Feliz Navidad!

Pictures first today and post after:

Helping Mama make sugar cookies for the first time. He immediately threw the dough overboard and just wanted to play with the cookie cutters and flour. Go figure!
Christmas Eve. Me and Zoila with the kids.

Eric opening his gifts. He doesn't look too bad for being awake at 11:30 p.m.

I think we look more tired!

Christmas morning fun with presents!

Christmas Brunch at our apartment.

Eric and Paula Marie playing.

I hope everyone had a delightful Christmas with at least one moment to reflect on the reason we celebrate...the birth of Jesus. I have to admit the holiday almost passed by without a little reflection in our house. In true Dominican fashion it was a crazy two days, but little Eric and I have been reading from his children's Bible each night before bed and we read about Jesus birth. It is the best Children's Bible I have seen. The stories are told in a really creative way that make them easy to understand and relatable. At the end of the story about Jesus being born it says:

"Mary and Joseph named him Jeus, 'Emmanuel' - which means "God has come to live with us."

Because, of course, he had."

I love it. The Bible is called, "The Jesus Storybook Bible" by ZonderKidz if you are interested.

Anyway, we had a great holiday. The tradition here is to celebrate with family on Christmas Eve. They don't really do anything on Christmas Day, except rest from the insanely late night the night before. Santa isn't a huge deal here, which is refreshing to me, as we aren't making a big deal about Santa either way with little Eric. The children here might get a gift from Santa on Christmas morning, but it's not the commercialized crazy thing it is in the U.S.

I spent most of Christmas Eve baking and cooking for a Christmas brunch we hosted on Christmas Morning for Eric's family. I baked the most fabulous and famous sugar cookies on the planet that I have made for about 15 years. The tasted great, but with the heat and humidity the icing kept running off the cookies. A little improvisation with the icing and they were good to go, although not the cutest. I also made a strawberry shortcake for our dinner party. It was a request from my brother-in-law, Antolin. Who knew that strawberries grow in the mountains here? So, on our trip to Eric's grandparents last weekend we picked up a few pints and I got to share a little Americana with everyone on Christmas Eve as none had ever tasted Strawberry Shortcake before.

Our Christmas Eve celebration was a lot of fun, but it was a LATE night. We got to Antolin's parent's house at 8:30, ate dinner at 10, the kids opened their gifts at 11:30 and we were home at 1 a.m. Little Eric was a trooper, and is still recovering with a few longer than normal naps. I think the brightly wrapped presents and other kids playing kept him engaged and unaware how late it was.

On Christmas Day some of Eric's family came over for a traditional Christmas brunch. You know how much I love to cook and entertain. It was the greatest gift I could give and receive to make all the food and see everyone enjoy tasting things for the first time. I made a ham and cheese egg strata, herb biscuits, blueberry muffins, and an apple and raisin salad. One of Eric's cousins told me she had never had homemade blueberry muffins and she wants me to teach her how to make cinnamon rolls. We had a lot of fun and the kids all played with their new toys.

In the tradition of my family we set up Eric's Christmas presents for him to discover on Christmas morning. My parents always set up "Santa's" gifts for us so they were all ready to play with when we woke up. I am learning how smart this is, because Eric lacks the patience to wait for us to open the gifts and put them together for him while he has to wait to play with them.

It's been raining off and on for the past three days and is a little cooler than normal. A nice break, even though we are missing out on the white Christmas much of the Northeast has enjoyed (or survived, as we are hearing)! I am going out with a friend today for coffee. She is a friend of Zoila's who I got to know over the past two visits in the past 4 years. I am excited to have the chance to connect with her a little more. Other than that we are laying low and resting. I put in a request to go to the beach when the weather clears up. I can't believe we have been here over a month and haven't been to the beach. In my book this is a complete tragedy.

By the way...thank you for all of the notes and e-mails with greetings and encouragements. I love hearing for you all!

Just ONE THING!

Well, here it is...my first and surely not my last rant about life here! I have faced some challenges along the way this past month and have tried to be honest in my blog about life, while trying to maintain (and sometime fight for) the positive side of the situation. But, tonight I just want to say:

"Why can't just ONE THING be easy?!"

