Reasons I Love Living in the Dominican Republic

1. Picking fruit off of the trees in my and my neighbors’ yards and eating them right then….or making juice with them later.
2. Mandar-ing (mandar means to send and to command, both of which are applicable in this case) kids to buy things from the colmado or run errands or clean my house for me. The kids here love doing things for me. The younger boys will go to the colmado to buy food for me. Or if I happen to walk up there myself, they will carry my bag back to the house for me. And the older girls often offer to sweep and mop the floors of my house.
3. Getting offered coffee every single time I visit someone’s house. I also love making coffee for people whenever they come over to visit me in my house.
4. “A buen tiempo.” Anytime I walk into someone’s house or walk past someone and they are eating, they are obligated to say “A buen tiempo,” which is a way of asking if I want any of their food. If I’m hungry, they’ll give me a huge plate to eat at that very second. If not, I simply say “buen provecho” and leave them to enjoy their meal. And this goes both ways. If I’m cooking lunch and someone enters my house, it is mandatory that I invite them to stay and eat the meal with me.
5. It is totally acceptable (and recommended) to sit outside in cheap, plastic chairs and do absolutely nothing except people-watch and gossip.
6. Being called “Profe” by every little kid in Baoba. Because I teach my English class in the school, all of the elementary school kids assume I’m a teacher and call me “Profe” (short for profesora) whenever they see me around Baoba. And every time I go to the school, I cause a huge interruption in every single class because as I am walking up the driveway, they see me through their classroom windows and start yelling “Lauren! Profe! Lauren! Profe!” and then some really rebellious ones run out of their classroom at that very moment to give me a hug.
7. Running to the beach in the mornings. Preferably alone with my ipod, but I also enjoy the mornings when the group of about 5 pre-teens accompany me.
8. Playing dominoes. Every afternoon there is a group of about 3-5 old men and women over the age of 80 who play dominoes. Every afternoon, including Saturdays and Sundays, from 1 to about 6 p.m., they are playing. So whenever I don’t have to teach English or my sex-ed class, I head over to play with them, which ends up being about 4 days a week. I love playing with them because ironically, they are such a rowdy crowd. If there is electricity, they will be nodding their heads to the beat of the rap music in the background. They always are drinking coffee, and sometimes the men add a couple of splashes of rum to their mugs. And they are feisty! They do not hesitate to tell me (either by yelling “TU JUGASTE MALA!” (translation: YOU PLAYED BADLY!) or by rolling their eyes and slamming their dominoes down on the table) whenever I play bad or make a wrong move. And I just burst out laughing at how ridiculously serious they take the game, which makes them even madder.
9. Everyone (all 1,500 of the citizens of Baoba) knows who I am, my name (or some version of it-Loren, Lawrence, Laurens) and where I currently live. Every day when I’m walking through town, someone random yells out “Hola Lauren!” and I will have absolutely no clue who that person is. And the fact that they all know where I live is especially beneficial when visitors come because they just say “I want to go to the Americana’s house,” and they will be shown to the right house in a matter of seconds.
10. Dominicans love to dance. There is not a second in the day when music is not playing in the background. And it is socially acceptable to sing and dance alone in the middle of the street to whatever music is playing at the moment, or if by some rare occurrence there is no music, it is acceptable to sing and dance to absolutely no music at all.