Category Archives: My Favorite Stories

My New Dog, Teli

Posted by rdgringa on December 10, 2011 No comments

I know, I’ve been bad again not writing in my own blog. I have just been so busy trying to update the web site, writing in the Colonial Zone News Blog and making the newest blog in the collection, The Dominican Dog Blog.

I got a dog, thus the Dog Blog. Her name is Inteliperra. Not inteligente, which means smart, I figured inteli – GENTE means smart person cause it says Gente which maens people. My dog is not a gente she is a perra so I called her Inteli – PERRA. Get it? For short she is just Teli.

She is smiling in this picture. Isn’t she cute?

She is the normal type of dog breed you see in the streets here in Dominican Republic. Wiry, thin, tan with the black face. They call them here Boca Negra (Black Mouth), Vida Latta (sort of lives out of a tin can which also means a mixed breed). She looks alot like a Belgin Malinois. But no matter what she is I fell in love with her after a few days of her living with me on November 3rd. Now she is my baby and she stole my heart.

She is a bit of a nervous dog. She knows how to walk on the leash and I have taught her lots of tricks. I know her other owner taught her stuff too. (She was found in a park when she was a puppy almost dead, was rescued and brought back to health and loved, then the family had to move to a smaller home and couldn’t keep her, this is how she came to live with me). She likes to hang out on the sofa when I am working and she always likes to be where I am.

I have been working with her but she is so nervous and frightened. When she gets in the fright mode she doesn’t hear anything. She just wants to get home. She is much better but she still needs lots of work and love. She doesn’t like open doors when we pass them in the street. Any sudden noise she goes crazy. The rustling of the palm trees she gets nervous. When we pass the school and she hears all the noise inside she gets nervous. She hates when there is a marching group in the street. She is afraid of the washing machine. She wont come to the living room when I have laundry hanging on the enclosed balcony. She doesn’t like waving flags. Sometimes I think she sees ghosts when she jumps at nothing. But I am working with her.

She needs to get calm so she can work her business being a tour guide here in Colonial Zone. She is working on being the mascot for the Zone. She already has her own park, Plaza Pellerano Castro, where if you want to meet her, she is usually walking around there in the evening. She has her own Colmado where she is the Mascot it is across from her park, Colmado Omar I. Common down and she will always accept 10 pesos of salami if you want to buy. Just remember, you have to ask me first before you give her a treat. She is not allowed to accept stuff from strangers unless I say its OK first.

You might also see her in her favorite place to go to the bathroom, in front of the Forteleza Ozama on Calle Las Damas. She gets to go to the bathroom in front of one of the oldest forts in the new world and on the oldest street. She also likes to walk in the church yard at the Cathedral, the oldest in the new world and the Plazoleta de los Curas because it is usually quiet there.

So if you want to keep up on the Dominican Dog, Teli. Please check her blog, The Dominican Dog blog. Also if you want to adopt your own dog please consider a shelter dog. They are such a blessing and they need so much love and will give it as well. There are many shelters here in Dominican Republic. If you want to adopt a dog here send me an email and I can direct you to many of the places here in Santo Domingo.

How can you resist this face?

Through The Shrubbery Spy Team – Episode 1

Posted by rdgringa on August 18, 2010 4 comments

>Through The Shrubbery Spy Team
Episode 1: Pool Peepers

This spy team known as “Through the Shrubbery” is the work of a dedicated group of humans who came together to make sure they, their loved ones and their clients are safe in their chosen environments. Mainly this involves no action on the team members (the team members are referred to as Joes) parts other than having a keen sense of the obvious and observation skills. They are not for hire, only picking and choosing their caper when they feel the need. The main part of the team consists of Joe-ld, Joe-ie and Joe-et. Please note the names have been changes to protect the identities of this fine group of middle-aged humans. Now that the introductions are over we will proceed with the caper.

