Elder David y Hna. Pam Johnson

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

I just can’t seem to get much work done in the office. Again today I spent all my time on the road doing “Diligencias” (errands) all over town. Oh well, at least I won’t get bored driving Dominican streets. The drivers here are CRAZY. Yes, that is CRAZY with all capital letters. Drivers drive on the wrong side of the road, they pass on double lines, they don’t obey any street signs & they run red lights. They will park their car in the right hand lane of traffic and walk away from it for hours, forcing all traffic to squeeze by in the inside lane. They change lanes with no warning and literally run you off the road. If there is a long line traffic waiting to turn left at an intersection, drivers will move into on-coming lanes to jump ahead of the others in line. And I don’t mean they do these things occasionally, they do them ALL THE TIME! (And don’t even get me started on the motorcycle drivers!)

But now I must explain something I have figured out since I’ve been here. This is the way Dominicans drive. Their behavior on the road is not unusual, in fact it is the norm and it is exactly the way drivers are supposed to behave in the Dominican Republic. Their driving is expected and anticipated by all other drivers. Therefore every one of them is a GOOD driver because they know and understand “the rules of the road” and they follow them. In fact, I’m the driver that stands out and doesn’t know how to drive. That’s why I get honked at if I stop when the light turns red.

I did get some good news today. Costco has FedEx’d my hearing aids back to me. Maybe soon I will be able to hear again. That would really be nice. FedEx only takes 3 or 4 days to get here. We do get our mail from the states too. I’ve noticed that most letters and small packages sent through the US Postal Service take from one week to 10 days to reach us. That is really very good service.