Family Day 1

Frank (Francisco) and his gorgeous wife Carlita (Carla) picked us up at precisely 10:30 for the drive to Luperón. Stuffed into the back seat of the van were not three sons, but four. “I’m their cousin,” the smallest told me with a grin.

“You speak English?” I said.

“I live in New York,” he answered.

I have to confess, I was glad. I wasn’t sure how Spanish immersion was going to work with my knowing only the present tense of about four verbs and a vast number of relatively useless nouns. (I’ve learned a lot from my Dominican cookbooks, but I didn’t think things like “cucharadas” and “aceite”, that is, “tablespoon” and “oil”, were going to support much in the conversational line.)

In the event, I needn’t have worried. Carla’s English was very good, and Frank’s was rockier but very amusing. However, I had mentioned that we wanted to practise Spanish, so “No inglese” was announced forcefully by our exuberant chauffeur. Frank was a delightful guide, pointing out sights and features. Each one was preceded by, “Lookee, lookee! Free hotel coming soon. Free for everyone!”

It was the local jail.

We were taught names of things as we travelled. Cow: vaca. Dog: perro. Girl dog: perra. At which point Frank asked if we had different names for boy and girl dogs in English. “Yes,” I said.

“Yes,” said Carla, starting to blush.

“Dog and bitch,” I said. She roared with laughter.

Carla is a remarkable woman. She is a doctor with a specialisation in family medicine. She was director of the Luperon hospital for many years. She is also a lawyer. She gets up every morning at 3 a.m. to study (I believe she is working toward a real estate licence). At 7 a.m., she gets herself and her family ready for the day. She’s down to one son now as the other two are studying medicine at a private university in Santiago – they were home for the weekend. She works in the hospital till 1 p.m., then everyone comes home for lunch, the Dominican main meal of the day. Then she works in the clinic until 5 p.m. After that, she goes to her law office and signs things her secretary has prepared. (“Law is easy,” she said, “if you have a good secretary.”) Then she heads for home and a light supper. She is in bed at 9 p.m. She also ran in the last municipal election (she was defeated narrowly by the incumbent).

She told us that doctors in hospitals work 24 hours on, 24 hours off. They are paid by the government, a princely 22,000 RD per month. That’s about $700 US. When a delegation (including Carla) went to see President Leonel in Santo Domingo to request a wage increase, they were greeted by riot police and had the fire hose turned on them. It is probably understandable that she would like another man to win the presidency next month. She likes one called Vargas. “He has lots of money,” she said. “He won’t take it from people with nothing to eat.” She does not have high hopes, however. Leonel is being very generous with what she called “our money” during the run up to the election. “Hungry people don’t see beyond today,” she said.

We arrived at Luperón and Frank drove the van out to the end of a pier. At one point, the clearance was reduced to about an inch on each side due to a parked vehicle. He slowed…a bit. “I very good driver,” he said with his fabulous grin. When we had finished looking at the countless boats anchored in the bay, and the sludge coating the mangroves lining its edges, he looked at WW. “I tired. You drive please,” he said. We all had a good laugh. Then he proceeded to back us out without any trouble at all. “You are a very good driver,” I said. I think he glowed a little.

Luperon Yacht Club

He took us over to the yacht club where we looked at boats and even Carla, who patently loathes them, was enticed onto one that was for sale.

Frank, Carla, and sons (and the guy trying to sell the boat)

WW and I then settled in for beer and lunch. The family wandered over and chatted to other folks on the small beach. One of the sons waded in among the mangroves. When we were done, we all loaded ourselves back into the van and set off to Ocean World. The wading son proudly displayed a small plastic container of about 10 oysters he’d gathered.

“Colfresi?” asked Frank. “Yes, please,” said WW. “Would you like to come and visit our boat?” I asked. Carla looked horrified. I laughed and said, “No. Carla does like boats.” She smiled and said, “No, I don’t like them. But, please, come to our house for lunch.”

WW looked slightly unsure so I piped up immediately: “We’d love to!”