- get ready
- hop in the car
- arrive on time with a bottle of wine
- eat soon thereafter
- have a nice evening
- go home.
Now, go get a cup of coffee and prepare to sit and read for a while...
At "home" in the DR if we go to Sandro & Sandra's house in the village for dinner, this is what it looks like...
- get ready
- wait for Sandro to pick us up at 5pm in his car
- receive a phone call from Sandra at 5pm..."Sandro has a flat tire, he needs to put a little air in it. He'll be there at 5:30pm". "No problem" we say.
- at 6:45 we call Sandra back and she tells us he had to get the tire fixed but should be here soon (they can't call us because nobody can really afford minutes for their cell phones)
- at 7:15 a taxi van pulls up and it is Moreno, Sandro's friend. He has come to rescue us. We don't have to pay him, Sandro said.
- by this time Zach is already tired from being in the sun all day and waiting at the front for 2 hours so we tell him he can order something from the restaurant and stay at home. He is very relieved.
- ok, so now we're driving through Sandro's village and we see him beside/on the road, doing something with his tire. He tells us to go to his house and he'll be right there.
- we arrive at his house and Sandra is just putting the finishing touches on a beautiful Dominican meal. Everything is put out on the table and we decide to wait for Sandro. It is now about 8:00pm.
- I decide that Randy should go pick up some wine while we wait, so a young guy, Alberto, who happens to be in the house offers to drive him on his motocross bike. Somebody puts on a helmet (I can't remember which guy) and off they go...zooming away to find some wine. About 8:30pm they come back with the wine.
- Well, we wait for a while and Sandra tells us that we will start without Sandro. "That sounds great," we say.
- During this time, random people have come in and out of the house. Some come in and leave, others come in and get a plate of food but don't sit at the table, others get a plate of food but we never see them again. We're sure there is some system to this but after observing it for many years we still have not figured out the nuances of Dominican life. Every single time we've been there, one particular guy comes into the house exactly when we start dishing up. I'm convinced he lurks in the shadows outside the house and waits to pounce on that food!!
- We just start eating and Sandro arrives, extremely apologetic. This is not how he had envisioned this evening going. We say "no problem, we understand....did you get the tire fixed?" "No" he says, he needed a guy and a part because the lug bolts were on too tight they wouldn't budge. But, he has a plan - no problem. Here you ALWAYS need a "guy" and a "part". Having them both at the same place at the same time is really a miracle and requires a LOT of patience.
- We are at the table for about 20 minutes and a guy comes to talk to Sandro. This apparently is the guy with the compressor machine to take the bolts off.
- Off they go and come back probably 30 minutes later. I'm losing track of time now but I think it's probably 9:30 by now. We all finish eating and I ask Randy if we should have Sandro and Sandra drive us back to our condo because:
- A. Zach has been home alone for several hours, and
- B. Maybe we can sit out on our patio and have a quiet visit with S&S
- "Sure" they say, let's do that!!
- Off we go in Sandro's car, which now has a fixed tire.
- We get home to find Zach just finishing a gigantic carrot. He was starving because he forgot to order supper. I guess he was too busy having fun without us!!
- We end up having a fantastic visit with Sandro and Sandra. Just us 4. Delightful.
That's what they mean by island time
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