The blog dealing with life in the Dominican Republic and Santaigo

We are now on face book.  Check out our page. 

Ran into a new area code for the Dominican Republic yesterday.  First time I have seen it used.  The area code is 849 and the provider was orange.  Did a search and according to DiarioLibre, the code was was activated on the 15th of February.  With this new area code we now have 3 area codes here in the country, 809, 829 and now 849

I was on the internet recently researching something when I came across a forum post that was not even related to my search, this is not uncommon but it dealt with the Dominican Republic so I read it. The author was ranting and raving about how expensive it was here and that prices were “triple” the cost of the US for basic necessities. I wanted to answer this post and find out where he was getting his prices, but there was no link to comment or reply. From the exchange rate he was using in his article I would say that the article was about 4 maybe 5 years old. Of course he never used actual prices to compare the 2 countries; he would just make blanket statements and then he asked why anyone with money would want to live in this country. One of his blanket statements was about coke and cars. Is this true?  My experience living here says that this is not true.

Well let’s take a look at the coke side for this post and we will actually be looking at the car side when we talk about owning a car here in the Dominican Republic. I just happen to be a fan of coke, it does taste different here because they use real sugar and not corn syrup but that is another story.

The first time I visited this country was February 1999 and the exchange rate was 16 to 1. I remembering buying two 20 oz coke products, 1 coke and 1 sprite, for 14 pesos total. This means that the each one cost me about $0.43 USD. This was cheaper than the US at that time. The current exchange rate is 36 to 1. The current cost of a coke is 28 pesos. This means that this morning I paid almost $0.78 USD for my coke. How can a person say that is more expensive than the US when I was paying $1.25 USD more than 3 years ago in the US? I have to admit that I am not up on the cost in the US now as it has been 3 years since my last visit. But I would doubt that a 20 oz cold coke at the corner store has gone down 50 cents in the past 3 years. Now the price I am giving you are not supermarket prices. They are from the corner store. These are the prices that we deal with on a daily basis. The supermarket visit is maybe once or twice a month.

Now let’s look at the basics. If you compare product to product, yes the cost are higher as we have to pay transport cost. The problem is that if a person is not living here, they do not understand the basics and this where the big difference comes in. When I was first here about 3 years ago what I found was my monthly grocery bill ran me about the same as the US. Now does this mean that it cost the same to eat here as it does in the US? The answer is no. If I ate the same, my bill would be a lot higher. I do not eat the same. The rice comes from a bag, so we can say that is processed, we eat canned corn and sometimes peas or beans from a can. But for the most part we eat meat, vegetables, fruits and juices. And they are ALL fresh. If I ate this way in the US my bill would have been higher. We eat very little from boxes or cans. There are a couple people that I know that have actually been able to reduce or quit some of their medications because they have changed the way they eat and the change in life style. So we will rack food up as being equal even though in my mind it is less because I eat better for the same money.

He mentioned medicines. Well the guys I know that are on medication, their prices vary on the prescriptions. Some items are higher and some are lower, but over all their monthly cost have gone down. And medical cost? I took my wife to the doctors a couple weeks back. This doctor is located in a new modern hospital, we arrived without an appointment, without insurance, and the doctor examined my wife, ran an ultrasound to see what was happening inside. And the total cost was less than my office visit co-pay in the states without the $350+ monthly cost to have the privilege of paying the co-pay. I used to have to wait 2 -3 days for an appointment and pay extra for test. Just as in the States, there are good doctors and there are bad. And many of the doctors here trained with some of the best from Europe. One person here had a root cannel and crown and another filling for less than the co-pay they wanted for a crown in the US for me. I have visited a couple different dentists and over all I find their care just as good as the care I received in the US.

Maybe the author was having a bad day. Maybe he was not familiar with the lifestyles. But why would someone want to live here? The list is long the two items on the top of my list are a lifestyle that is not fast and high pressure (rat race) and another is your money will go further here than in other countries. That is why there are many retirees moving here. Their fixed pensions allow them to live a lot better than back home.

