El Dia de Gracias

Oh my, I have so much to say and so little time. Until we get into our apartment it´s really difficult to get onto the internet. Hopefully it will be easier soon and I can blog about all of the adventures we are having on a more regular basis. Right now I am in an internet cafe in the small mountain town where Eric´s grandparents live. We are headed to the river where we all gather at the small ¨casita¨ they have there for parties and family get togethers. We are having Sancocho for the midday meal, which is a stew with 7 kinds of meats and every local vegetable they grow here. It is so good and I am looking forward to the whole day...time with family, as we have all gathered here for the weekend, the meal, the river.

BUT, the reason I got on is to tell you about our Thanksgiving. I will post pictures at a later time when I can download them to the blog.

Many of you know that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Everything about it makes me happy. It´s the only holiday I know that has the sole purpose of gathering family and friends together to eat, enjoy each other and be thankful for all the blessings of the year. I was hoping to share a little of my American culture with my Dominican family, so I set out to make the most authentic meal I could with the ingredients I could find here. I had to go to the two different store a total of four times to find what I needed, and even then I did a LOT of improvisation. At the first store my mother in law had three people looking for ¨calabasa¨or pumpkin in a can to no avail. The next day I was at the other store, El Bravo (which I am sure I will be shopping at regularly, but that is a different post) and there before my eyes I found not only canned pumpkin, but my friend, Libby´s. The whole turkeys were double the price as in the states, but I found that I could buy legs, thighs and breasts at the butcher and they were about half the price, but at least I didn´t have to have it killed live in front of me as some other friends have had to do in another country across the world. After much deliberation I had to settle for boxed stuffing that I doctored up with sauteed celery and onions and a LOT of butter...yum. Also, I had trouble locating sweet potatoes, which was a surprise to me because Dominicans eat a lot of root vegetables, in fact they eat several root vegetables I have never heard of. I was so proud of my communication abilities as I asked a woman in the root vegetable aisle which was the sweetest. She directed me to ¨batatas¨, which translates to sweet potato, but doesn´t look anything like it. It looks like a very large ruttabaga and is white on the inside instead of orange.

So, with my ingredients in hand I set out to make the meal in my mother in law´s kitchen. Now, there were a few things about her kitchen that I had to work around. First, it´s small, but that´s really not to much trouble. Second, she doesn´t cook very much AND it´s a Domincan kitchen, so that means no measuring cups or spoons and few cooking pans, as most Domincan food is cooked in pots on the stove. And, her oven dial doesn´t have any numbers for the temperature. Well, thanks to all the hours I have logged in watching the Food Network (especially the Next Food Network Star, which you know is my favorite reality series) I was able to make it work and it actually all tasted very authentic, like my usual fare made in my kitchen with all of the tools and machines I have collected from my years of working at Crate and Barrel, and the ingredients I can easily find at Stop and Shop. We had turkey, dressing, (white) sweet potatoes with marshmallows, green bean casserole (without the french fried onions), waldorf salad, and a homemade pumpkin pie!

Some of Eric´s family came over for the meal, which we ate around eight thirty. His sister, an uncle, aunt and two of their kids joined me, Eric, Eric Jr. and Edi. Before the prayer for the meal they asked me about the history of Thanksgiving, which was a special thing to share, as I knew they were really interested. I explained all of the foods and the ingredients I used and they were all so enthusiastic about sharing an authentic American Thanksgiving meal, especially Eric´s uncle who asked me a lot of questions about the meaning behind why we celebrate the holiday. I realized that the way we celebrate Thanksgiving with family, friends, good food and a thankful heart is much like the Latin meaning behind celebrating the ¨Ano Nuevo¨or New Year´s eve. At the end of our night I told them all that I was so happy to share a little bit of my culture and I was looking forward to a true Dominican Navidad and Ano Nuevo.

I have so many other thoughts to share, but I need to keep it short because I am paying for my internet time today. I am getting along pretty well with my Spanish and everyone is really gracious at helping me and trying to understand what I am trying to say. I think they are so happy to see me really trying. Also, Little Eric has been saying a lot of new words. He said, ¨Hola¨the other day to Lydia who works in our apartment two days a week. And, the day before he said, ¨Elmo¨which my mother in law swears he is saying ¨Amo¨for ¨Te Amo¨or I love you. I knew he was really saying Elmo when I showed him a picture of Elmo on his diaper and he immediately said Elmo. Oh well, she loves it, so I am letting that one go. He is also making the hand sign for ¨more¨ALL of the time. Also, he is loving all of the attention from his cousins! It´s so great to see him interact so well with so many new family members.

Both he and I are getting our fair share of mosquito bites and I bought a mosquito net for his crib. He doesn´t like it a bit, especially when he wants to stand up and he gets caught up in it. It´s kind of funny to see him pop up and get caught, but he hates it so much.

Well, I promise more later and pictures, too.

"Llego La Luz"

This is what you say when the electricity has been out and it comes back on. Eric used to say it all the time when he was little. It means "Here come the lights!" or literally "The lights are arriving!" We said it on Tuesday for the first time, so I thought it was an appropriate title.

On Tuesday...

