Guest Post: Tom's Adventure in the DR

As Mom recalls it, I tricked her into eating fish guts when she came to Korea. I don't recall it that way, but we'll agree to disagree.

Mom and Dad came to visit me on my mission, in Korea. It's only fair that I should come visit them on theirs, right?

But I win, hands down. We went to Pizza Hut in Santo Domingo. Better in every way than fish guts.

Top Ten list of things about my trip to Santo Domingo:

1. Mom and Dad's Water Pump (and Super Bodega Raymond)

"Don't drink the water!"

I know it irritates Mom. But the water situation might have been my favorite thing about the entire trip. Check out their water pump!

It felt so rustic and fun! You want a drink? Grab a glass and go pump yourself some fresh water.

Not as fun as pumping it from a well, but it had its own charm. It's delivered by Super Bodega Raymond!

Of course we all know about Super Bodega Raymond. But I actually got to go into the Super Bodega Raymond store! I bought some tortilla chips. And I actually saw Super Bodega Raymond (or one of his helpers, they work like Santa Claus) deliver bottles of water to Mom and Dad's house.

2. The Colonial Zone and Christobal Colon

One morning we ventured into the old town area. The Tourist Zone. Not that there were many tourists, at least that morning. But there were certainly the type of people who prey on tourists. (That's how you know it's a real Tourist Zone.)

We picked up a 'helpful' tour guide almost immediately. He warned us about all the places we wanted to go, that the police were warning people away from those places because of all the murders.

But, hey? Why don't you go check out this store? It's got great prices.

What a helpful tour guide!

So, we also saw statues of Christopher Columbus. We saw the house where his son, Christopher Columbus Junior, lived. We stopped at some neat shops with Haitian art. And the paintings! So many crazy paintings! (I'm putting those pictures later, in the "shopping" section.)

And a little amber museum with a Jurassic Park display.

3. Restaurants

I already mentioned the fabulous Pizza Hut we ate at. Meat lovers! I don't want to over-hype the restaurants. They were admittedly expensive, maybe fifty percent more than US prices. But man, an IHOP is an IHOP. And they had an IHOP!

I also saw a Johnny Rockets hamburger place, and Taco Bell, BK, McDonalds and Cinnabon and all the food court regulars at a couple of the fancy malls.

So I'm not sure what was up with the very sad Denny's that Mom and Dad patronized on Thanksgiving. I hope next year they go have pancakes at IHOP instead.

4. Ocean

Santo Domingo is in the Caribbean, but it is not of the Caribbean. There's beautiful ocean all around, but they somehow missed out on the beautiful beaches thing!

One afternoon we went for a little walk out by one section of "beach," where there was some parking and a bright orange pier. The cool ocean breeze carried the smell of salt and palm trees. 

I wasn't going to be swimming, so I can't really argue that I missed out on anything.

Also, check out their sweet Missionary Car! In Korea, I wasn't even allowed to have a bike. Let alone a Honda

5. Hanging Out

 My favorite thing to do with family is nothing. Just sitting around, talking or watching a movie or cooking. Watching Mom and Dad do the dishes, while I eat molasses crinkles. That's especially my favorite.

And I got to do a ton of that!

Senior missions are definitely the way to go. Winding down after a long day with "Support Your Local Sheriff?" Yessir. That'll just about do.

Mom and Dad's movie theater setup is great! They've got comfy chairs pointed at the wall-sized screen and they can watch Netflix or any of the hundreds of movies they brought on their computer.

It was really fun to just sit and watch a movie. It felt very 'homey'. That was a fun family tradition that we had growing up. 

6. Church and Spanish

Selfies with Mom, outside the Iglesia. Aw yeah.

I understood the gist of the first speaker. She was American, speaking in Spanish, so I could follow her accent and grammar and train of thought.

The second speaker was more of a struggle. He seemed to be African? I got the feeling Spanish was not his native language, but neither was English. I only managed to grab a few sentences here and there from his talk.

Concluding speaker: native Dominican. Words per minute: too many. Accent: indecipherable. Gift of tongues: not operating for me.

My favorite part of the meetings was when I snuck downstairs for a minute and saw the Primary with its horde of wiggly children. (Also, Firefox spelling checker does not think "snuck" is a word. Silly Firefox!)

7. Smuggling

Look at Mom's clever way to get more closet space!

She needed to make all that closet space to store all the contraband I smuggled into the country. I am a Star Alliance Gold member, so I always get to check two, fifty pound bags for free. So I loaded up my bags with the contents of Mom's wish list. Chex, for making Chex Mix. Dream Whip. Double Stuff Oreos. Fritos. Chow Mein noodles. Stuff that they don't import and sell at grocery stores in Santo Domingo.

It was kind of thrilling, hauling all that stuff through customs. I suppose if the local authorities had wanted to press the issue, they could have tried to charge me an import fee and taxes. You're exempt for anything you bring for personal consumption. It would have been a tough sell, addressing the one thousand Aspirin pills.

8. Shopping

One of my favorite things to do in any country I visit is check out local grocery stores. It's a quick way to get a sense of how the locals really live -- no tourist orientation, no price gouging, just the normal day-to-day life. So we went to La Sirena, the store where Mom and Dad do most of their shopping.

I loved it. They had Goya brand beans and Maggi brand spice mixes (which April and I know and love from our Kuwait days) and fresh fruit juice. I got a pitcher of cherry juice, which was thick and pulpy and hearty. I haven't normally wanted "hearty" when I'm going for a fruit juice, but it was good.

9. Home Cooking

Somehow I had expected Mom and Dad to be eating rice and beans at every meal, with the occasional side of onions and pineapple.

Do you know what Mom was able to cook?

Beef-a-roni. Fudge. Molasses crinkles. Tang. Delicious pears and avocados. Scrambled eggs and tomatoes with ham.

We did have rice and chicken at one meal, and I cut up more avocado and stirred it in. Man, I love good avocado, and this was great. And cheap! Cheap, fresh avocado. I could live here.

Also, I have no pictures of any of the home cooking. You'll just have to imagine it. But be sure to imagine it *awesome*. I can't believe how well they eat, on an island in the middle of nowhere crazyland!

10. The Botanical Gardens

 This was by far my favorite of the attractions in Santo Domingo. While the rest of the town feels almost like any other developing-world big city, with traffic jammed roads and inconsistent trash collection and concrete skyscrapers of dubious construction integrity... The botanical gardens were a Caribbean island in the middle of it all.

We went on a cool morning. From inside, the city disappeared. Palm trees literally blocked the view. Exotic songbirds masked any sound from outside. Flowering trees and bushes filled the air with a sweet, tropical smell.  It was clean, well-designed, and everything I would imagine a perfect Caribbean garden to be.

We got a personal tour of their little museum. They had dioramas of each geographical region represented within the Dominican Republic. The guide spoke great English and was clearly proud of his country. 

The highlight was the Japanese Garden. Even in Japan, this Japanese Garden would have been impressive. Perfectly manicured and serene, with a giant Torii gate and traditional red bridge over the calm pond.

And how did we get around this park?
  
On a train! An early-morning, fresh air train ride through the nature preserve. 

That's a great picture to end my Guest Blog Post with. We had a lot of fun. Thanks for letting me come visit, Mom and Dad! I love you guys!