Like in the States, those of us living here in the Dominican Republic also have a soap opera channel on our cable system.  It is 24 / 7 soap operas.  The channel is called TeleNovelas.  When they talk about the shows you hear them talk about the novela.  Most, if not all of the shows are foreign either from Spain, Mexico, and even the US.  So why post a blog entry on novelas?  Well for one they are popular and have a wide following.  There is a big difference between the soaps in the States and the novelas here in Santiago and that is what we will look at here.

First let’s take a look at the States, you have shows like “General Hospital” (running for 40+ years) and “As the World Turns” (50+ years).  These are the 2 longest running soaps in the US usually viewed in the afternoon right after lunch and before the news and talk shows.  They have web sites dedicated to them.  Many might think that is great.  Others might think that things move to slowly.  If you miss a week of shows you are still in the picture, sort of speaking.

Now for the Spanish Novelas, well like the name suggest, they are more along the lines of novels.   They even call their episodes – chapters.  Aside from the telenovela channel where they are 24 / 7, they tend to be more prime time in the 9-11 timeframe. Several years ago I was sitting in a café in Santo Domingo one morning eating breakfast when I heard 2 gentlemen at the next table talking about the novela that was on the night before.  So does this put them in the company with shows like “Dallas”? I would say yes and no.  They get more of a mixed audience at night, but shows like “Dallas” will make up script as the seasons go on to try and keep it on the air as long as possible.  I would place these shows in the company of the old miniseries like Hermon Wouk’s “The Winds of War” or maybe James A. Michener’s “Centennial”.  The shows are fast moving.  One night I sat down with my wife for a couple minutes and a lady had a baby towards the end of the chapter.   The next day the kid was 3 years old.  Like a novel they have an end.  Many of the novelas will run anywhere from 3 months to 1 year.  There is no set time.  They tell a story and wrap it up.  Once a novela is complete, it is replaced with another.  On the telenovela channel there are commercials that will show snapshots of the actors throughout their careers and the different novelas they have worked on.  You do not have time to setup a website or forum for these soaps.  No need to have polls asking if junior should get back together with the mistress.  By time the poll is complete they are way past that.

The themes have a wide range from pirates, to westerns, to modern day and everything in between.  Even though I do not watch them often or even for very long, I find them a lot faster, there is action from sword fights, to duals, to shoot outs. Some of them are more like an action movie than soap opera.  To me, the fast moving action, a story to be told, and an end would make the Spanish Soaps a much more enjoyable watching experience.  One of the downsides to novelas, when one ends and you do not care for the replacement, it might be a bit of a challenge to find one already in progress and learn all the players.

One of the things that I have noticed here is how they reference different things and places.  But this is not that much different than the US, just expanded more.  For example how many times have I heard someone ask for a “Crescent Wrench” when they were looking for an adjustable wrench?  “Crescent” was the popular brand name of that item and we have adapted our vocabulary to call it that.  Another example would be the “Vise Grips”, again a brand name that we carry over to all other brands.

So what are some of them down here and does it matter?  Well it might if you are married or visiting a local and they ask you to buy some cornflakes.  Do not buy corn flakes!  They will say something like I wanted the ones with sugar or I wanted the chocolate corn flakes. All cereals here are called corn flakes.  Another is all chewing / bubble gums are called chiclets.

The one that really threw me for a loop was the places.  I have learnt that if I meet a Dominican outside of the country and I ask them where are they from, they often reply with Santo Domingo.  I then ask them what part of Santo Domingo and they will say Santiago.  Now at first I was confused because I knew that Santiago was 2 hours away so how could it be part of Santo Domingo?  Well the answer comes in that they refer to the whole country not as Dominican Republic but as Santo Domingo.  If they are from the city by that name they will answer I am from the capital.  I have also noticed that the more experience they have with foreigners the more they will change their answers to I am from the Dominican Republic and then the city name.

So if this country is Santo Domingo, what is the US?  Well it seems that the US is comprised of 3 parts.  First you have New York, then Miami and finally California.  They are familiar with New Jersey and this might be because of the large population of Dominicans that live there.  For those that have not had the opportunity to travel, the large size of the US is hard for them to comprehend.  When you say that it takes 5 hours by plane to go from New York to California they are amazed.  So when we are explaining the different locations Tampa Bay is part of Miami.  Believe it or not but Ohio is a part of New York.  So it does get interesting when trying to explain what part of New York you are from.