Before we left New England and even on our way here we saw so many amazing things happen that were so effortless we knew grace was being passed our way. Several times as I marveled at how we dodged this bullet or that (i.e. - having a place to stay after we left our apartment, getting a copy of our car title the day we shipped or car, not having to pay double the fee for our overweight luggage) and I thought to myself how God must be giving us some extra grace to store up faith we are going to need on the other side of this journey. Well, sure enough. As easy as things were leaving the country, they have been that complicated as we have gotten our life going here. I mean, thing after thing after thing.

Now, I don't want to be a complainer. There are millions of people who have it a LOT worse than we do. Actually, millions of people here in this country that are in worse shape than we are. We are living amongst the top 5% of the population in terms of standard of living. And, I don't want to take anything we have for granted (although, I know I have several times in the past couple of weeks). It's just that everything is SO complicated here! It takes so long to get anything done.

If you want to go to the supermarket chances are it will take you 30 minutes to get to the market because you will be stuck in a traffic jam for no other reason than drivers at the nearest intersection do are not following any of the rules and have clogged the intersection causing a stand still. Once you are at the supermarket it will take you 15 minutes to find a parking place in the garage and another 10 minutes to walk into the mall, wait for the elevator and actually enter the grocery store to begin shopping. Translate this experience into any other errand you are trying to run and you get the idea why it is so hard to get any of your errands done in one outing.

We called to have our phone installed the week before we moved in knowing it would take them a few days to get out here. After several calls and visits to the phone company, they FINALLY came today, spent 30 minutes hooking it up only to tell me that the phone line, that already had a dial tone, wouldn't actually work until the afternoon AND the internet connection they had just installed wouldn't work until tomorrow. That means that it will have taken us two weeks from start to finish to get our phone/internet working.

The cable company told us yesterday they would put a rush on our order and come out today. That didn't happen. I bet Eric it wouldn't be until Monday.

But, the thing that pushed me over the edge today was a power outtage we had. Our power went out this morning and the electric generator for the apartment complex kicked on (see I told you were have it a lot better than most here). After 30 minutes the generator stopped and the electricity went out again. I thought that maybe the generator died and figured it was one of the routine power outtages that happens here figuring it would come on in a couple of hours or so and went on with life. Later in the afternoon I happen to notice that a neighbor's Christmas lights were on and I wondered if maybe they had an "inversor" or something that gives them extra power when the electricity is out. I called downstairs to my sister-in-law's to find out if they had electricity and they did. So, I called Eric, because I didn't know what to do at this point and all of our food in the fridge and freezer was getting borderline warm. I'll skip some of the details, but apparently when the power came back on it came back in everyone else's apartment but our's and when we called the electric company, guess what they said....just guess.

"We'll be out to fix it tomorrow morning."

I don't believe it for a minute. I don't want to lose faith in people, but I don't believe anyone who tells me they are going to be here "tomorrow"anymore. Remember the story about how our washer broke and the guy told us he was going to come back "tomorrow"? Well, that was three days ago and he hasn't come back to fix it.

I've been told by Eric's family and a couple of friends that I have been spoiled with the way service works in the US. I have to admit it's a hard habit to break when you are expecting someone to do what they say. That sounds sarcastic and funny, but I really mean it. I think I just need to get over it and not expect people to show up "tomorrow", BUT also not get livid about it when they don't, because that is what is starting to eat me up inside.

So, I'm trying to make sense of all of this, and here's what I've come up with that drives me crazy about this new country I am trying to call home. This country is stuck in between. They are not a third world country really, and yet they are not a developed country either. I am sitting in my apartment with these beautifully tiled floors and rich hardwood cabinets and doors, typing on my computer while I am "borrowing" the wireless internet connection from my sister-in-law, waiting for our 140 channel cable to be hooked up. We set the table with our best linens and dishes while dressing up to eat lunch everyday. Women regularly get their hair styled at the salon where they also get regular manicures and pedicures. And, yet there are some serious problems that don't seem to ever change, like not enough electricity to go around. Or, not only is the water not clean enough to drink, but not everyone has access to running water. People pay people to do all kinds of jobs that seem superflous to me, like the guy who gives you a ticket when you enter the FREE parking garage and the other guy who takes the ticket from you when you leave. Or, the person who stands at the door of a store and puts a check mark on your receipt without even glancing at what you have bought. You can literally pay someone for anything small or large you would like done here. I know that many of these jobs are available so that people can work and help to decrease the unemployment rate, which is pretty high at 15%, but the lack of meaningful work for people contributes to a mentality that I can't quite figure out. It just seems like there is a disconnect.

