Image – Page 16 – Journey to Dominican

SO WHY DO YOU LIVE IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC?

“So why do you live in the Dominican Republic?”

I have been asked this question many times, and let me tell you that it is not an easy one to answer. I have been coming to the Dominican Republic since 2016 and have lived here since 2019. I love this beautiful country a whole lot, but it is so hard to put into words why I love it when there are 1,001 reasons.

I so wish that I could share my everyday life, the language, the culture, the community, the beauty, all of it with my people in the United States. Sometimes, it hurts a little that my heart is in two different countries and that my two worlds might never fully collide.

I would love to have you over for coffee then head out and explore the streets of this city chatting about all the things that I have learned over the years. But for now, I will do my best to paint a picture of this culture. From the silly things I have learned that make me laugh to even the hard that shows it isn’t always paradise.

So let’s talk about Dominican culture…

PEOPLE

This is my favorite part. Dominicans are unhindered. They are not afraid to be who they are, dress how they want to dress, sing karaoke for the entire neighborhood, stop in the middle of the busy street to buy an avocado, etc. Dominicans are free to be who they are and it makes you feel liberated as well.

Also, Dominicans are so generous. Our neighbor once gave us an entire garbage bag full of plantains. Just because. Now this is just a simple example. If you go to someone’s house, you can expect them to want to fill your belly, then make you coffee, and offer you crackers or bread to go alongside your coffee as well. Whether it is food, coffee, or even the gift of time, Dominicans are very giving.

MUSICA

Dominicans love their music. While driving down the street, you can easily count 30 cars that may look a little beat up but have a top notch sound system installed. When I first moved here, it took me a while to fall asleep at night as many people would drive by with their subwoofers thudding through the streets all throughout the night. Music is important to Dominicans. Some different types of music on the island are: dembow, bachata, and merengue.

THE BEAUTIFUL IDIOMA (LANGUAGE)

It may come as a shock to some, but I have been asked a handful of times what language we speak here. Dominicans speak Spanish, but with a Dominican twist. Dominicans speak some of the fastest Spanish with the most slang. Whether they are cutting off the “s” at the end of the word, using sound effects to finish a sentence, or saying “vaina” (in short, “vaina” is slang for, “thing”) after every other word, Dominican Spanish takes a while to learn. I’ve been here for three years, married to a Dominican, and I am STILL learning. But I LOVE the language. I would really love to perfect my Dominican accent and not sound so gringa, but it will come with time *fingers crossed*.

COMIDA. COMIDA. COMIDA.

FOOD. FOOD. FOOD.

If you are a big foodie like me, then you MUST try Dominican food. One of the traditional dishes here is called, “La bandera.” This translates to “the flag.” The plate is full of rice, beans, chicken, and sometimes salad or fresh fruit on the side. And let me tell you, it is DELISH. The street food is incredible too.

Here are some of my favorite streets food that you MUST try if you ever visit:

-PATACON: This is like a really unhealthy, fried sandwich. It is fried plantains (known as tostones) that serve as the bread with a ton of mixed meats, tomato, lettuce, mayo, and ketchup.

-YAROA: Yaroa can be plantains mashed up (similar to mashed potatoes) or fries with meat, cheese, sometimes veggies, and then drenched in ketchup and mayo on top.

LANDSCAPE

Sometimes I forget that I am surrounded by beautiful palm trees and mountains. Everywhere you turn, you can find beauty from the incredibly bright colored buildings, to even some areas that may be poor. This island is BEAUTIFUL. The culture is lively and charismatic, but I think even the beautiful land and buildings add to the spirited culture.

PRODUCE

This country is full of incredibly delicious produce. If you have not had pineapple from here, then you are not living life to the fullest. To list a few of my favorite produce items: pineapple, mango, yautia, yuca, plantains, batata, avocado, and so many more.

Maduros/Platanos Amarillos- Sweet or Yellow Plantains

DOMINICAN TIME

This one took me a while to get used to, and sometimes it still really frustrates me. Life here is unhurried. If you plan to meet up with your friends at 7:00 pm and grab some dinner, you can expect your friends to show up at 7:30 or 8. I am a very punctual person who leaves the house 10-15 minutes early. So you can imagine how this took a while for me to adjust to. Although it sometimes drives me insane, I have really grown to love the unrushed time that we get to spend with others. Time is a gift y’all. Don’t rush it.

MAYO & KETCHUP

Dominicans LOVE their mayo and ketchup. Or as many here say it, “catchuuup.” You may have caught this already as I shared about street food, but whether it is a burger or even TACOS (yes, tacos), Dominicans drench their food in these two condiments. My husband included.

