our first trip back from Santo Domingo we came through in the evening after the guard had gone home for the day and we drove around the barrier.  It was a huge time-saver and if it had been daylight – the scenery is even more impressive.

Before getting to the highway we needed money and gas.  There are three banks in town.  Ours is the last one on the way out of town.  We stopped at the branch but the automated bank machine was out of service.  Rather than driving back I figured we should have enough money to buy some gas, then we could get more money in the Capitol.

We arrived at the new highway but the guard said no, so we turned back around.  This added 30 minutes to the trip (but it would have saved 45).  We headed back to the old mountain road. 

This road is very roller-coaster-like.  It has dips, turns, gravity-defying loops and diesel fumes from the rickety cart in front of you (ok, roller-coasters don’t have the diesel fumes).  So imagine being on a roller coaster and getting a good whiff of acrid smoke regularly … that is when Chase turned white and said his stomach wasn’t feeling good.

We got off the mountain and on the flat road.  That is when Chase threw up.  Luckily it was mostly on his clothing and blanket.  We stripped him down to his underwear, put the soiled clothes in the back and continued on.

We still had no money and our gas tank wasn’t magically refilling so I took a risk that the airport would have a bank machine.  Sure I would pay a couple dollars extra, but that would be one less thing to worry about.  We took the 10-minute detour off the highway into the airport. There was a bank machine. WIN! The security guard told me it was recently (days, weeks, months?) installed but never put into operation. FAIL!  Back on the road.  By this time Chase was feeling much better and was laughing.  WIN!

I knew there was a bigger gas station coming up near the top of the capitol highway turn-off and I gambled that they would accept credit cards.  They did.  I had to prepay for gasoline and when my tank was full they gave me cash back for the overpayment.  YAY!  Gas and money.

We arrived in Santo Domingo and went to the Embassy offices.  On the lower level is a mall, which meant we could get Chase some clothes – because he couldn’t walk around with his big head, toothpick body, milky white skin and red underwear.  He was mortified that he had to get out of the car.  We put his pukey shorts on him (they weren’t that bad) but he cried because they were damp (and pukey) and he was half-dressed.

We kept telling him that we were going to buy him clean clothes, but he preferred to wail.  All the way through the mall he was crying while I am feeling the pressure of wanting to get up stairs before the embassy staff go off to lunch.  Eventually we found him a shirt and he felt much better.  By this time it was 11:00 am and I had hoped to be at this point of our journey by 9:30 or 10.

We arrived in the Embassy and stated the purpose of our visit.  While I was doing that, Carmen and the kids went into the special waiting room.  On the left was the waiting room that had Dominicans sitting in chairs, waiting.  On the right was the empty place where citizens wait.  A very nice, Canadian man stopped to chat with Carmen.  He is our Ambassador.

He asked if we had lost our passports – because I guess that is the key reason to visit the Embassy.  He said they actually don’t see many Canadians.

I was called back to the main desk to be informed that the consul couldn’t witness Carmen’s signature.  They would if it was on some other document, but not on a POA.  The said instead I would need to get a Dominican lawyer to notarize the document, then take the document to the Dominican government who would authenticate that the lawyer’s seal was valid, to which the consul would attach her signature.

I explained that I didn’t think this would work because what the bank seemed to really want was a Commissioner of Oaths to actually witness the signature – not authenticate that two other non-Canadians signed the document.

I insisted that their website says they could do this and that it didn’t matter that it was a POA – they weren’t giving legal advice on the POA, just watching my wife sign it.  They asked me to wait.

BTW, our bank has a handy POA form on its website for their investment services group.  That form allows me to let my representative buy and sell my securities, bonds and other investments.  It can be witnessed by anybody.  ANYBODY!  Yet to borrow money from the bank, the POA needs to be ‘officially’ witnessed.  I guess when it’s your money they don’t care if someone fakes the POA, but when its their money …

We waited.  Children grew restless, noisy and hungry.

Eventually we got called into a room that reminded me very much like those rooms in prison where visitors meet with inmates.  There was a heavy, bullet-proof door that locked behind us; two chairs; a telephone; and a glass window with a secure sliding tray.  The consul came in and said that she wouldn’t witness the signature on the document, however she would witness the signature on another document written on Embassy letterhead.  This document would be affixed to the POA and a series of official stamps applied to show that the documents were attached and related.  We would have to find someone else to witness the POA signature.

