Dominoes, dominoes, dominoes

Did you know that next to baseball, dominoes is the most popular national sport in the Dominican Republic? During weekdays after lunch and into the night on weekends, people play on street corners and under banana trees. This game is the number one past time for most men. Makeshift surfaces for playing pop up out of nowhere while other tables are permanent fixtures finely crafted with special drink holders to accommodate refreshments. The sound of dominoes being shuffled can be heard throughout every pueblo in the Dominican Republic

Here is a set of dominoes that we purchased as a souvenir.  There are little metal dots between the numbers, and we wondered why.  We learned that they are there so that it is easier to move the dominoes around when you turn them down to mix them for the next game.  Who figured that out?






Anyway, I have been "collecting" a few fun pictures that I wanted to share. As you can see in both of these pictures, the board is pretty standard with a place to put up the seven dominoes that each player receives in a standard game.

We passed this group while driving down a tight little street.  They were so pleased when I wanted to take their picture.









This is a photo that was in paper after Tropical Storm Isaac came through.  These die-hard players are sitting in the water playing their beloved dominoes!

If it were in any other place, I would know that it was a posed picture, but not here.  And this was probably the best way for them to keep their minds off what was going on around them.




Yesterday which was a holiday here, we went to the mountain home of a great member family here, and the husband taught us how to play.  There is much more strategy to the game that I had previously supposed.  So here are the missionaries playing dominoes.




By the way, the board has Brugal on the corners and on the backs of the dominoes.  Brugal is the name of the most popular rum company here, so that was a little funny.

Rob and his partner won!