More Of The Friends I Have Made The Dominican Republic

On the right is my friend Ed from Allentown, Pennsylvania. Ed and I met in Sosua. Like me, Ed is a retired teacher and basketball coach. Presently we are both back here in the 'states' and anticipating our return to Sosua. Ed is pictured here busy at one his more strenuous daily activities ... sitting on his butt by the pool. Seriously Ed and I have become good friends and I certainly value his friendship.

On the left is Helmut from Meckenheim, Germany. I am anxious to get to know Helmut better as I have discovered Meckenheim is less than two hours from where my son Matthew will soon be stationed at Ramstein Air Force Base near Kaiserslautern.

A Dominican In The Process Of Stealing Electricity

Visit the Dominican Republic and you will see many things that will cause you to pause and scratch your head. One thing you will see is more wires than you have ever seen in your life running from the various light poles into houses in the barrio. 50% of all Dominicans steal electricity and cable television. This is one of the main reasons that electrical power goes on and off all through the day and night. It is difficult for the government to pay their electric bill when only half the users are paying their bills. This situation makes it absolutely essential to find a place to live that has a good generator.

Below is an article that appeared in Sosua News about the problem.

The most authoritative newspaper in the Dominican Republic, 'Listin Diario', reports yet another example of an illegal connection to the electricity grid in Santo Domingo. It's been known for some time now that only half the population pay their electricity bills. The other half connect a small wire to a street light and tap off this free electricity for their TV or washing machine. During one of the power cuts (and there are plenty of these for several hours a day) people often take the opportunity to quickly connect a wire to the cable powering the street lights. You have to do this quickly, because you never know when the power will be restored.The photo here shows somebody climbing an electricity pole with a lightbulb between his teeth. He uses the high voltage wires as a stepladder to reach his goal. Let's just hope that power isn't suddenly restored, or he'll get a nasty shock.

A View From the PicaFlores Apartments Where I Last Lived

The Top 8 Reasons I Like Living in the Dominican Republic

1. I have a huge curiosity about what life is like in other places and other cultures. I have spent much time with Dominican families in the barrio and have learned much about their way of life and their culture. Many things are the same as our culture, but many things are quite different.
2. People from all over the world have chosen the Dominican Republic as the place they want to live. I have made friends from all over the world to include Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, France, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Sweden among others.
3. The weather is great, especially in the winter. From October through March the temperatures rarely get above 85 or below 70. There is always a cooling ocean breeze and lots of sunshine. The only downside of this is that your blood gets very 'thin' and when you return to the 'states' and the temperature drops below 60, it feels very very cold.
4. I love the beach, the palm trees, the colorful tropical flowers that bloom year round. I never get tired of feeling the sand between my toes or standing by the sea staring out.
5. Music is a huge part of the life of all Dominicans. It is a very poor country and one of the things they have is their music. Watching them dance is a treat. Such rhythm they have. The two most popular music forms in the Dominican Republic are bachata and reggaeton. Bachata is Dominican born and has become my favorite music to listen to.
6. If you are going to live in the Dominican Republic you must learn to speak Spanish. Learning to speak espanol has become my challenge in life this past 2 1/2 years. While I am still not fluent, I have become quite good and able to move about the population with no worry about not being able to communicate. Probably less than 1 Dominican out of 10 can speak any english so learning the language is a must. The hard part, I have discovered, is not speaking the language but understanding the language. Dominicans speak very fast and there is much slang in their language.
7. The cost of living is great and I am able to live much more comfortably there on my retirement income than here.
8. The women are absolutely beautiful and available.

5 Things I Don't Like About Living In The Dominican Republic

1. The Dominican Republic is a 3rd World Country. Everyone has heard the term 3rd World Country, but few people from 1st World Countries have lived in a 3rd World Country. The people are poor, incredibly poor in most cases. Service is slow, excuses are many, no one gets in a hurry and much patience is necessary.
2. Few of us who live there have not been the victim of the many scams and cons that some of the people have become quite good at. Each and every day we must remind ourselves to be careful of people who consider it their job to part us from our money. Many of us often say, if these people would put the time and energy into learning a skill and getting a job that they put into scamming, conning and stealing, they would be able to live a much more comfortable life.
3. Because there are no littering laws and the culture places no value on taking care of their environment, the country is dirty and littered. It is quite common for a Dominican to walk down the sidewalk and throw their wrappers to the ground or to throw things out the windows of the vehicle in which they are riding.
4. It is an inconvenience for the electricity to go on and off several times a day. Each time it goes off it takes a few minutes for the generator to be turned on and power to resume. For a Dominican family it means their fans do not work, they cannot watch television and entire neighborhoods go dark. When your fan doesn't work, it means you feel the heat much more intensely and the moving air is needed to keep the mosquitoes at bay.
5. Probably the most feared people in Dominican society are the police. The police are incredibly corrupt and one of the things that all people from other 1st World countries must learn is how to lessen the chance that they will catch the attention of the police. Most of us would never go to the police if something were stolen from us. If we are involved in an accident, it is likely that regardless of what happened, we will judged at fault.

More Information On Matthew's Future Air Force Assignment

LOCATION: Kaiserslautern, Germany is 80 miles southwest of Frankfurt, Germany and 295 miles northeast of Paris, France. The city lies in the Rhineland-Pfalz State of Germany and is a crossroads to many parts of Europe.

U.S. Army Garrison Kaiserslautern is the Army’s installation support organization in Kaiserslautern, Germany; a city hosting the largest presence of American armed forces outside of the United States. The area includes Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, 21st Theater Support Command, Ramstein Air Force Base and is also home to the headquarters for the Defense Commissary Agency Europe. The community also has the only joint German American Community office in Germany staffed by representatives from the Army, Air Force, and City of Kaiserslautern.

Kaiserslautern boasts a bustling community with 100,000 residents from more than 126 nations, with an additional 50,000 American armed forces personnel, civilians and family members. USAG Kaiserslautern is the support agency for all army installations in the operations area. It is a fully operational Garrison with more than 800 Soldiers and civilians assigned.

Ramstein AB's east gate is about 16 kilometers, or 10 miles, from Kaiserslautern [K-Town]. Other nearby civilian communities include Ramstein-Miesenbach, just outside the base's west gate, and Landstuhl, about five kilometers from the west gate. More than 16,400 American service members and more the 5,400 US civilian employees live and work in the KMC. KMC organizations also employ the services of more than 6,200 German workers. Air Force units in the KMC alone employ almost 9,800 military members, bringing with them nearly 11,100 family members.

Kaiserslautern is located in the German State of Rheinland-Pfalz which lies in the southwest part of the country. The Rheinland-Pfalz borders on France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the German States of Saarland, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen and Baden-Wurttemberg. The Kaiserslautern Military Community (KMC) is unique because it is the largest overseas military community and it is a combined branch (Army-Air Force) Community.

More Bushisms

There are some who, uh, feel like that, you know, the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is: Bring 'em on. We got the force necessary to deal with the security situation. “ - George W. Bush, July 2, 2003.

Link of the Day

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

The CNN of the Middle East. Reading it is an interesting slant on the news.