Will this work?  I will find out later this week at the bank.  If it doesn’t work I will be singing a new POA in my name for the bank to witness so Carmen has my POA.  If she needs to come back she can take care of this whole thing.

The lesson learned – if you are planning to be out of the country with your spouse for any period of time, do the Power of Attorney documents and leave them in Canada (because they are useless in the other country because Canada didn’t sign that Berne Convention …)

More lessons learned

We got out of the embassy and went across the street to Burger King.  Good food; bad food – it didn’t matter because they had a play place.  This was exactly what three children stuck in a waiting room (and their parents) needed.  The plan was formulated – stop by the “Home Depot” equivalent; then IKEA (the real one) for mosquito nets; then the “COSTCO” equivalent “PRICESmart” for some shredded cheese and other groceries; and then home.

IKEA went really well because our children went into their supervised play place which left Carmen and I alone to talk and browse in peace.  It was lovely. PRICESmart was going well too until the rain.  It was raining hard.  I went to get the car and I was soaked.  We had to wait probably 30-minutes to park under the canopy to load the car because trying to do it in the parking lot everything would have been full of water.

The streets were rivers.  There are no lane markings when the roads are dry – however a sidewalk on either side defines the road.  Where do you drive when you can’t see the sidewalks?  Anywhere you want.  UGH.  So, that was stressful.

We finally get to the main highway that leads out of town and to the airport.  It took us an hour-and-a-half to move 5 km.  It continued to rain but now it was getting dark.  When we finally got onto the highway we realized a couple things:

1.     Our headlights suck

2.     Our windshield wipers suck

3.     There is no lighting on Dominican highways

4.     Oncoming traffic is all high-beams

About 10 minutes of this and we both agreed that it wasn’t safe to continue.  We were on a divided highway and couldn’t tell where the lanes were.  The two-lane highway back to our town would be treacherous.  The previous week we were on that highway in the daytime and saw how many cars were in the ditches because of the wet roads.  Not worth it.

We had stayed in a hotel near the airport a week prior so we knew that it was clean, relatively inexpensive and would allow 5 people in one room (many won’t).  When we arrived, the rate they gave us was double what we paid the week before – but Carmen had booked that room on Expedia. 

I pulled out my laptop and since I remembered their wifi username and password from the week before, I used their Internet connection to book a room at half their rate.  Crazy. We all went to the little restaurant for something to eat, then up to the room to pass out.

Remember how my schedule is still all over the place – well I had a 6:00 am meeting the next day, which actually worked out great because the hotel had a little business area.  Again, I pulled out my trusty laptop to connect with the team in India.  All was good.

Later that morning, we got home safely, albeit 14 hours later than we had planned.

The moral of this particular incident is that we were really lucky – our reliance on infrastructure (supermarket hours, convenient bank machine locations, gas stations with credit cards, windshield wipers that work, roads with lines …) in Canada doesn’t transfer elsewhere.  Even getting Chase clothes – we have had a similar incident while travelling to Medicine Hat one long weekend where we knew there was a Walmart and a complete wardrobe change for $20 just 30-minutes away. 

The night before when I realized we didn’t have a full tank of gas or extra money, I should have gone out and taken care of that.  When we travel from now on we need to pack for overnight and figure out where we might stay if we need to.  I have heard that the unofficial motto of the Dominican people is “It will all work out” it probably will but the irony is that without all those things we are so used to relying on it will work out much better with some planning.

Comments are welcome.  Please subscribe and check back soon because I will be posting some images and videos now that I have better Internet.

Water

People think about the carribean as the beautiful glowing blue/green ocean.  We have that, it is amazing.  The next question is what about drinking water.  We have bottled water for drinking and tap water for washing and it seems to be working out fine for everyone.

I drink at least 3 litres of water every day -- half of that before noon.  There is a scene in the movie Jarhead where a General explains a Marine's daily regimen in Iraq including 'you will hydrate … and you will hydrate some more'.  We picked the boys up from school the other day, the first place they went when they got out of class was to fill their water bottles.  Before we got to the car, Chase drained his.

It is hot and very humid.  We understand it is hot in Edmonton this week - about 31c.  It is nearing the temperature we are at, but with the humidity it feels like 42c here. Right now the nights don't get much better either.  The thermometer says it gets down to 25c, but with the humidity it still feels like 36c.

It won't stay like this, most people agree that this is the worst and will start becoming more temperate into October.

We Canadians love to talk about the weather -- so why stop?  The other fascinating weather related event is Hurricane Katia.  Although she never stopped by our little paradise, the surf over the past couple days has been incredible.  We haven't been in the water since Sunday when it was just starting to get going, but someone we met today said the boogie boarding has been fantastic the past couple days.  