Now when I talk about my life here, so many people picture paradise. And yes, I live in a beautiful part of the world. But like life in any country, there are some really hard things about living here. Two of these things being the lack of running water and inconsistent electricity.

WATER

My husband and I live in an area of the city where the water company does not always send water every day. We receive running water twice a day from our complex cisterns. Now, if we are unlucky, we do not receive water at all. Not only do we pay a set fee for water each month (whether we have water or not), but sometimes we have to pay extra just to have trucks of water delivered. It is mighty frustrating sometimes. You also cannot drink the running water. You must purchase big jugs of water called “botellones” for drinking.

ELECTRICITY

There are so many electricity shortages around the island. When I first moved here, I would lose water and electricity every afternoon for a month. Now that was culture shock for me. There are many times when I will be teaching online, and then we randomly lose electricity. It can be really hard sometimes when you feel it is something you should be able to rely on. But I am learning to roll with the punches.

Now this is just a small list explaining only part of the culture. I love this place so much, but the reason that I am here is because of God (which I will soon share more).

For now, I hope that you were able to visualize the beauty of this island from the people, food, nature, to even the hard stuff that can be challenging sometimes. I sure am thankful that God has allowed me to live here and is continuing to teach me through my brothers and sisters here.

And don’t forget that the offer is always open! Anytime you want to pop in, I will brew up some coffee in our greca, and we can chat more in depth about this place that the Lord has made my home.

Rich in Jesus

Alan had a full day at work yesterday so when he got home, he told me he wanted to do absolutely nada. So, in the typical Alan and Ashley fashion, we popped on our fav–Friends–to watch while we ate some dinner. After I filled my belly with some incredible Pastelón (a Dominican food similar to lasagna but with yellow plantains), I laid on Alan’s lap and I was OUT. About thirty minutes later I woke up to Alan freaking out. “Baby, párate! (Baby get up!)” I sleepily responded with, “Que pasó? (What happened?)”

“I think I won the lottery!!”

Alan’s work did a little angelito which is like a secret Santa gift exchange. He and one of his coworkers told everyone, “hey if you get my name you can either give me the 500 pesos or buy me 10 lottery tickets.” Sure enough, Alan’s friend drew Alan’s name and bought him 10 tickets for the lottery. After checking the numbers on his tickets last night, all Alan could say was, “Can you imagine? What if we win the lottery tonight?!” I kept saying, “Whatever extra we get is just a blessing from God.” But of course our minds did consider the fact that we could finally purchase a car that we’ve been saving over a year for, be set up for all the future legal fees we have for visas and citizenships, and some to bless our families and others.

After many phone calls to people who actually understand how the lottery works, we found out that Alan would for sure win something but because the ticket was only 50 pesos, one of his numbers wouldn’t count. Therefore, he didn’t win as big as he thought. (I know this sounds extremely confusing, and believe me I am still very confused about how it all works, but this is sort of the jist that I understand.)

This morning I was journaling and thinking back on last night and how our brains immediately jumped to all the things that money could buy us or the “security” net we could build with extra cash. I think back to when we first got married a year ago, and how we thought we had to have everything all at once and be set up right as we were starting off. I reflect back on this crazy year of a lot of growth together. I think on how God has taken us through hard seasons to break down our ideas to see with His lens. And sitting on my rug with a pen in my hand and a Bruno boy by my side, I realized that we are rich. We’re rich in the things that matter.

Whether winning the lottery or getting a ton of money from working our booties off, money comes and goes. Money and all the things that it could buy us are fleeting. We have this idea that the more we have, the happier we will be. Like these things will bring us fulfillment and satisfy us. But oftentimes, the more that we have, the more that we want.

One year ago, Alan and I were just starting our life together. We had just gotten married, and we had so many ideas of what our first year of marriage should look like. We had big financial goals and things that we wanted to go after. I think back on us at this time last year, and I laugh to myself a little. Wow, how God has really changed our perspectives over the course of this year. From all these legal fees for my residency and so many months apart and all the ups and downs of this past year, the Lord has shown us what really matters. The money and the things never last. The things that last our love and all of our memories together. We may not have all the things that we desire, but we are building a strong foundation. We are building a beautiful life TOGETHER. The most important thing is being united and chasing after Jesus together whether our hands are full or empty. And you know what, when our eyes are on Jesus and our hearts are for Him, we will not lack one good thing. He will always take care of His children. He gives us what we need and also wants to bless us with the things that we want. Not because we deserve it, but just because His love for us is so dang big.

We may not be rich by the world’s standards. But we are rich in the things that have meaning:

-rich in relationships and building community

-rich in love and depth

-rich in ministry and discipling

-rich in faith

Rich in the things that are eternal.

Now, we may not have won the lottery and became instant millionaires last night, but we are already rich. Rich in Jesus. And being rich in Jesus is the best kind of rich there is.

