because you speak english.

we got our tv fixed. (i wrote finally here three times before i decided that one week without a tv does not warrant a finally. it's not like we were completely tv free - we still have another tv - a 15 inch, 15 year old, no control, no volume control tv but it works)

a technician came to fix the cable this afternoon. i was doing laundry in the bathtub (remember the broken washer?), samil was in his underwear and amely was dancing like a ballelina to sexy and i know it (she is, and she does. and tells us frequently."mami, sexy and i know IT")

i was a little embarassed, a little flustered - i didn't expect the technician to arrive at all, let alone so quickly - we just reported the problem yesterday. that is an unheard of turn around in this country. he comes in, looks at the tv table in the living room and the empty cable hanging out, not plugged into anything.

"um, i came to fix the cable."
"yah, come on in. sorry for the uh, craziness"
"well, i'm here to fix the cable, but i don't think the cable is the problem, miss"
"oh no, really, it's not been working. we can't see any channels at all."

he looks again at the tv stand. i, completely oblivious to his confusion, explain away - the neighbors cut our wire so thin stealing borrowing our cable and when we fixed it, we obviously didn't do it right.

"miss, um, you know i uh, i'm not sure if the cable is the problem."
"well, what else would the problem be?"
"well, you don't have a tv."

ha!
i needed that today.
once i explained the broken tv (burned out lamps or something - a problem with the inconsistency of the electricity in the country) and that it was in the shop, and that yes, there is another that he can use to check the problem, he got down to work. he was a bit wary to drink my juice and kept looking at samil's ironman underoos. obviously, our whole interaction took place in spanish (i  speak really good spanish), but when he left he  says,

"uh, miss, i'm sorry that i couldn't communicate with you because you speak english. so if you have any problems, call customer service, they have an english line." what?

some days are just funny, i guess.

(on the tv front, for those of you living in similar electrical  situations - apparently the rise and fall of the voltage here is hard on LCD tvs - i mean obviously it's not healthy for any appliance but lcds really dislike it - and even if your tv is just in standby the difference can cause problems. so, the backlight on the tv burned out. after some research online i was discouraged because the best advice they had was "get a new tv" becuase the repair costs about $400 USD. welcome to  the dominican republic, $40 USD later we have a fixed tv and the wise words to unplug the thing at night to avoid further problems)

homegoods on wheels

i take public transportation every where.

we had a car, a RAV-4,  but after a bad crash, we returned to our roots and do the best we can in the public cars. yes, cars. little ones, stuffed to the brim with people.

i take the same route every day, a straight shot from my house to work and then back again. boring, right?

the city is under construction - seriously, there are men digging everywhere, so my car is detoured.

i saw this gem the other day - a household supplies store on wheels.

we were stopped at a corner when i saw it. the driver laughed at me when i snapped the photo. it looks like they are selling hampers, pillows, sheets, brooms. if you look close, the salesman is stuffed in there on the back.

we're not worried about the north americans.

my immigration situation is not unique. at least not in this country.

i moved to the dominican republic in 2004, and have been living here, paper-free, since then. i attempted once to complete the process for a formal residency, but when my papers were lost (please pay more) or expired (please pay more) or just plain not going where the needed to go (please pay more), i gave up. it was (and still is) an expensive process that wasn't necessary.

i had employment, health insurance and nobody ever bothered me. i paid an overstay fee each time i left the country. life was nice.

but not at all fair.

because at the same time that i held a job, without paying taxes, and gave birth in a government sponsored hospital and lived my life, other immigrants were being corralled into schoolbuses and driven back to the border. in the united states it was happening as well. dominicans, haitians, mexicans, guatemalans, illegally residing in my country were put on planes and shipped home.

not fair.

but, complacent as i am, i continued to stay residency free. and i often condemned immigrants for traveling without their papers. such hypocrisy.

after amely was born in 2009, my government health insurance was revoked because i didn't have a cedula number - similar to a social security number in the states. that's fair, i thought, and instead of doing my paperwork, i just wished away sickness. luckily, i haven't been ill and i still have a job to pay for the doctors, right?

last semester, the north american teachers were sat down and informed that because of a new law, we needed to complete the residency process (or whatever) in order to continue working  at the university. it was poorly announced and not well researched, but the idea was scary. the laws were changing and we needed to act fast.

so, earlier this week i wrote about my trip to the capital to get it done. i'm becoming a dual citizen. excellent. yesterday i had my interview. it went swimmingly (except the basic question of the founding fathers that i just couldn't answer!) and when the questioning ended, i asked.

what will happen in the meantime? what happens if someone asks for my papers? this new law has me a little shaken up - i don't know what to do.

and then, everything was put into the light. this new law is not applicable to my life, she says, because i am north american. and really what the country wants to do is alleviate the haitian problem.

the problem.

of which, i am apparently not part. i think it's the same everywhere. we're not concerned about people emmigrating unless they are a threat. those who are different, those who we consider less than. less than us, less than they should be.

we make laws to keep Others out, people who we don't care for or don't respect. it made me mad that she said that. these laws don't apply to you because you're american. a gringa. we don't worry about you. we worry about those other Others who are poorer, who will ruin us.