Tropical Storm Maria looks like it is tracking this way.  We will know by Saturday if she will come knocking.  If you want to follow the storms, the best site in general seems to be NOAA http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ and to get it from people who live here, go to http://www.dr1.com/forums/weather-beyond/115613-hurricane-season-2011-a.html.  We could be in for some crazy weather -- it is raining crazy hard now with the sun shining in the background.  I have seen rain like this in Edmonton this summer, too (but never with the sun shining so brightly).

Don't worry, we have a hurricane plan -- get to the all-inclusive resort where there is power, water and food, although at this point the predictions are Maria will pass between Irene and Katia's paths … not as close as Irene but closer than Katia.  My guess is more big swells and good surf is ahead.

First Day of School.

Friday was Cohen and Chase's first day of school.  The day before we visited the school because we were asked to bring Cohen in to do a 'test'.  I wasn't sure what that would entail, but I was hoping it would be a conversation with a teacher to guage his French-language comprehension.  It wasn't that.  It was a serious paper and pencil test invigilated by monsieur le director.  Cohen did fine.  Actually, in math he did really well (le director was suprised).  His french was also good but he has trouble conjugating verbs.

We also dropped into Chase's classroom and met his teacher, Eric.  Eric has visited western Canada last winter to ski Lake Louise.  He speaks good English and, we understand, Spanish.  He was very nice and welcomed Chase.  Chase, however, was not enthused.

Actually both boys lacked in the enthusiasm department.  We think Cohen felt trepidation because of the whole new school /  new kid in school thing.  Chase is a different story.  He didn't stop crying every time I dropped him off at playschool last year until Ms. Laurel suggested that he shouldn't cry everytime -- that was in April.  Chase would be attending a French Immersion program at home so he would need to deal at some level with the language issue.  The whole new school thing is a huge issue too not the least of which is how different the physical school actually is.

On Monday morning we crammed into the prison-like compound with all the other families. There are literally doors with bars and security guards outside with a chain-link fence surrounding everything.  The school is three sets of long single story buildings surrounded by a sea of grey gravel punctuated periodically with tropical plants and flowers.  Each building houses a number of classrooms and other ammenities like bathrooms.  The classrooms have windows with louvered shutters (but no glass).

Carmen stayed with Chase for most the morning.  Chase stayed away from almost everyone and everything for that period of time as well.  Carmen saw Cohen at one of the breaks standing alone in the yard, looking very sad.  She spoke to his teacher who confirmed that he comprehends very well.

By the end of the day, Cohen was quite positive about the whole thing and I think is looking forward to going back.  Chase -- not so much.  Carmen plans on staying for a bit with Chase tomorrow, but can't stay too long because we have some errands to run including looking for a place to live.

On that front we have two really good contenders so far.  The first is a three-bedroom unit in a kind-of apartment complex.   There is a swimming pool in the middle which is share by about six three-story blocks that have six units in each.  It is about 200m from the main beach (not a great beach, but not the worst either).  It has a nice open terrace on the front with a sitting and eating area.  The second is a villa with a guest cottage and a small pool.  It is a two story, three-bedroom place with a huge deck, fully equipped gym (who wants to exercise in the heat?), great kitchen, laundry room, outdoor living area, outdoor eating area, outdoor shower for the pool ... It is about 200m from a nicer beach (but still not a great beach).

Tomorrow we are going to look at a villa in a complex with a central pool.  Tuesday we will be looking at a villa in a private gated community with a private beach (near where a really nice beach is located).

Update:  I have a Dominican bank account.  I needed a letter of reference from a Canadian bank and two letters of reference from local people -- which luckily the owners of the complex we are staying at and the husband, Jose, of the family who runs the local library both agreed to write letters.  Jose has been a great help with both the banking and car-search.  I hope in some way I can repay his generosity in some way.  Tomorrow I am going to sling a paint brush to help prep the library for a new play-school program being offered by Jose's wife Annette (which Cadence will be starting with on Tuesday).

Another update:  Playa Coson strikes again!  This time it was Chase.  He was coming into the shallow water when he placed his mask on his forehead -- then it was stripped off by the next big wave that knocked him over.  Now both boys have learned a hard lesson to never put your mask on your forehead.  We searched for the mask but the rough surf likely carried it out a way.  I need to find some kind of strap-add-on that will make the masks and goggles float.  When I am back in Canada I need to get masks for the boys again because we have so much fun just floating in the gentle water with snorkels looking at the fish and coral.  Anyway, lesson learned -- again. 