Quite late at night a group of human males and females returned from an evening of imbibing. They were laughing and carrying on while on the balcony as many do while visiting this Caribbean country and renting a house in a decent neighborhood. The Shrubbery Team jumped into action with no thought for their own safety. Ready, no matter the hour, to make sure no shenanigans were going on that was not good for the neighborhood.

Finding a way through the bushes to get a closer look. They realized they were vulnerable as both of the team was wearing bright white clothing. A quick change had to be made so they retired to headquarters, lickity split, to get into uniform and outten the lights. Within minutes they were back and ready to romp. Joe-et with her camouflage long dress and bare feet and Joe-ld in black and comfy clonks. Joe-ie stayed back to protect headquarters.

Back through the bushes they went talking in low voices, making their plan of action as they went along.

Getting closer to the perps the experienced spy team got to their knees. Middle aged knee and back pain forgotten in the heat of the pursuit. Crawling along they had to deal with one of the serious problems the spy team has. They have an issue with uncontrollable laughing and giggling. When they get in the thick of a caper this always happens to them. Maybe this is a tension relief thing,they could only guess. They never understood this need to laugh while in pursuit. They are able to get their giggling under control for a few moments but it keeps returning at the most inconvenient times.

Finally they got to the shrubbery blocking them from the view of the neighborhood intruders. They found a peaky hole and proceeded to peek. The perps were tricky indeed. While the team was crawling, making their plans, the perps left pool, two by two, and returned to their balcony disappearing into the abyss of their rental chalet. The Shrubbery Team tried drawing the perps out with their signature cry. Blabah-bla-bglab-blagha-blaga. One must hear this distinct cry to appreciate the fierceness and hair-raising fear it can bring to a non-suspecting stander-byer (this is a special spy team word – one who stands by) when coming from an innocent shrubbery. This is how the spy team got their name, this frightening noise, sometimes presented in stereo, emanating through the shrubbery.

The Joes tried pushing their faces through the shrubbery for a better look at the envents unfolding in the neighboring property all the while making their Blabah-bla-bglab-blagha-blaga sounds. Nothing. The next step was for Joe-ld to hold aside the shrubbery so Joe-et could make a mad dash. Running with all the agility in the body, remember these spies are finely tuned human machines. The plan was to run across the balcony at lightening speed while making the bone chilling blabah noise to rouse the perps from their inner sanctum. The shrubbery holder spy knows that if the one runner is seen all must work together to make sure the others are safe. Be it lifting one load to its feet or dragging one by the arm to safety. The back up plan, if all else fails, RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!

The spy team carefully moved the shrubbery back into place to erase any traces of their presence. Their mission accomplished. With the perps safely behind their closed doors; the team proceeded through the bushes back to headquarters. Not worrying about their aching knees, muddy feet and scratched legs. They had accomplished another successful mission.

Returning to the sanctity of the patio, to a nice cold beer, they reflected on their caper. The good and bad of it so that when the next caper arises they will be ready to face whatever happens without fear and hopefully without giggling uncontrollably throughout their entire mission. Always ready to serve and protect their territory and their loved ones no matter the cost.

The Thorough the Shrubbery Team. They are never where you expect them to be. If you are in Dominican Republic and doing something not quite right and not quite wrong and you hear soft giggling and a frightening, heart stopping Blabah-bla-bglab-blagha-blaga coming from the darkness of an innocent looking shrubbery. This could be the Joes, Joe-ld, Joe-ie, Joe-et and the rest of this elite team watching you!

Teeth Shooter

Posted by rdgringa on August 18, 2009 1 comment

>I was sitting in front of a Colmado at Parque San Miguel drinking a beer Sunday. Taking a little break from my Sunday walkabout.