I really don't want to offend my new culture. I am learning and I am trying. It's just hard sometimes to make sense of it all, because some of the answers to these situations seem so easy to me. But, I am a guest of this country. I chose to come here. I need to learn how to adapt. I know I will eventually. And, I DO like it here. I like that I paid someone $24 to color my hair yesterday and $10 for the best pedicure I have ever had last week.

I just don't like it here today. Give me my lights, someone, please!!

We're In!

Drum roll, please! We are finally in our new apartment. After much work and many trips to "Aduana" or the Customs office our things were finally delivered last Wednesday. Surprisingly everthing made it here safely. I have only found two broken wineglasses and a bent lampshade and it's evident those broke because of how they were packed. I got a little emotional when I saw the moving truck pull up with the familiar logo of the moving company on the side. I thought, "OK. We're here. We're all here and we're not going home."

We're still settling in, but it is starting to feel like home. I can't tell you how good it felt to sink into our own bed on Thursday night for the first time in 3 1/2 months! There's just something about sleeping in your own bed.

For those of you who don't know the story behind our apartment, it's in a nice neighborhood in Santo Domingo, although it's pretty noisy and surrounded by other apartment buildings. It is also in the same building and one floor above Eric's sister and brother-in-law, which is incredibly fun and convenient because we can just pop up and down to see each other. They have a 10-month old baby girl, too, so Eric is having fun playing with his "prima".

Our apartment has 2 bedrooms, a living room/dining room combo, kitchen, service room for laundry and storage, and 3 bathrooms (1 is in the service room and would be used by a live-in maid if we had one...which we don't). So, Eric has his own room and bathroom, no more sleeping in a closet like his nursery in Boston. Actually, his bedroom is larger than ours. BUT, it's by far the hottest room in the house, which is creating a few challenges. We had to put up curtains immediately, because the direct sunlight pours into his room pretty much all day from each of the corner windows. And, putting up the curtain rods was no small of fun project, because our walls are concrete and you can't just screw in a screw or pound in a nail. We have special concrete nails, but even those are hard to get in.

Eric immediately fell in love with his room and most of the time when I can't find him he is in there playing with his stuffed animals or reading. We updated it a little so it is less like a nursery and more like a kids room. We have an ABC foam puzzle mat on the floor and a little table and chairs set up for him. The problem is that unless we have two fans blowing in that room it's too hot to be in there. He has been taking his naps in there, but he sleeps in the pack and play at night in our room. After 3 1/2 months we thought we were going to get our room back, but it looks like we'll just have to wait until we can buy and AC for his room, which will probably be awhile since we are still living off of our savings and have to watch what we spend.

OK...there is just so much I could tell you about moving in and figuring things out in our new apartment, but I am just going to tell you one more story now so I don't make this blog so long. I'll post pictures and more later. I promise.

Let's just say doing laundry is an adventure here, compared to what I am used to. People typically don't have dryers here, so they hang their clothes out on clotheslines in their service room or on the roof in the sun where the clothes end up drying in a couple of hours and have that line dryed smell, which I love. BUT, it takes a lot more work. Not to mention the stairs to the roof are a small spiral staircase that vibrates as you go up (and I am a little afraid of heights). Also, just about everything needs to be ironed, too. So, as you can see you can't just throw something in the washer and dryer expecting to wear it in two hours. Well, the first load I did in our new washer (Craigslist buy in Boston) resulted in the motor breaking down and smoking during the rinse cycle. We later found out that a little water from the moving process got into the motor and now we most likely need to get the motor replaced, which I'm sure will result in a week of being told it will be done "tomorrow". So, I wrung out the clothes and took them down to Zoila's to spin dry after which I learned that the roof was closed for the week for repairs to the building. Yikes! I'm searching for hangers and clothespins. My first real load of laundry and my washer breaks and I have jeans and t-shirts hanging all over the apartment drying. Such is life here...flexibility and good attitude go along way. And, I am learning not to wait until all of your clothes are dirty to wash a load, as smaller loads are a lot easier to manage.

One of the many lessons in island living that proves our experience is living up to the title of our blog!

Pictures from our weekend in Jarabacoa

The little "casita"by the river
The outdoor patio where we eat lunch.

Eric's abuelo reading the paper under the outdoor patio. This picture really depicts him well as he is the head of the family and a wonderfully kind grandfather who laughs and smiles a lot.

Carmen making the huge pot of Sancocho.

