Capital of the
Dominican Republic located on the
island of
Hispanola in the
Carribean. The full name of the city is
Santo Domingo de Guzmán and it is the oldest
city in the
New World with a
history of over 500 years. During part of the
reign of terror by the
dictator Rafael Molino Trujillo, who ruled the country from 1930 to 1961, the city was called Ciudad Trujillo.
Evidence of the city's long history can be seen at every street corner and even in the
language of the people. Rather than list the
tourist centers of attraction, I would rather give here a personal
memoir of my impressions while living there. First, of course, is the impression of extreme
poverty on every side.
If you blindfolded me and set me down in the center of the city, I could guess it was Santo Domingo only from the sound of
motores or motor
scooters, the most common mode of transportation other than walking. For a few
centavos you could hitch a ride on the back of the scooter, clinging to the back of the driver. A step up in price is the
público where you could squeeze in the back of a private
car along with six or seven other people. Usually you could count on a trip from point A to point B, but if the car was not full, the driver could decide to push everyone out and begin his return trip.
The next impression I have is the recurring
blackouts. Most private homes and the stores downtown had
plantas or
generators.We had no
generator and had to rely on
oil lamps most of the time. Even as a school teacher, I could afford to hire one person whose only job was to be certain that there was
oil in lamps and that the
wicks were trimmed. It was almost a law in the area where I lived that when there was
electricity there would be no
water in the pipes for the pump to move to the
cistern on the roof. Of course, when there was water in the pipes, there was no
electricity to operate the pump.
It follows that a
shower could be very tricky. It was customary to
wash only one part the
body and then
rise before moving to the next part. The first morning on the
job, I had to go to
work with dry soap suds in my
hair. Speaking of work, gainful
employment is necessarily scarce.
Employers pay little and demand much. I was expected to be at school around 6:30am and it was not unusual for me to stay until 7:00pm in the evening.
To be continued (I hope)!