The owner is a nice guy and he invited me for a few beers. We were drinking, telling stories and having a nice ole time when a friend of his joined us. Mr. Teeth(as I’ll call him throughout this story)was a bit drunk already and started telling me how he was in love with me. He kept putting his hand on my leg while talking. He was getting a bit too familiar so I asked him very nicely to please don’t touch me. I don’t like it. He would stop and then a few minutes later start again. I moved my chair a little away from him and he followed. Finally I decided I had to be a bit more forceful so maybe he would bet it through his head I did not like being touched. So I told him a sentence that I learned my first time on vacation in Santo Domingo, “Quintas sus manos sucios de me”! (roughly translated “Get your dirty hands off of me” and I’m not sure if I say it correctly or spell it right but you get the idea).

Mr. Teeth opened his mouth in shock ready to say something. When he opened his mouth his false teeth flew out and landed on the sidewalk! He had a look of shock on his face. I had to do the ole double take going from his face to the ground where his teeth lay. After the initial few second shock, I didn’t want to embarrass him, I turned and started talking to my friend. Mr. Teeth grabbed up his dentures and hurriedly put them on the chair between his legs.

I was trying not to laugh. I really, really tried not to laugh.My friend was snickering the entire time and I was holding it in as best as I could. But when I looked at him, he was putting the teeth back in, I lost it. I was laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe. Many times when I laugh too hard I snort and this was one of those times. My friend and I were laughing so hard, we couldn’t stop. I tried to stop because I didn’t want to humiliate Mr. Teeth but I couldn’t help it, especially when my friend was laughing just as hard as I. I decided it was best just to get out of there. I told my friend I had to go. I tried to say goodbye to Mr. Teeth but I just couldn’t. I had to walk down the street alone laughing aloud to myself all alone.

All the rest of the day every time I thought of it I started laughing. People probably thought I was a bit off walking alone and giggling but it could not be helped. I’m even laughing now just picturing good ole Mr. Teeth and the look on his face when his teeth shot out of his mouth. Am I a bad human for this?? LOL!

this is a little added on note I had to get permission to write about from my mom:
The thing that really made me laugh when I could not hold it in anymore was thinking of my mother. My nephew, who was very shy and afraid when he was young as he was adopted and not used to our boisterous style of family, was playing with my mom. She was holding him above her balanced on her feet. All were laughing and having a good time when her teeth flew out! My nephew got this look of fear on his face and a giant scream came out of his mouth. He wouldn’t stop crying and yelling for a while and it took him days, maybe months before he was able to sit with his grandmother without being afraid her teeth were not going to come out.

This is what made me laugh more at the Mr. Teeth guy. I laughed at my mom as did the entire family (except the frightened nephew) so I think I had a right to laugh at Mr. Teeth didn’t I?

Office Monster Rat

Posted by rdgringa on April 16, 2009 2 comments

>Sitting here in the office in Zona Colonial one day working on the web site (www.colonialzone-dr.com) I felt something bump into my foot. I jumped and looked down and this giant rat was scurrying away under the sofa. The thing was a big ole brown rat. Much larger than the pet rats my son used to have. This thing was larger than most cats I’ve seen around here. He must have been eating really well and lived a long life to get that large.

Well, I hurriedly finished what I was doing all the while holding my feet up off the floor (it isn’t easy for this old girl to hold the feet up for long). I turned off the computer and shut down the office and was outta there!

The guys in the gift shop in front of the office gave me a strange look as I came running out of the office and into the gift shop. I told them about the rat and Willy decided to take on the hunt and kill the varmint. Grabbing a broom stick he went to the back patio with me following behind holding onto his belt loop saying “ooh,ooh”. I told Willy to shoot the thing and he just laughed at me (I remember when I worked in a warehouse once in USA and we had a rat. We tried everything to capture that thing. Finally the owner laid in wait with his gun and shot that rat dead!).

The rat was there on the patio and Willy went in with the stick while I was making little ewwh and yuck sounds. He was poking the rat and it was darting behind the stuff out back. The monster even jumped up in the air a few times (when he jumped I ran to the kitchen for cover). Then the nasty creature disappeared nowhere to be found. I grabbed some rat sticky paper and covered a hole where the drain was hoping when he went to escape he would get caught.

