Davis Family Travels

First Impressions

2009-03-27T06:25:16Z

It’s a little late for first impressions, but as we’ve had a few requests for an update so here it goes.By far the thing that has stuck out the most has been the general cleanliness. The contrast is phenomenal and it is nice to not be walking on garbage all the time. We never have to plug our noses as we pass dumpsters, clean up garbage that the dogs have spread all over our walkway, or take nasty garbage away from our kids.

The second thing is the lack of noise and activity. Despite being in the Los Angeles area it feels empty and dull. It’s rare to see others around the house and the only noise is the traffic and planes. No ones stops in unexpectedly to say hi, and Ariana asks regularily when kids are going to come over to play. There is definitely no community feel.

Of course the hot water is nice, but what we have really appreciated is the water pressure. The cold water, although shocking at first, was actually quite refreshing but it just isn’t the same having the water only dribbling out of the shower head. And it’s a lot easier to get soap off with decent pressure.

The last unnexpected thing is the dust, or lack thereof. In the D.R. it was a constant struggle to keep the dust out of our house and off the furniture. Now we all appreciate not having to clean the floor multiple times daily.

There are perhaps some bigger contrasts, but most of them we expected. The one that continues to blow my mind is the clean water. Here, in North America, we use potable drinking water to water our lawn and clean our walks while in the D.R. we had to buy and carry home our own drinking water.

We do miss our friends in the DR now as well as from Calgary and look forwad to seeing them all again. Hopefully sooner than later.

Mar 03: Our Finale

2009-03-05T22:37:28Z

This is it. We can hardly fathom that three months has already passed, but this was our last full day. Of course we had over planned for the number of activities we could complete but some things just have to be left to the end.

It was also Ariana’s last day at school. She seemed a bit indifferent to the ordeal in the morning. I spend the morning finalizing some work I had been doing on a new website for the Haitian church here and providing a little bit more training on how to use it. I had purposely used pretty simple software but was still surprised at how much there is to teach. Nicole spent the morning cleaning up, and sorting out the giveaway items, but as usual there was no power for doing any laundry.

Ariana's Last Day of Class

At noon, when it was time to pick Ariana up from school we went in a little early. We took a couple more photos of her in her class, we brought cookies for class (complete with real Canadian chocolate chips), and a few small gifts for her teacher. Her teacher had a tough time with her leaving and was choking back tears the entire time. Ariana and her, after a rough start, had developed a pretty strong relationship. Ariana’s teacher told us later that night that the beginning was very difficult for her but she wanted it to work. She struggled and felt like it really brought out the best in her. Of course this made Nicole cry as well. Ariana just seemed stunned. I’m not sure she really grasped what was happening as she expressed neither sadness or joy.

One Family

The afternoon we spent trying to visit each of the families we had met and spend a few last minutes with them. Sometimes there was ackward silence (we’re getting used to that now), but the time was very meaningful. For a few of the familes we had connected a little more with we invited to our going away party that night. With one family Nicole agreed to one last commitment - to teach one of the ladies how to bake a cake - in the morning tomorrow - before we leave for the airport!

Going Away Decorations

Our going away party was really special. The dress code, unbeknown to us, was red and white and there was a large poster with the Canadian flag to wish us off. We order Pizza, enjoyed lots of treats, and played a game like hot potato. When the music played we would pass a ball around. Whoever was stuck with the ball when the music stopped had to say something to us, usually nice. We were really overwhelmed with how many people came, including everyone who we had invited only a few hours earlier. This is part of the joys of the culture here. Unfortunately our kids found the whole thing overwhelming (too many people in such a small place) and were happy to head home in a reasonable time. There was still lots of time for many hugs and photos.

Packing by Flashlights

For us getting home early was pretty important. Because of our new cake baking commitment we had to be completely packed before heading to bed. In addition, I had accepted one last laptop for a tuneup. Right on cue the inverter batteries ran out and we spent the first two hours packing by flashlights. Really, we don’t recommend this. Eventually the power did come and we were able to packup our four suitcases in pretty short order. Although we thought we would have less stuff going home, we seemed to have picked up enough extras while here that our suitcases are just as full as when we came. Of course this time we had no scale so were weren’t really sure how our weight would hold out. This was of some concern since many of the extra items were books, and we were already too heavy on the trip down.

