Saturday, March 31, 2012
Wow, Saturday already and tomorrow it will be April. Eight more days until my grandson’s birthday. I truly miss him.
Fred has new teeth now. He doesn’t look any different but they are all healthy and usable chompers! He seems pleased. I am so glad he got his dental work done, otherwise it may have never gotten done because of insurance and the cost of things in the US. Kind of makes you think about things like that when here. I cannot imagine the supplies or education would be any different. They have everything I have seen in the US. They are just affordable here. Same for doctors and medicines. It’s hard to justify why things like this cost so much at home. I am not even going there. I don’t think I am here to figure all that out. I am only glad I can put money back into this community by doing business with them. Not just with the dentist but with everything. This is such a poor country.
Someone told me recently that these people are really lazy and I find myself joking about the difference between working and siesta time because here it all looks the same except for 2 hours a day from 12-2 all the business doors are closed. So I started thinking, which sometimes is dangerous for me because it gets me in trouble but I feel it worth saying. I see these children going to school except they break the days up into two sessions because there is not enough room to school all the children all day. Half go in the morning and the other half go in the afternoon. I started trying to notice businesses in town. I see a welder who is always busy making metal bar coverings for windows and doors. There are a lot of those on the buildings in town, which tells me there is a lot of theft here also. The stores are small and scant with provisions, only what they need to live off of. Nothing on the shelves we would consider a luxury except cigarettes and alcohol. I use neither so I never really checked the prices of those items. Eggs are fresh, still have the chicken do-do on them and never refrigerated here. They have bars, a pharmacy, a hospital (if you want to call it that...they do so I do too), and a few hardware stores which you need to ask for everything because it is in the back if they have it. A few beauty shops and a nail place. That’s about it. Every thing is family owned it seems, and only family works there. Which brings me to my point, where do these people get skills. Is it no wonder they look like they are lazy. I don’t see any motivation going on here. Nothing to build skills. They pretty much depend on the cruisers and it break my heart to see a lady on the corner with cobs of corn roasting to make enough money to feel her children next to her. That’s not lazy, that’s survival. I have been told the Hatian’s are not welcomed here because they work harder than the locals from the area. I don’t believe they are lazy here, I think they lack the right skills to make a better life for themselves not to mention they have no welfare programs here either. Remember when our parents used to tell is to finish our dinner because there are starving children out there? They were so right! I see it here every day. It humbles me. I just needed to say that. I love these people! I love this town of Luperon.
Fred is looking for a window to start our journey home. He thinks his is the week. Thursday perhaps. I know...the day keeps changing but so does the weather. s/v Hippo is leaving Monday and heading North. There is not enough wind for us so we wait...again. It’s more fun sailing with sails rather than motor sailing. I will do whatever Fred says. When he says we are leaving...I am ready! The head is not fixed yet, Fred was tired when he got back to the boat and slept all afternoon into the evening. I laid in the cockpit and took a long nap today. It was a lazy day for me and him. It’s alright to be lazy once in awhile...wink...tomorrow we go to Puerto Blanco in the morning and the afternoon will surely be a full working day.
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