i see the buses filled with illegal haitians in the city all the time. but i also see the barrios filled with deported dominican-americans and wonder if we couldn't just find a way for this to work, that nobody would be ruined in the end, that we wouldn't need to consider anybody an Other, because in all reality we all are Others. 

blessed.

have you ever had one of those weeks or months where nothing seemed to work out?

welcome to my 2012.

january was difficult to say the least. between some crazy work -demands and a seriously decreased paycheck and a ton of things that just stopped working at home, i've been half out of my mind. i've been cranky and mean and ready to just give up. i don't know, quit my job and move to japan, or something.

last week was the worst. i addressed my work situation and was shot down, amely stopped sleeping and the tv broke. i was trying to finish my citizenship paperwork and waiting for my university paycheck in order to pay for a process that (blessedly) is going much, much faster than i ever imagined.

i might have drank ten gallons of coffee with four pounds of sugar in order to avoid psychosis (or falling asleep during class).

and then baby drake was born and everything was a little clearer. life is precious, and there are people with far more sorrow and need in the world than me. i drank some more coffee and prayed. and let me be honest, i haven't really prayed in a long time.

i went to the hospital to visit some women. i didn't have anything to give except a pound of coffee for the nurses (to share with me, of course). three women had lost babies in the birthing process and were grieving. the nurses told me of a woman who delivered for dead baby on the bathroom floor.  i talked to women who had nothing, not even sheets on their beds or diapers for when they got home.

when i left, i walked in the city and saw children begging for food.

i am blessed.

and when baby drake went back to heaven, i cried and it sunk in just how blessed i really am. my babies are healthy and happy and we've never really had to worry about their health. i have a job (no matter how crazy it is right now) with a good paycheck every month that more than supplies for our needs. i'm an illegal alien, but with all the facility to become legal - and my children have not one, but two nationalities in a world where so many babies have none. the washing machine is broken, but we have clothes enough to cover us and who really needs a tv?

i'm still stressed and probably way too cranky, but with a new understanding. i can't wallow in the little stuff, because life is too short. it's too precious to spend angry or worried about a washing machine. it's time to appreciate the gifts we've been given and live. 

i'm an illegal immigrant

last week, amely and i packed out day bags and headed to santo domingo to see a friend from college who was honeymooning in punta cana. (man it was a long trip, but so worth it to catch up!) i have been hemming and hawing about my legal status, not really sure what i was going to do about my illegal immigrant status. we finally decided to do the dual citizenship when my employer forced my hand (get something, anything, or you're out of a job). with all the paperwork together, i figured i'd double dip and hit the police department to drop off the papers.

here's where things kind of tilt. i didn't want to do my paperwork because it's such an ordeal. there are lines, and a lot of people who don't know what's going on. wait for hours in line a just to be told to go to line b and line b tells you it's back to line a. i can't handle it. amalio went once to get the information we needed to complete the process, and in the same building they gave him four different papers, all with different requirements for the same thing.

so, i had asked for help. i put out the word of what i was doing and, please, for the love of god, does anyone know who can help me? not a lawyer (because they're the worst), but someone who maybe works in the right office, or even in the right building?

i hit the jackpot and was connected to someone in the right building. it's always a crapshoot because even though people say they can help, it's not always true. let me tell you, this guy came through.

arriving at the correct building (after arguing in the wrong building about my friends' inappropriate clothing), we were met by an assistant, taken to an office, given fresh-squeezed juice. i handed over my packet of papers and the fee (not a bribe) and while some guard ran my errands, i relaxed and caught up with my friend and her new husband.

i don't really know how long the process really takes, but i will take my citizenship test on wednesday (6 days after depositing my paperwork!) and will be sworn in when the depositions from the proper international agencies come in and declare me felony free.

me and kate at the ozama fort

i've talked to others who have waited months and months for things to "fall into place." because if yo don't know someone, things here don't work. i've got some studying to do - i still don't know who the first president of the republic was (trick question!) or any of the 87 different independences, but i see the light at the end of the tunnel... i will no longer be the illegal and i'll still have a job.

the mother of invention

 what do you do when the window rollers in your car break? take it to the shop and get the replacement parts, right?

what do you do when your car is so old, they probably don't make the rollers anymore? 

grab some old screwdrivers and have them welded to the base of the window-roller. amazing.

i saw these handles in a public car the other day and was completely amazed by the innovation. i've been in cars that have detachable handles (when it rains, the driver has to dig around to find the handle and then hope the passenger can figure out how to get the glass up) and i've seen windows that just don't go up or down anymore. 

these are far and away the coolest, most original window handles i've seen. ever.

fresh fish.

living on an island is nice. it would be nicer if we lived closer to the beach, but you take what you can get, right? on saturday, amalio came home with this sucker wrapped in newspaper (they still do that, who knew?) it was too late to cook that night, so we smothered it in garlic and stuff it with onions and peppers and wrapped it in tinfoil.

 paired up with a dominican moro de guandules, it was a superb lunch for a rainy and yucky sunday.

 even samil, who lately has bee a picky eater, loved it.