It was a late night, but we went to bed with our bags packed and the laptop running smoothly.

Mar 02: Children’s Finale

2009-03-05T21:41:52Z

Today was our last free evening so we decided to have a little going away celebration with the kids that often drop by our home. We knew that pancakes was an easy meal to put together and to prepare large quantities. So for the last two days we had been telling the kids to be sure to come over on Monday evening. We weren’t really sure what to expect for numbers though because information does seem to get around the barrio pretty quickly, especially related to giveaways.

That reminds me of some of the pre Christmas activities. As part of the celebrations many churches, schools, and government offices would give out small gifts and/or candy to kids. When we were playing with them, in our house or in the field, all of the sudden they would all jump up and run off. An hour later they would return with some new little item. For better or for worse these were often re-gifted to our children.

In the end Monday came and only a handful (maybe 8-10 kids) ended up coming. We were actually a little disappointed although they cleaned up all the food we had prepared with no trouble at all. We even played a Spanish kids movie for them - Madagascar 2. I think the kids have realized that, at least at our house, the supplies are not infinite and they aren’t as eager to share the information as with other giveaway opportunities. We’ve also found that some of the boys can be quite rude/mean to the girls (imagine that!) and seem to scare them away sometimes. But for those that came it was a fun time and I think it helped prepare the kids, ours and the locals, for our departure.

Feb 27: Independence Day

2009-03-05T19:55:10Z

Perhaps one of the most frustrating parts of living here, exascerbated by our poor language skills, is getting access to accurate information. Without TV, radio, or newspapers we rely on a chain of human messengers to find out what activities are happening, when they start, where they are, when stores are open and closed, why the power is out for so long, and more.
This particular day we had planned on attending the independance day parade in the city. The day was pretty fixed, but the time seemed a little questionable. Having asked four different people we had three different times. The afternoon time seemed to most likely and agreed with the little bit of online information I could gather. But you guessed it, as we were getting ready to go we heard the many families returning from the parade. In retrospect we should have figured out it was in the morning because there were no children knocking on the door at all. Nonetheless this was extremely frusturating because it was a rare opportunity, it was a new activity, and it would have been a lot of fun for the kids.

At least we know for next time.

Mar 02: Brave or foolish?

2009-03-04T06:33:55Z

I had been warned, “don’t go to a barber shop in the barrio”. But really, could I come all this way and not at least have one such experience? I had to try, I just didn’t realize how scared I would be.I’m not sure what made it so difficult to enter the peluquería (barber shop), but it was. I think it was the first activity that really caused my heart to thump. Perhaps it was the darkness of the room, perhaps it was the small group of young males joking around with each other inside, perhaps it was the Spanish hip hop blaring from inside, or perhaps it was the challenge of trying a new activity for which I knew I didn’t have the vocabulary. Whatever it was, my instincts were saying “Don’t do it!”

But I had to.

So after three tries passed the entrance I finally built up the courage and entered the small dingy room. Once I had passed through the threshold my fears subsided. The room was not as dark as it appeared from the outside. I greeted one of the clients with a hearty hand shake and ¡Hola! The barber gave me a quick nod and I sat down to wait.

The wait was a little longer than expected which gave me time to realize a new fear. Part of the delay was that the barber was carefully using a bare razer blade, in his fingers, to provide the final trim around the edges. Not only was this going to be a new experience for me, but I wondered if he would be using an old, rusty blade?

The funny part in this was watching the people passing by. Almost 50% of the people passing would walk by the door, stop, and then take a second peak into the door. One younger girl even grabbed her mom and came back for a second look. I guess, despite having been acclimatized to white skinned people here, they were not used to seeing them in the peluquerías. Hopefully, there wasn’t a good reason for this…

After what seemed like an hour it was my turn. In broken Spanish I explained that I wanted the sides short and the top about an inch. I knew the top would be a problem as they only cut here is shaved; shaved short. Nonetheless, the intrepid barber put on his longest blade, carefully held it off my scalp, and cut the top as I had asked. He had a few follow up questions which I couldn’t understand so I simply told him to do what he wanted; I had already passed the point of no return.