I went to the Colmado for a beer to calm my jittery nerves and returned to see if that bugger was caught all stuck to the tape. No wonder he was so big and lived a long life, he was a smart big creature. The tape was moved off the hole and he was gone.

I had rat dreams all night jumping at every little movement in my apartment.

the next day the rat was the topic of conversation in the gift shop. He returned that morning to visit the kitchen and see what he could have for breakfast. He was scratching at the office door so now there is some tin all along the bottom. They chased him but he got away again. They covered the hole with a pipe to keep him out. But this was not the end of the rat.

I went to go to the bathroom, very carefully checking all around for the rat incase he was hiding and there he was! Inside a bag on the counter! I yelled and Willy and Mamita came running with Melanie close behind. Willy was hitting the thing while Mamita was trying to block it from getting out of the room. Melanie and I were peeking around the corner and running away every time that thing jumped in the air.

the damn rat got away again, down the hole. So, they mixed up some cement and filled the hole in. I was waiting to see if it held before I wrote the story and it seems like it did the job. The rat has not returned. I keep checking the hole, with much trepidation mind you, and it is still cemented in.

I’m still cautious because you never know when he will return. Maybe he’ll find another way in or maybe he will just eat through the cement and return for a visit. If I had my camera (but remember it was stolen)I’d have a picture here of Willy and Mamita after the rat and another of the rat in the bag. I just hope this is the end of the rat story.

Travelers Checks! Fat Chance!

Posted by rdgringa on September 16, 2008 No comments

>Whatever you do DO NOT bring travelers checks to Dominican Republic!!
Maybe if you are in a large resort hotel or if you are lucky you can get a travelers check cashed and if you are really lucky it won’t take you all day to do so.

My aunts came to visit and Jetta wanted to bring travelers checks. I asked my bank if that was an OK thing to do and , of course, they said “No problem”. Well, it was a big problem.

Jetta signed the checks and handed over her passport. The girl behind the desk took the stuff to the teller and we waited. A friend of mine came into the bank so we talked a bit. And we waited.
Finally we asked what was going on and they said they had to clear the checks…”No problem”. so we waited.
Another friend came into the bank and we chatted a bit. We were starting to get a bit annoyed after about an hour and a half and we were getting louder and hungry.

Some other friends entered the bank and they spent about an hour hanging out with Lois, Jetta and I. We made up a song called “Fat Chance”. The 5 of us were making up verses (my friends have a band and sing really well…my family and I don’t sing at all) for the song like “We have been waiting in the bank 2 hours. Trying to get our money. Will we ever get out money? FAT CHANCE”. We wanted to take a walk about of the Colonial Zone. Wanted to see the sights. Will it ever happen? FAT CHANCE!”. We wanted to get some beans and rice. Go to a typical cafeteria. Will we ever get to eat? FAT CHANCE!”. The 5 of us were singing away. entertaining ourselves.

The friends finally had to leave and guess where we were? Still in the bank! One of the workers kept telling us we had to be quiet because it was a bank. Another brought us coffee. But we kept getting louder and more annoyed. I finally lost it and got angry. We got the bank manager lady out of her office to see what was happening and I called my friend Mamita to see if she could help.

We couldn’t go to another bank as the travelers checks were already signed. They told us we could leave and return..Yea, right. Leave the travelers checks and passport in the bank. When we returned they would probably say they didn’t know us and there was no travelers checks or passport. FAT CHANCE!

After 3 hours they finally said that the system was working again and they gave us the money! I finally got to take the aunts on their little tour to Mangito. We didn’t get to eat la bandera that day but we did get some great roast chicken in the street later. So even though we spent 3 hours in the bank we tried to look at the positive side. We had 3 hours of air conditioning. They met some of my friends. We made the Fat Chance song. We had some good laughs and another interesting story to tell.

The moral of the story is if you think travelers checks are accepted worldwide and you will get them changed easily and fast. Remember…FAT CHANCE!!