Keys, phones and sunglasses.

When you get home, where do you put your keys? I used to put them on the little counter where we charge our phones in the kitchen.

Where do you put your keys? Now imagine that that place doesn't exist anymore. All those places you put your keys, purse, wallet, important papers, pocket change, cell phone, sunglasses ... Hey, if you needed a pair of scissors, I bet you know where they are.

Even little things like pockets, in Canada I wear dress pants and a dress shirt most days. My wallet goes in the left pocket along with my phone. My keys and change in the right pocket. Notes, reminders, business cards, etc. go into my shirt pocket. Here I wear shorts and swim suits without any pockets. Shirts are only worn when we leave our residence and they don't have pockets either.

We have none of that routine defined ... yet.

Tomorrow (Friday) the boys start school. Next week Cadence goes to play-school four mornings per week. That will help. I also need to get back to work, too. Nothing has fallen apart without me, but I look forward to getting back to it.

The other piece that is missing is having a place of our own. Right now we are staying at a kind of home resort. The proprietors live in a villa across the pool and there are about four units on the property. It is really pretty with lots of vegetation, a big deck surrounding a great pool and lots of flowers.

You know those expensive "Bird of Paradise" flowers you get a couple of in a bouquet? We have a half dozen in an arrangement in our bathroom. They grow beside the house. I was saying to Carmen today that people always comment when one of our hibiscus flowers at our house. The street we drive down has walls of hibiscus flowers 10 feet tall.

We have given ourselves lots of time to find a place. We didn't want to rush into anything from Canada just to realize the place we leased was between a garbage dump and sewage treatment plant. On the other hand we also needed some kind of stable homebase for long enough to figure things out. So we booked one month at this resort.

The question is how long can you go without having a place to put your keys?

Money, homes and beaches.

Every day in the Dominican Republic is  a good day.  There are ups and downs but when you are coming home looking at the blue water, the endless sandy beach and spectacular sunset -- it has been a good day.

My current stress is money -- I need to get some money here.  We met Steve and Eileen from Virginia on the beach one day then met up again the other night.  Steve asked me how the whole money transfer thing works -- I told him to ask me again in a couple months when I know more. 

When we were researching our little plan, I had read somewhere that you would need about $5000 to get set-up. in DR That person was single.  I figure a family of five needs more like $25 000.00.  Let me explain -- there is rent, utilities, purchasing a vehicle, insurance, school tuition, one time household purchases and more that I am sure will come as a complete surprise in the next month or so.

I didn't go into this blind or without some planning.  I spoke with our banks in Canada on how to access funds from overseas and was given perfectly reasonable answers -- they just didn't include some important details.

A. I learned that I could use Interac email transfers to immediately transfer money between Canadian banks with no hold periods.  What they didn't mention was you can transfer no more than $2000 per 24 hour period (not per calendar day) between Canadian Banks using Interac email transfers.
B. To transfer money between international banks you can use Western Union (and they take a cut of each transfer).  Missing was that you can transfer no more than $1000 per 24 hour period between international banks via Western Union (who takes a healthy ~$50 fee)
C.  I have a ScotiaBank account in Canada which waives the Instant Teller (ABM/ATM) fee because there is a Dominican branded ScotiaBank system.  They omitted that you can withdraw a maximum of 5000 pesos (about $125) daily -- or that the ScotiaBank here cannot otherwise access your Canadian account.
D. To move more substantial amounts of money you can always do an international money transfer between banks which has a fee.  I had to do these a couple times in the months leading up to our departure -- to make deposits on accommodations and school tuition so I was aware of the process and fees.  What I didn't realize was the Catch-22.  To move money between a Canadian and Dominican Bank you need a Dominican Bank account.  NO BIG DEAL -- come to the country and get a bank account.  BUT to initiate the wire transfer, I have to be standing in a Canadian bank branch. 

You need to be in country to set up the bank account but back at home to get money to that account.

In retrospect I did have options had I had all of the information.  I could have:
A. Opened a joint account with someone who would remain in Canada and who I absolutely trusted.
B. Transferred a large amount of money to someone in Canada who I absolutely trust not to spend it and who will wire the money when needed.
C. Carry large amounts of cash on my person (I can only imagine the poor Dominican bank teller whose next client pulls out bundles of US $20s wanting to make a deposit in a new account.)

