The DR Gringas Life

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Crazy Guy-Police Not Interested

Here in colonial Zone and throughout Dominican Republic it seems there are many crazy humans. I never lived in a large city before so maybe this is the normal thing but for me it's all new.

Last week I was out in the street in front of the office taking a break from working on the web site. Trying to rest the eyes a bit. A friend of mine, Chino, was waving his arms yelling at someone. The man had on what looked like one of those gas station, one piece uniforms. It was white and looked to be paper thin. He was taking off the top part, the sleeves and was dropping the top down around his waist when I lost sight of him behind a Jepeta (a Jepeta here is a SUV in USA). This is when I saw Chino getting upset. He came from behind the Jepeta and waved down 2 police on a motorcycle passing by. I don't know what type of police they were but they stopped and Chino was talking very forceful to them. I heard the police say to Chino "He's a crazy guy, we arn't interested in him." Then the police rode off and Chino walked away frustrated.

The crazy guy came across the street and this is when I got the full view of what was happening. I mean the FULL view! His one piece jumpsuit was dropped down below his waist and he had nothing on underneath! His..ahhh...private part...was hanging out in full view! (by the way, this view was not pretty..jejej)

He was standing in front of me saying "Did you see that? Chino called the police on me and I don't understand why." (of course it was in Spanish). I stood there for a second trying to figure out just what to do. I was at a loss for words and almost struck blind! I just turned and, very fast I might add, and ran for the comfort of the office. Not looking back as I was afraid my eyes could not take anymore of this sight. I went outside to rest the ole eyes, not to go blind with the sight of a semi-naked man.

I stayed in the office and peaked out a few times to see if he was gone. Finally, the people out front working in the gift shop, came back to the office and told me the guy was gone. We stood around laughing about this a while and I went back to work as usual.

Another interesting happening in the streets of the Zone.

Labels: Colonial Zone, crazy, loco, naked guy, police

Thursday, August 02, 2007

Horse Sounds

horses in the town of Bayaguana running of the bulls

I was standing outside on the deck drinking my morning cup of coffee. Doing my morning talk to God. Off in the distance. Down in the valley. In the morning mist. I heard a horse whinny. Loud and long. Further off in the distance another horse responded with the same whinny in a different distinct pitch. Then the closer horse did a few of those bbhhh-sounding things they do while shaking their heads. These small sounds made me miss Dominican Republic. (This picture is part of our Bayaguana-Festival of the Bulls collection here)

This sound when I was young, I hated the horse sounds. Those sounds were reminding me that I had to go and feed my horse, Blaze. No matter the weather it had to be done. First thing in the morning. No important if the water pump was frozen and I had to carry water. No matter if I wasn’t feeling that great. The horse had to be fed and let out of the shed.

Ahhh. Those sounds in Dominican Republic. They were such relaxing sounds. When there were no cars in the street in the early morning hours. When all was quite and still. I could hear a horse coming close in the distance. The distinctive clip clop of the hooves on the pavement. It was sort of a lonely sound. Like a lost soul trying to find its way. Yet it was also a soothing sound. Relaxing. So steady and constant. Just the clip clop. Getting closer then passing by and disappearing in the distance.