Cousin Gabriela, who loves Eric so much. She was so great to play with him all weekend, giving mama a much needed break. She wants to come to Santo Domingo to babysit... can't wait for date night!

Eric's mom, Edi, and two of Eric's great aunts talking by the river.

The coconut guy climbing the tree. Can you believe it? No ropes or ladders or anything!

Here he is up in the tree.

Eric's cousins holding some of the coconuts that fell.

Eric enjoying fresh from the tree coconut water.

FINALLY...pictures!

Our first visitors! Last week my friend Chrissy and her friend Leanna came to the city for a short break from their beach vacation.
Our first American Thanksgiving in the Caribbean.

I think Little Eric is ready to drive sooner than I am!

Doing a little light reading in the Spanish-English dictionary.

Waiting

Waiting…the last 3 ½ months have been a lesson in the art of waiting gracefully. It’s one that I don’t do so well, but I have learned a lot and grown a lot from the experience. We moved out of our apartment on August 26th and in with friends for 2 ½ months…waiting until the calendar turned to November 15th when we used our one-way tickets to get here. We have been here three weeks today waiting to move into our apartment. As we inch closer to our move in date, which sees to be just right outside of our grasp this past week, I am more and more impatient. Isn’t this true with all things we are waiting for? The closer we get the more the anticipation grows and it seems like the day will never arrive. I am thinking about being a child and looking forward to Christmas Day. So much anticipation growing and building and then on Christmas Eve you can’t sleep because you are about to burst. Well, never one to be patient, I am about to burst as we are hopeful we can move in this week. And the anticipation is about to drive me to insanity.
Lesson one in waiting: Take the culture and customs into consideration as you anticipate how long you are going to be waiting. Let me just say that the way things are done here is very different from the way I am accustomed. There are some things I will not take for granted in the future when I return to the U.S. It seems everything we have had to do to move once we have been here has taken twice (or more) the work and time promised or planned. Eric goes down to the electric company (goes down because they won’t turn on your service by phone) and after registering they tell him it will take 3-4 days for his application to be approved. He calls back after the promised time to find out that his application will be approved tomorrow (it’s always tomorrow, I tell you). He goes back to the office “tomorrow” and signs the contract and THEN he’s told it will now take 3-4 days to actually turn on the electricity in our apartment. Getting our things out of customs at the port is an entirely different set of circumstances that have required much effort and many trips, and I won’t get into all of it here. Let me just say that Eric has been amazing at taking care of all of the details, and has been very patient with me asking him every hour what the update is on customs, electricity installation, telephone and internet installation, etc. And, being the take charge person I am, I have had to let him take care of it all and just try to be patient and not hold a serious grudge against the inefficiency I see here in my new country. I keep telling myself one of the first things I ever learned about experiencing another culture many years ago, “It’s DIFFERENT, not wrong or bad.”
Everyday that passes I am sitting in my mother-in-law’s apartment taking care of Little Eric, who has contracted a nasty Dominican cold, waiting for a “yes” answer to all of the above.
Lesson two in waiting: Perseverance produces character… a biblical principle that has been a challenge to embrace lately. The entire verse from the book of Romans says, “We rejoice in our own sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and, character, hope.” What we have been going through is nothing like the early followers of Christ suffering for their faith described here, but I can relate in my own sort of way and am so hopeful this experience is going to produce some character in me. Maybe it will make me a more laid back person who is able to go with the flow and graciously accept the things that are out of my control. I must admit that I don’t do that well. I suppose we all have limits. I have done my fair share of complaining to Eric. I have had some pretty low moments over the past three weeks, well 3 ½ months really. I feel isolated a lot here in this big Caribbean city. I can’t leave the house by myself, I can’t drive yet, we are sharing a car with Eric’s mom, I can’t get online or watch TV often, I have one book in English because all of the others are packed and I finished it yesterday, etc. Well, really there are a lot of other things I complain about, too, but the details aren’t important. What I think is important is that I use these isolating moments, or experiences where I have to wait and wait and wait to push through and persevere and hope that my character is going to be affected for the better. Hey, already I can tell you that without a lot to do while I am at home alone with Eric I have prayed more than I have in a long time.
Lesson three in waiting: Remember nothing is forever, even if it seems like it. As the days sometimes drag by (and sometimes fly by) I am trying to remind myself that we will soon be in our apartment and the waiting will be over. The unpacking will begin and our life will find its own rhythm here.
So, here I am waiting and trying to be patient in the meantime. The graceful part of waiting and honestly the part that is the hardest for me is waiting without letting my ugly side come out. Soon we’ll have a new place to call home and I am sure there will be yet another lesson to be learned around the corner.