Trimming my bangs was probably the most comical part of the experience and I was glad I wasn’t too picky about the length. The barber would start from one side and carefully work his way to the other, only at a significant angle. His eyes were good though, so he would then take another stab at it from the other direction. He went back and forth a number of time before settling on a slight “v” pattern. Content that both sides were at least symmetrical he moved on.

When it came time for the bare razor blade I was glad to see he had a stack of brand new, packaged blades from which he drew. He was excellent with the blade and I never felt even the slightest nick or pull.

Total cost: $3 CDN.

Quality? You be the judge.

Mug Shot

Feb 26: Night on the Town

2009-03-02T03:31:20Z

We didn’t actually start the day with a night on the town (go figure), but we did enjoy an evening in one of the nicer parts of town with the kids.

Hard at Work

Our morning started by visiting Ariana’s school class to get some photos of her with her class and teacher. It was a lot of fun to see her sitting so studiously (I’m not joking!) as the teacher talked about the Dominican flag. Ariana even answered one of the questions (wrong, but close). Nicole shed her first departure tears this morning.

Ariana Listening?

Ariana With Her Teacher

The day passed quickly and the girls enjoyed some “water play” to help keep themselves cool.

Water Fun

Ciara Portrait - Photo by Ariana - Photographer for Hire

The evening we walked down to one of the nicer parts of town. Here there are large 2 story homes with 2-4 car garages, manicured lawns, large fences, security cameras and the whole works. Very indistinguishable from a middle-upper class neighborhood in the southern states.

Empanadas on the Patio

We enjoyed dinner at a cozy little empanada restaurant that was recommended to us. The empanadas were delicious, and the cost was reasonable. It was a little nerve wracking when I went to pay with a credit card; the waitress took the card and disappeared out the front door of the restaurant. It turns out they share credit card processing equipment with the cake store next door and she had to run it through. Either way I’m glad that credit cards include fraud protection!

During the dinner some music was playing from a vehicle driving nearby. Not completely unexpectedly, Ciara took the opportunity to do a little chair-dancing. Nicole and I still break out laughing when we see this, so we hope you enjoy it as well. No, we do not let our two year old watch music videos, this is entirely improvised!

Ciara Dancing

The Restaurant - Cafe Naranjo

Carnival Decorations

After dinner we enjoyed dessert at the aforementioned cake restaurant. A delicious black forest like cake, but with layers of carmel and strawberries as well.

The trip home, including a couple other errand stops, was made via taxi. Partly because it was beginning to rain, and partly because the kids had walked an awfully long distance for their size. For the last taxi, having had some experience in getting ripped off, we negotiated the price before entering the cab. Of course, once we were off the driver begain to explain to me why he would have to charge us more. He claimed that the rate we negotiated was to go to the city center, not to our barrio. This was despite the fact that I had told him the destination (how else could he have quoted a rate?), and the little detail that our barrio was closer than the city center! Fortunatly, I now have my own trick for this. I simply make sure I have exact change available and present it as the fair. Most drivers seem to accept this as a convincing final argument, and this one was no exception.

Feb 24: Go Fly a Kite

2009-02-25T02:43:50Z

Today was time for the hardest lesson yet; making a budget kite. The following pictures will tell the story, click the first image to see the photos in a slideshow - click on the right side of the image to advance.

That’s right. My kite met it’s untimely demise after I flew the line into a nearby tree. The boys thought quick and cut it loose only to have it get wrapped around another kite. This did allow us to reel it in for another try though.

Honestly I have never flown a kite that was so easy, so cheap, or went so high! It just shows that you don’t always get what you pay for. I even learned two new knots in the process.