The first full day of life in the DR is coming to a close. I am sitting at my mother-in-law’s table after feeding Eric his dinner. It is 6:30 and dark and there is no electricity. We have a back-up generator, but it only gives enough power to use one or two lights at a time. Not enough to use the refrigerator. All of the windows are open and there is a gentle breeze keeping the temperature warm, but mild. Eric keeps running to the patio to look over the bars at the kids playing in the parking lot. There are two kinds of meringue music playing over each other in the background. Eric is out trying to get a cell phone and Edi is working late. I feeling a little relieved to be alone with Eric and not struggling to listen or communicate, however I am feeling a little lonely, too. The feeling of being locked in behind the iron bars covering our door and knowing there is no electricity is just enough out of my comfort zone to make me long for familiar Boston.

We have had a crazy last few days, as you can imagine. Just what I expected a change this big would bring. We have seen what we recognize as the hand of God guiding us and giving us a glimpse of himself in the midst of all of this. I read something today about how sometimes just when He seems complicated He draws us stick figures that . I would say this is how we could sum up a lot of what’s happened to us in the past four days.

It started on Friday morning, the day before we left, when hours later we were to deliver our car to the shipping company. We discovered we didn’t have the title to our car. In a miraculous moment of talking to the right person at the right time who had compassion on our situation, we were able to get the title and deliver the car that same day. Of course, not without driving about 100 miles from one end of the Boston area to the other and back again, but it didn’t matter at that point.

That night we were stuffing our suitcases full of diapers, clothes, Eric’s books, toys, shoes, etc. to discover that every one of our four large suitcases was overweight. We spent hours with the help of some great friends trying to rearrange and take things out to send later only to give in and resolve to pay the overweight fee. What we hoped, and was told by three airline employees was impossible, was to only pay the fee once from Boston to Puerto Rico and not a second time when we flew from Puerto Rico to the Dominican Republic two days later (even though it was part of the same ticket). In Puerto Rico I rearranged again and loaded up our carry-ons, which were almost as heavy as our bags, and we had several (we were using the limits of our baggage allocations here). I was able to par down a little. When we got to the airport the woman at the checkout counter explained to us what we already knew about why the airline policy was to charge for the second flight as well even though we explained we were moving and the it was a big sum of money (believe me). She proceeded to weigh each of our bags in at about 15 pounds over the limit and check us in and then she handed us the tickets and said she wasn’t going charge us because she was the only one who saw the scale. After the emotional roller coaster ride of the whole move I couldn’t hold it in and started crying right there. We knew it was a movement of God through the kindness of this woman. We lugged our two backpacks stuffed with books, huge tote with books, baby things and a clock radio, a roller bag too heavy to lift up to the overhead bin on the plane, a guitar, my pillow and kid in stroller to the gate and onto the plane with a HUGE sigh of relief.

When flew over the DR as we were landing. I had a mix of emotions swirling around inside me. I was excited about what lie ahead, relieved to just get into the country, sad about leaving my comfortable life that fit us both so well, and nervous about all of the challenges to be faced (language and Eric getting sick topping the list).

We went thru immigration, paid our fee, got a stamp in our passports, picked up our baggage (two carts were necessary), flew thru customs and met Eric’s mom with open arms. It was raining and muggy, but we were here!

Eric’s family in Santo Domingo came over last night. Two aunts, two uncles, five cousins, one sister, one brother-in-law and a grandmother all greeting us and welcoming us in true Dominican style. Eric played with the cousins and was really happy and relaxed. I tried my best to use as much Spanish as I could and listened as well as I could to the conversations around me. Several people told me my Spanish was much improved and complimented me. I’ve got a lot to learn, but I gave it my best shot last night.

So here we are. Eric’s playing at my feet. The electricity just came back on, which means the ice cream we just bought will start to re-freeze. I’ve already had Dominican coffee with my breakfast and rice and beans for lunch. We’ve tackled the grocery store looking for food for Eric and the lunch I am going to make tomorrow. We have unpacked our four suitcases as much as is possible while we are staying at Eric’s mom’s house. We are rested and you know what? It’s really not that hot. It’s been a little humid, but breezy and nice like what you hope it feel like on an island. Let’s just see what tomorrow brings.

We're almost there.

We leave this Saturday for Puerto Rico where we will be visiting Eric's grandmother for two days. Then, on Monday we take the short flight from San Juan to Santo Domingo. We'll be staying with Eric's mom for a couple of weeks until we our things arrive and we can move into our new apartment.

I thought you might like to see my top 20 list of things I love or are excited about in the Dominican Republic.

We'll be blogging soon about the new life that awaits in the Caribbean!

20. Dominican hospitality.
19. The scenic drive from Santiago and Santo Domingo.
18. Mangoes.
17. Baseball.
16. Finally knowing how to speak Spanish.
15. The man who sells fruit from a cart in the neighborhood every morning.
14. The "coholo suave" spirit.
13. Finding volunteer projects.
12. Church in another language.
11. The weather.
10. Orchids.
9. Wearing summer clothes all year.
8. Rice, beans, plantains, and all of the Dominican foods.
7. Dominican coffee.
6. Learning how to Merengue.
5. The beach.
4. Visiting Eric's grandparents in the mountains on weekends.
3. Watching Eric contribute his Engineering skills to his country.
2. Living near Eric's incredible family.
1. Little Eric experiencing his Latino roots.