Third World Perspective

Above: The Colonial Zone in Santo Domingo during a blackout (apagone). It is rather ironic for me to being here in the Dominican Republic, a country which has its share of hurricanes each year and see news of Hurricane Sandy devastating the Northeastern United States, the part of the world I grew up in. Hurricane …

Wet Night, Sunny Morn

Last night we went out to meet the Tamil/Dominican couple we first got to know on my last visit. The power went out yesterday about noon and as of 7:00 it still had not returned. So we had to get ready in the dark, using the flashlight from my cell phone to find clothes. When …

The Waterbed

Photo above: motorist navigating flooding streets in Santo Domingo. It has been raining since I have arrived in Santo Domingo, from the plane’s descent with the rain thundering down, streaking the windows, drenching the runway crew, to the writing of this post, the rain has been engaged in an ongoing assault of different degrees of …

Flying Above A Storm

After five hours of killing time in San Juan Airport, a feat which was harder than expected, it was finally time to board the flight to Santo Domingo. The contrast was immediate as soon as I stepped on to the plane — whereas the flight from Jacksonville to San Juan was basically geared to American …

Always Time To Dance

One thing about Dominicans that endears me is their innate musical nature. They have an almost involuntary response to music — they simply must dance. But the musical culture is not contained merely within the Dominican Republic, it is indicative of the island as a whole, the island of Hispaniola, in which both the Dominican …