Flying the kite was quite a bit of fun. There was the constant challenge of keeping the kites from tangling with each other, or from someone “stealing” control. Other kids, as part of the fun, would attach a small rock to their thread and try throw it over someone elses line. If successful they would reel in the line, break the kites thread, and take over control (while avoiding some other countermeasures). Fortunately, they took it easy on the beginner!

Feb 22: Dominican Birthday

2009-02-23T01:32:53Z

Today we attended our first basically traditional Dominican birthday party for our neighbors 1 year old son.

I say basically traditional because the father is actually from Columbia. But since we all know who puts most the effort into planning these I’m going with traditional Dominican. That and we’ve seen many pictures of similar looking first birthdays in the Dominican homes.

Really, it wasn’t too different from home. There was a fabulous looking cake, mostly because they happened to know a family that decorates cakes for a living. Maybe 50% of the guests brought gifts, which were not opened at the party. There were some traditional kids games like skip rope, musical chairs, and the chicken dance. I should not the the chicken dance was required participation for all attendees. One very popular activity here was to have a piñata full of little toys and candies. Then they spent some time, similar to a wedding, taking pictures of the family and their friends standing behind the cake under a large balloon arch. All-in-all, we felt right at home. (Click on one of the following photos to see them in a short slideshow without being cropped)

I’d also like to point out that it’s not just us who make funny gaffs learning a new language. We heard a story of a Dominican learning English who told his English speaking spouse that he had learned to play a fun new card game called “One”. After he explained what it was she quickly realized he had translated the games name from what he thought was Spanish into English; the game was “Uno”

I don’t know what the temperature got up to today, but if this is the cold season… ouch. I now understand why Dominicans will have three or more showers per day in the summer months.

For all those concerned about Ciara’s well-being as a teenager you need worry no longer. She is only going to get a little bit married so she can’t have any kids, only a baby.

Feb 21: Tick Tick Tick

2009-02-22T02:10:00Z

Our time is running out now and I have to admit our focus has begun to shift back to North America. We’ve actually found the last few days a bit challenging for this reason. Having all gotten over our colds we are now trying to get caught up on sleep. Unfortunately Ariana has a lingering cough which has made this difficult.One interesting cultural exchange recently highlights one of the many differences between the North American culture and here. The water on the roof was empty and the city water had been off for a day or so. This meant the cistern in the ground had also been emptied except for a couple inches at the bottom. We tend to keep these last few inches for “emergency” use, and because running the pump dry would damage it. One neighbor came out and turned on the pump in front of our other neighbor who quickly pointed out the empty cistern. She was simply following the North American principles of saving for the future, and risk mitigation. The first neighbors response perfectly captured the alternative view of appreciating the present, “But I need it!”

Ciara has finally built up enough courage to start using a bit of her Spanish, and I have to admit it is very cute. She often mixes English and Spanish with phrases like “water, por favor”, or “para you”. At times she will even ask what things are in Spanish. Today she even spent a significant portion of time playing with another local child at the kids park by herself. It was neat to see her trying to tell the boy to go down a slide by pointing, shaking her head “yes”, and saying “Si” all at once.

Feb 17: Mad Gab

2009-02-18T03:43:20Z

If you’ve ever played the game Mad Gab you understand what it’s like learning a new language. You know what you want to say, and you have to be very creative to get it out using the limited words you know. Often we resort to making up (i.e. guessing) the spanish word, which seems to work roughly 15% of the time. There are some common patterns between some English and Spanish words which helps. At other times we simply insert the English word and hope the person can make sense of it. I’d say this works another 15% of the time. All in all, if we know most of the words we need (not very often) the other person probably understands us 30% of the time. Yes, we still have a long long way to go.

But our kids are getting smarter. Last night Ciara was asking for water at bedtime, not an atypical delaying tactic. Remembering that we do let her have water if she gets up in the night she innocently asked if she could have some if she had to go to the bathroom. Fortunately my parents sensors triggered here and I was smart enough to respond in the negative since her next sentence was “I have to go to the bathroom.” Hmm, coincidence or opportunistic?

Ariana Quote of the Day: [ As excited as you can imagine her] We have _two_ bedrooms!!!!