Let’s Get GRITTY

Have you ever had that, “whoa God,” moment when you are reading Scripture and it just comes to life for you? I was reading about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane in the gospel of Mark, and it was like the Word of God was hitting me right where I was at. In this passage, Jesus took some of His disciples, asked them to stay and pray, and then He went off and cried out to God. Jesus was fully aware of the death that He would have to endure in order to buy our freedom, and He felt the huge weight of what lay ahead of Him. After He prayed, Jesus came back to see that His disciples were sleeping…not once or twice but three times this happened. (Mark 13:32-42, CSB) I think about Jesus in the garden and how lonely He must have felt. He is no stranger to grief or loneliness. He cried out to God to take the cup from Him if at all possible, and then He surrendered to the Father’s will. (Mark 14:36, CSB) Jesus did hard. Ever since I was a little girl, my motto has been, “I can do hard.” Now I am changing my motto to, “Jesus did hard so I can do hard.”

What does it take to do the hard? How do we stop allowing our circumstances or what others say about us to define us, and instead walk in the liberty and calling that God has specifically placed on each of us? I am finding that to stay strong in the face of trials takes mighty courage. With courage comes grit. Ok, so what exactly do these two words mean? Here are my definitions of what these words have meant to me during this time:

So here is where I am at… I have been burned. Burned by friends, by others in ministry, by even family sometimes. I have gone through some really dark seasons with trials that I wish on no one. I have been allowing myself to wallow in my pain and in how crappy things have been for the past couple of years. I have been stuck in this “poor me” mindset that only causes me to stay in this ugly, painful cycle. As I continually look back and hang on to what has happened, I then anticipate that the worst will continue to happen. If we anticipate horrible things to come, they will be sure to come to pass. Man the mind is mighty powerful.

But then to add on to the crappy things that have been happening for a while, I have been stuck in the United States away from my husband waiting on a visa for close to three months now. I am stuck in a hard place as I continue to wait. I am desperate for some hope and angry at all that my husband and I have endured. (I hope someday I can write a blog about how God worked everything out for us, but until then I will keep waiting on the Lord). Alan and I have gone through a lot of hard, but now not being able to physically walk through it together ingresases the hard. I have wrestled with God wondering if we are going to see any fruit produced from what has been happening. I have sat in a lot of anger, tears, and questions.

One thing (out of like 1,000) that I admire so much about my husband is that he is not afraid to say the hard things. When I am being a Whitney baby, he does not sit and wallow with me, telling me what I want to hear. He addresses the ugly with such grace and love, and he always encourages me to be better. A couple of nights ago, I told Alan some negative thoughts I was allowing to brew in my mind. He did not respond with some fluffy sugar-coated answer. Instead, he spoke straight to the lies that I was believing, and he called me to rise up and recognize the truth. My husband empowered me that I am the only one that can change how I feel. With his blunt and yet loving words, something clicked on me. I can choose to respond with tears and a poor me attitude, or I can embrace the hard and rise up stronger. I can be fierce and have a sound mind even when nothing around me seems to make sense.

I can be like Jesus and do the hard. And what better example to follow than Jesus’ example?

Instead of allowing myself to stay where I am, buried in bitterness and built-up frustration, what if I take all of these experiences and allow them to transform me into a strong warrior for the Kingdom? Suppose I stop allowing what others do or say consume my thoughts but instead let it all roll off my shoulders? To take the crappy and face it with courage and grit instead of throwing a pity party?

Here is the thing I have come to realize…life is hard. It consists of crazy trying moments that test our patience and character, sometimes even faith. So what are we going to do about it? What are we going to do in these dry seasons? Are we going to sit around and wait for the next happy season that could potentially come? Or are we going to rise up with dignity and bravery as overcomes in the midst of our dark times?

There comes a time when we have to choose whether we want to stay stuck where we are or if we want to stand up with grit and push forward. I wrote this not just to encourage you , but to encourage myself as well. Jesus did hard. The hardest thing anyone could ever do. Jesus did hard, so we can do hard. Let’s get gritty together.

One more thing! God’s Word is ALIVE and ACTIVE. It is God-breathed. The Bible has been my source of hope, wisdom, and encouragement during this dark time. Here are some passages that I have been reading, re-reading, and pulling from. I encourage you to not just read them and move on with the day, but let them soak in and transform you. Write them down in a journal and see what stands out, or sit and just listen to what God wants to show you through His Word. I hope that they encourage your spirit as they have mine!

•Joshua 1:4-9

•Mark 14:32-42

•Exodus 3:7-8

•Psalm 27:13-14

•Isaiah 40:27-31

•Matthew 28:11

•Hebrews 11:1

•Hebrews 12:1-2