Oh and I don't even know where the next part goes yet -- but of course moving more  than $10 000.00 will trigger the anti-money laundering forces of Interpol, CIA and MiB (I am sure).

And finally, as you start to transfer money between various bank accounts from another country all of your accounts get flagged and frozen for suspicious activity.  In most cases this is probably a good thing.  In our case it meant being on the phone to Canada with multiple banks and multiple banking agencies.  Skype is fantastic, BTW.

We will figure all this out … just like everything else.

And we forge on … speaking of which today we stopped by the Orange cell phone store to buy more minutes for our brand new Domincan cell phone (which is another story in itself I will get into some other time).  Next to the Orange store was a realtor, so I dropped in.  Michel, the owner, came out to greet me.  I asked if he spoke English; he asked if I spoke French or Spanish or German or Dutch …  So we sat down and for the next 5 minutes I used all of my broken French, non-existent Spanish and occasionally an English word or two (trying to stick with the German cognates of course) to explain our real estate needs. 

He got quite excited and I decoded that he knew of a place that would fit our needs, not be too expensive, only 100 meters from the beach and would I like to see it RIGHT NOW!  He was quite surprised when we went out to find my rental car filled by my little family.  Luckily Carmen's French is much better than mine.  He hopped on his quad (oh, people drive quads on the road -- illegal everywhere else but here BTW) and we zoomed after him.

The place was very nice. A good size, nice pool and just down the road from the beach.  We are meeting with a couple more (English) realtors in the next couple days, but this is place is a contender.

Speaking of beaches.  We have been to a different beach everyday.  If I knew more about oceans, surf and sand I would write a guide to the beaches in this area.  In layman's terms here are my observations:

Playa Coson -- I don't surf but I expect the surf is strong enough to surf on a bit.  The sand is nice with a steep slope to the water.  In the water the bottom is mostly sand.  We played in the surf and never had an issue stepping on something other than sand.  The little restaurant "Luis" is good food, too.  We had lots of fun here until Cohen lost his mask in the surf.

Playa Bonita -- One of my favourite beaches for two reasons: a) the sand was so soft -- not like fluffy blow away sand, but iike walking over warm ginger snaps that you just sink into but it remains firm, and b) a grassy knoll between the sand and the road -- perfect for drying off kids and cleaning sandy feet before getting back in the car.  The surf was not too strong and there is a nice sandy bottom however getting in there are some rough rocks at the shoreline.  Cadence wasn't paying attention to anything but the dog who was following here everywhere so getting in the water she didn't see the rough rocks and stubbed her toes.

Playa Ballenas -- Where we were you can go out about 20 feet with a sandy bottom before a sea grass and coral plateau starts (and then continues for a long time).  Nice sandy shore with lots of commercial development including restaurants, hotels and bars on or across from the beach.  Good for playing in the water and sitting in the sun.  The boys were a little freaked out by the sea grass shelf.  It was about 2 feet deep as the tide was coming in but we swam out over it for a while.  Everything that Cohen saw as a sea urchin until I eventually found some coral and showed him what they actually look like.  Chase hung onto my shoulders as I swam while he was face down/snorkel up looking at everything.

Playa ?? -- This beach is just west of the Il Portillo all-inclusive resort.  This is a great beach for little snorkelers.  We had a great time there today.  The water never got deeper than 5 feet with a wide sandy bottom interrupted occasionally with little coral "cities" (as Cohen called them).  The coral is surrounded by fish and shells, and it has lots to see.  We swam between these cities and saw lots of sea life.  Chase, who is five, is a pretty good swimmer and can float really well with a snorkel and mask on.  For the most part he could stand up almost everywhere (sometimes only the snorkel was sticking out, but he could still breathe :) ).  At a couple points I would stand in beside the coral and would hold onto the boys as the floated over top of it to get a better view.  When we had enough snorkelling there was lots of sandy areas just to play around in without worrying about scraped feet.  The beach itself isn't as nice as the others -- the sand is more packed down.  On our way back to the car there was little crab running into the surf.  We had a lot of fun because the kids couldn't see him with the surf -- the he would pop up just as they were looking in some other direction.

Tomorrow?  More banking, more realtors, another beach.  "Reality" begins to seep in on Friday as the boys start school then ever more so next week when Cadence starts school and I have to get back to work.

Getting settled and getting around.

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.

We made it! Now it begins.