Weekend away from the city

This last weekend we went to Jarabacoa to visit Eric’s grandparents. They live in a small mountain town in the middle of the island. It is a sweet little town where life is lived at a much slower pace than the capital. The entire downtown consists of a town square built around this huge tree that has branches covering an entire plaza surrounding it. It’s so great just being able to get out and walk around the square stretching my legs and quieting my mind after so much cramped city life.
Abuelo Concito and Abuela Zoila’s house is just off the town square. It’s a large ranch-style house with several bedrooms. So far, every one of the three times I’ve stayed there I have been a different bedroom. They have a patio area and yard off of the house that is actually bigger than the house. Much of life in Jarabacoa is lived outside, because the weather is so cool and comfortable. In fact, everyone was marveling at how cold it was this past weekend and I would say it was in the mid-50’s at night. Haha…we are a long way from Boston!
I especially love waking up at the Abuelo’s, because they serve the best breakfast and it is always waiting for you at the table when you get up. The coffee and fruit always taste better in the mountains and when you have a grandmother and amazing great-aunts preparing it!
Saturdays in Jarabacoa are, without fail, spent by the river at Sabeneta, just outside Jarabacoa. Eric’s grandparents built a “casita” or cottage by the river there. It is a rustic house with concrete floors and an open beam ceiling. All of the windows and doors are always open and it kind of feels like you are outside. Some of Eric’s family stays there for the weekend and some at Abuelo’s house. I love spending the day at Sabeneta, but it’s a little too “rustic” for me to want to sleep there, especially since Little Eric and I are so easily bitten by the mosquitoes these days.
At the casita we always eat lunch together under a detached patio equipped with a wood-burning outdoor stove where a huge pot of Sancocho is made. Sancocho is one of, if not THE, signature dish of the Dominican Republic. It is a stew made of vegetables including yucca and plantains, and seven meats. I have tried to count the different kinds of meat in it, but I can’t come up with seven. I know it’s seven different kinds of meat, not seven different animals, though, in case you were wondering. Not the kind of dish my friend Ellen would put on her top ten!
After lunch there is talking and relaxing to do. If you are feeling adventurous you can go horseback riding with some of the local guides, go river rafting or take a hike up to one of the local waterfalls (Salto de Jimenoa). One of Eric’s uncles runs a recreation day camp that is adjacent to the casita.
Little Eric had such a great time with his cousins, especially Gabriela who is 13 and can’t wait to come down to the capital to babysit. I can’t wait either! She was so great to take care of him and play with him a lot during the weekend and it was special for me to see how well he took to her. He also had a grand time with Abuelo and Abuela. They both love children so much and had a great time playing with him and trying to get him to say things in Spanish.
Sidenote: I am sitting on the balcony at Eric’s mom’s apartment and a flock of about 30 parrots just flew overhead! Can you believe I live somewhere where wild parrots just fly over your head?!
So, after a relaxing weekend we headed down the mountain and back to the chaotic metropolis we now call home. The reality of what you are leaving and what you are going home to begins to set in on the highway as you drive home. Of course, we left later than expected so it was getting dark on the way home and most of the crazy things happen here after dark. We saw little motorbikes driving down the middle of the highway going in the opposite direction of traffic, a bus broken down on the side of the highway with a bucket on fire as the flare, people riding horses down the center median, various people running across the highway at several points, and a man standing in the middle of the right lane of the highway fixing his truck unconcerned that he might be hit by another car traveling in that lane. You would think driving on the highway would be a less stressful experience than driving around the city, but it’s seems to always be a toss up here.
As an update, we have the keys to our apartment and are ready to move in, but are awaiting a move-in date when our moving company can go down to Customs to pick up our things and move them in. Tonight I am going to buy cleaning supplies and we are going to clean it this weekend so it is ready for us to move in and start making it our home!
Also, Little Eric has caught some kind of bug and we were up with him all night monitoring his fever. He has a nasty little cough, too. If he doesn’t seem better today, then we are going to make our first trip to the Pediatrician. And, of course, being in such close proximity with him 24 hours a day, I have something too and feel pretty crummy myself. If we could just get moved in I know we will feel more settled.