Going to Samana and Back

Posted by rdgringa on August 20, 2008 1 comment

>I finally got to try out the new highway and visit Samana.
The new highway from Santo Domingo to Samana made the trip really fast but it just seemed to me that the road could have been designed a little better. When they cut through the hills in Los Haitises National Park, in my opinion, they should have cut the hills at an angel. When you drive through they are straight up and down leaving lots of room for them to slide into the road (which did happen after the tormenta Fay went through. But all in all the road was a real relief as it cut the driving time way down making the trip much easier when visiting the other side of the island.We even caught a rainbow on the return trip.

My friend Xiomara, her daughter Jana and I went for a 5 day trip. When we got to Samana it was nothing like I expected. It was too touristy. It was beautiful but it lost its Dominican flair. There were very little Colmados which is a very important thing for me when I travel.
We drove around a while, not knowing that the storm Fay was on top of us. there was an interesting dirt road so we took it. It ended up at some local type beach bar called on Playa Padel called Rincon d’ Julio. There were no cars only motorbikes and then later about 12 horses (and their riders). It was one of the highlights of the trip. We were enjoying and talking. A man took Jana for a little ride on a horse. But during this time the waves were starting to get little white caps and the wind was picking up. The second time a big stack of Presidente beer cases fell over is when they said they were closing because of the storm (“What storm?” we stupidly asked). So we all had to get out of there.

We went to our hotel, the cheapest we could find, and took a nap while the worst of the storm passed. when we woke the rains turned to drizzle and it was past. We had no TV to see what happened so we just went out for a bit.
There weren’t many people out as Dominicans don’t usually go out when it’s raining but we had a good time. When we got back to the hotel we found that we were locked out and Jana was locked in. We banged on the door and no one came. So we had to figure out someway to get in. There was a window,,ahhh. We could climb through. It was just wide enough for the big butts to fit through. The problem was all the trees in front. We had to really squirm to get through the trees, work our way into the window. Then Jana had to push the sofa up to the window so we could drop onto. We were laughing all the time and when it was over we were quite muddy as was the floor and wall (we had to hold onto the wall to pull ourselves in) of the hotel. All this time onnoe from the hotel came to see what was going on. But we got to sleep in our little beds.
Next day Xiomara drove to Las Terrenas so Jana could ride a horse with some guy they rented horses from a few years ago. The entire place changed. The horse guy was gone and in his place was a hotel. there were hotels everywhere. Very few Dominican places existed. It was all touristy. We were disappointed so we left for Cabrera and then on to Rio San Juan.
We got a great hotel along the sea called Bahia Blanca, which I would refer to anyone traveling. Not too expensive, clean, nice owners (Lise Pineau) and staff and it’s got a nice little beach. Their phone number is 809-589-2563 and 2562. We ended up staying there 2 nights.We hung out at the beach then were headig to another beach when we took a wrong turn onto some dirt road. We decided to keep going and see where the road took us. We drove for 2 1/2 hours on this road all through little farms, lots of cows and farm animals. Great little houses and some nice farms also. It was another highlight of the trip.

Finally we ended up at the beach (can’t remember it’s name) and had a well deserved swim. I think we were the only white skinned people there, which is the type of places we were looking for. We swam around a bit, talked to some people then went back to the hotel to rest for our night out.
We went to some little bar in Rio San Juan. It was packed full. People dancing and enjoying. Xiomara took Jana back to the hotel to sleep and she was to return. I waited and waited. Danced a few dances, sat with some other people and she never returned. Finally it was time to go and I didn’t have all the money to pay the bill so the guys I was sitting with paid. I was getting ready to walk back to the hotel when Xiomara showed up. She laid down with Jana for a little bit and fell asleep. she gave the guys their money, we all had a good laugh and we went back to the hotel to sleep.
Next day we left for home stopping and checking out different stuff on the way. It was a great trip. I love seeing my new country. Discovering new things and meeting new people. All while having some good laughs and a few cold beers. Life couldn’t be better.