Contrasts in the DR

Like many Third World countries, the Dominican Republic if full of contrasts that we wanted to record - contrasts between rich and poor, between sunny days and stormy ones, between ways of life.  Sometimes, they add to the richness of our days, but sometimes they fill us with sadness for those affected.  Here are a few -

Garbage on the side of the road 

A real problem here is the disposal of trash.  People haven't been trained in the motto that we had through out the US a number of years ago, "Please don't be a litter bug 'cause every litter bit hurts."  It's really a combination of their not understanding about not just tossing something when they are done with it like the foam containers that hold their daily lunches from the street vendors to not having adequate waste receptacles, either along the public streets or in poorer areas.

Piles right in the road - some bags, but not a lot

This is the garbage area in the apartment
across the street.

So in many of those places as you can see above, the residents just make a big pile on the street until a garbage truck comes to pick things up.  We pity the garbage men who have to deal with general litter and not things in nice garbage bags.

                     

                     Now it's all cleaned up

             

And here's our apartment - empty now,
but always so neat
 for which we are thankful!

A difference between the rich and poor is similar to much of the world, and not really just found here.  The rich have beautiful homes and fancy cars, and the poor make their homes out of corrugated cardboard and drive cars, literally falling apart.  By the way, with the crazy traffic here, we can't figure out why anyone would want to buy a really nice car - we saw a Lamborghini the other day - crazy!

                      

  Porsche dealership

                          Ferrari dealership                      

            

       Jaguar dealership

And then here's a typical taxi -
many other cards are like this

One of a number of really nice homes in
this neighborhood on our way to work
 in the morning.

         

     A home made out of sheets of
corrugated cardboard

A posh clothing store

Suits for sale, hanging up on a fence

                                        

                        

                         Here's the ocean on a stormy day.  

 And here is a beautiful flamboyant tree overlooking a little purple plant
growing in the crevices of this coral rock wall.

And here's the view on a lovely
morning!

So, while we don't appreciate the negative things, they do help us appreciate the positive things more!  We are so blessed to have been living in such an interesting country.