And we are off- August 21

The time had come for a much needed break from reality and opportunity poked its head out and I took it. The next thing I knew, I was on a plane with Senora X, Senora A and my crew of 4. During the last hour of the almost 8 hour flight (split with a lay over in Atlanta) it actually hit me that I am officially crazy. My kids could not take it anymore and it was pure madness for every second of the last hour. I guess I should be thankful that the first 7 hours went so well, but it was hard to remember those 7 hours when 3 of the 4 were crying.
As the plane doors opened and I was holding back tears of relief, I was met with a layer of humidity that almost knocked me over. I felt like someone threw a blanket over me. I had no time to dwell too much on the new weather as my only focus was to get the hell off the plane.
A driver had been arranged to pick us up, but unfortunately we did not see the sign and caught a cab. He said he had A/C which was something Senora X asked before we got in. Sure he had A/C, but the van died 3 times before we got to the freeway making it impossible to run it. Each time he jumped out, lifted the hood, wiggled something, came back in the van and revved the engine and went again. By this time, we are all dripping sweat, including my poor baby R who was strapped to me in a sling. What the heck have I done, was running through my mind. Eventually we got going and it was actually cooler to just roll the damn windows down.
We were welcomed to our home for the next week by Senora X’s nina. A simple home in the capitol of Santo Domingo. I could tell by our surroundings that we certainly were not in the worst neighborhood, yet we were also not in the best, but that was the way it was going to be. Each home has plenty of gates to enclose it and obviously to protect it. We went through 3 layers of gates just to get into the home. Each one with a pad lock on it and a different key. Besides the layers of gates, the next thing I noticed was that the home had no windows, but shutters of sorts that acted as windows. It was right about then, that I was greeted by what has become my worst enemy, mosquitoes. Right on the arm, it moved so fast I couldn’t kill it. Mr. Mosquito had only just his quest of torture. We had finally arrived to the Dominican Republic.

Something great about the city is that local vendors come to you. Each morning, you hear the calls of the avocado man, the coconut man, the live chicken man, the vegetable man. They pedal down the street in their vendor carts. You don't even have to leave your front gates. I love that. The other thing that we had to get used to was bathroom policy. There was no hot water so we had to boil water and do an old school shower. Miss O was the only one who loved to bathe this way. The sewer system has different rules as well. Toilet paper does not go in the toilet, it goes in the trash. That was mighty hard for us to get used to. Our host eventually put up a sign to help us remember.

With no windows on the house, the nights were mighty noisy. Cars speeding by, loud music from different homes, people talking (which is done at very high levels) babies crying and dogs barking. Being such a light sleeper, I did not get much sleep that first night.