Baby Steps

Becki and I have been slowly dipping our toes into the Dominican culture day by day. Over this first week, we have walked through our neighborhood, held brief conversations with strangers, and tasted some Dominican food. Today we felt like we were ready to take the next big step: a taxi ride, just the two of us and our limited Spanish vocabulary with the driver. I had all the necessary phrases written down on a notecard, a Spanish/English dictionary, and a map of the city to accompany me on this adventure. It started out well, agreeing to a price with the driver and choosing the location. We decided to visit a nice store we had been to already to look for a few items. I told the driver I would need change since I only had large bills and I thought he understood, so we set off. We slowly weaved our way through the city towards the center of town. As we got closer, the streets began to narrow and the pedestrians multiplied. I know little of the geography of Santiago but I knew for sure that wherever we were going was not the place I had in mind. He then jerked the car over to the side of the road in front of three men holding large wads of cash, both Dominican pesos and US dollars. I told them that all I needed was smaller bills for my large bill. They kept holding out $100 US bills and I knew there was a misunderstanding. Finally a man who spoke very little English intervened and gave me my small bills. I took a sigh of relief to get that completed when the car stopped once again. The driver told us our stop had come, now we could get out. I looked at the building incredulously because we had never been to this store or to this side of town. Sure enough, it was the same store but they apparently have two locations, one in the heart of the city and one in the "suburbs". Unsure of where we were and uncomfortable from the mass of people packed in this small store, we quickly got our necessary supplies and headed for the door. Wondering if we would have to walk all the way back home we found another taxi driver. He wasn't too sure of where we lived but we were just anxious to get out of our current situation so we drove off. He finally delivered us from the heart of the city and I was able to throw in a few lefts and rights to lead him to our apartment. With the door locked behind us and our safe apartment before us, we agreed that it might be awhile before we do that again, maybe even until tomorrow.