We made it.  The flights down were pretty uneventful.  Some of our expected trials never occurred:

Hurricane Cadence -- She can be a handful but for the most part all the children did really well.  Cohen was a huge helper as we schlepped around three 50 lb. bags, seven 45 lb. rubbermaid bins, 10 pieces of personal luggage, a camera and a jogging stroller.  In every airport we were managing at least two overburdened luggage carts and the jogging stroller which did its share of hauling baggage.  The unfortunate story of the stroller is that one of the wheels was flat -- we filled it at a service station in Toronto but the next morning -- flat. Going on the to do list is 'fix innertube'.

Hurrican Irene -- Anyone who was worried, we flew right around her.  At one point the pilot directed our attention out of the right of the plane to see her.  It looked like a bunch of clouds as far as I know.  The strange thing is the CTV news reports in the seatback system had reports of flight delays and pre-emptive evacuations for places like Manhattan -- yet the GPS images in the same seatback system showed our flightpath straight through New York.  There was some turbulance at points, but nothing out of the ordinary.

Customs -- we weren't sure how the customs officials would recieve a family of five lugging 500+ lbs. of stuff or what they would say when we responded "nine months" to the question "How long are you staying?" We sat at the front of the plane which meant we disembarked first.  Serendipitously, our bags were the first off the carousel, too.  So we got to the front of the customs screening line where I was asked to open each of the seven rubbermaid bins for inspection.  Carmen pointed out that there was a fellow behind us who was quite upset that we were holding up the whole plane -- and he was quite vocal (and likely 'lubricated').

Friends who are experienced at moving across this border suggested that we be prepared for a delay and perhaps an import 'duty'.  The belligerant fellow made such a fuss that all attention turned to him.  Instead of pulling our bins apart, instead he recieved a detailed baggage inspection.  He continued to rail against the injustice of entering a foreign country -- I don't know what happened to him but I did have to open all the containers for a cursory look-see.  At the end, the customs agent shaked my hand, thanked me and welcomed us with a big smile.

Transport -- We took two minivans to the airport in Edmonton.  In Toronto we filled a 15-passenger van.  We were a little concerned that our arranged arrival transport would be too small which would required two trips, double the cost and I would have to stay back at the airport with our bags.  Instead, Pilcio came through.  His little boxy van carried everything in one trip.  The 45 minute transfer was a relief -- that the whole 'travel' part of the journey is done (for now) and the 'living' part is about to begin.

Honestly, I am exhausted; Carmen is exhausted.  Yet somehow, the kids are still going!?! 

We have a lot to do.  First off groceries, then the beach.  Monday we start figuring our what life like
here is going to look like.

We fly tomorrow -- this is crazy!

Seriously, it just hit me -- this is crazy.  Today I shook people's hands at the office and said 'Hasta Luego'.  We had supper with some good friends and said our good-byes to them.  The phone was ringing all night with family and friends saying farewell.  We were putting the final touches and lots of tape on the seven plastic bins of shoes, clothing, sunscreen and school supplies.

The whole past week was spent boxing and moving all our stuff into the basement where it will be stored while our friends live in our house.  We have been going to friends homes for suppers and goodbyes.  We have been sleeping in bedrooms without any furniture, empty closets and beds on the floors.

It wasn't until I was out in the garage arranging stuff to park the cars inside that I had a moment where I thought -- we must be insane.  I am parking my vehicles and leaving my house for the next year.  Five people are going to live out of three pieces of luggage and seven rubbermaid bins.  This is crazy.

Actually, I will be back in a month for work, so some of the odds and ends of our lives that aren't packed, taped and stacked will get finished off.  By then I will have a month of our new lifestyle under my belt and when I am really parking the cars and locking the doors -- maybe it won't seem so strange.  It probably still will...

Seven Days.

Only seven days before we fly.  Lots has happened over the past few months.  There has been so much to figure out and do just to get ready.  A house to pack up (ongoing), finding renters, straightening out home/car/life/health insurance (ongoing), seeing family and friends (ongoing), telling employers and coworkers ...

And the kids (we have three ages 8, 5 and 3) -- they kind of get it but they mostly don't.  I don't think we even fully get it.  We have them registered in school, which meant buying books and school supplies (because we were told that many books are not available there).  We have a place to live for the first month -- then we need to find something more permanent.  I have already planned my first trip back to be back in the office and take care of the loose ends here that I don't think we will even know exist until we have been gone for a month.

The plan is to post pictures and video of our adventures and to log our journey.  The boring stuff is almost done (but it still seems there is so much to do).  The fun begins soon ...