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 ...