A Day in the Life of a Rural Dominican

Dominican children with jugs getting ready to go collect water

I have been asked to share a little bit about the average day in the lives of the Rural Dominicans.  Doing so is much like asking me to chronicle the average day for an American.  The Dominican people are diverse people with a variety of activities and jobs that make up their world.   Nonetheless, I will try to share some of the more common elements of life here for many of these people.

I have been talking with a lot of different community members, asking questions that will help guide my thesis in my Public Health program at Wright State.  I am learning a great deal about the customs, beliefs and practices of these people.  So I will start with meals and food-related information since that is what I am most directly working with in my thesis project.

This woman is outside her home cooking in her "kitchen" under the tarp.

The average Dominican eats twice a day with no real snacks in between.  The first meal is some sort of breakfast.  Usually breakfast is coffee with lots of sugar, and if people can afford it, bread or plantains.  Eggs, ham, salami, cheese, and other more substantial foods are generally not readily available because of the cost.  Eggs cost 5 or 6 pesos each.  The exchange rate is $1 = 38 pesos.  That means that a dozen eggs costs nearly $2.00.  The second meal of the day is usually mid-afternoon.  This is the big meal of the day, and the staple here is rice and beans.  People eat more rice and beans than any other food.  It is readily available, reasonably affordable, and most of all--it fills you up.   Today I spoke with a woman who said that they eat mean in their family "sometimes."  She bought a skinny chicken yesterday, so they had meat last night.  The chicken cost 135 pesos ($3.55).  There are 11 people who live in her house, so 11 people had to share that one chicken.  No one gets much meat that way, that's for sure.  Even today when the Dominicans brought lunch for the Dominican members of our team, there was no meat.  Whenever possible, they try to provide meat, but today there was none--only rice and beans.

I talked to a woman yesterday named Chandra, who lives in Ana Patria.  She is married and lives with her husband and 5 children, ages 12, 10, 9, 5, and 9 months.  Her husband is in the army and earns 5,000 pesos a month.  That is about $132.00.  I was interested in learning about their meals and eating habits.  The most common meal is rice and beans.  I asked her if they ever ate meat, and she said “sometimes.” When I asked how many times a month she ate meat, she said, “twice.”  I asked if they ate eggs, and she said they did not.  When asked why, she said they were too expensive.  I then asked if she had chickens.  They have two, but they are too young to lay eggs at this point. And if the people do have financial resources to buy food, they are limited as to what they can buy. Most people only have access to local vendors or colmados.  Below is a picture of a colmado and what can be purchased:

A colmado and the limited items available to most people in rural communities.

As you can see, there is a limited number of options, even if you do have money available.  There are a few canned goods, some bread, rice, beans, oil, spices, and some snack foods and candy.  If you don't buy your food products here or grow your own, then you buy from locals who sell their goods.

Vegetables for sale alongside the road

Crucita and two of her 7 children.  She is the person I spoke with today who bought the skinny chicken.

I asked the woman I spoke with today (above) if she grew her own vegetables.  She told me that she didn't have a garden because it didn't rain enough.  Water is a dear commodity here.  We passed a house yesterday that was particularly nice--it was concrete with no cracks, had a concrete floor, had a garden, and had a water tap outside.
One of the students remarked that it is sad that the way one can measure some degree of wealth in the DR is by whether they have water on the property or not.  That standard seems to be so minimal.  Yet the standard is so real. 

Today when we were in Estancia, we were in a school on the main road, and there were houses across the street that were quite nice.  They all had gardens and nice homes and some had cars.  One family -- all three generations-- were sitting on the front porch shelling guandules (pigeon peas).

Three generations shelling guandules

This family lives on the main street, and immediately behind them is a running water source that comes from further up the mountain.

Water source running behind the houses on the main street in Estancia

Most of the crops in this region failed this year because of a lack of rain.  With no water source, there is no way to garden.  Those people who do not live with this water source passing through their property must walk quite a distance to get to water.  You cannot just cross someone's property to get water.  As a result, they must lug that water (as in the first photo).  The family pictured here shelling guandules is most fortunate because they live on the water way and were able to prevent their crops from failing as a result.  Water really is a key to wealth, and this community really demonstrated this aspect of life here.

For many Dominicans, there is little available work.  In the barrios where we have been working, the majority of people try to make a living through agriculture.  There is a high level of unemployment here.  Crucita (the woman pictured above) has been unemployed for over a year.  She had worked in a store and in a club, but both businesses failed, and now she is out of work.  There is very little industry here, so there is not a lot of opportunity for work.  If a person is able to afford to send a child to high school or a child is able to go to college, then there are greater opportunities for people.  But since so few people have regular jobs and income, many people are simply unable to go to high school or college.  And because this is an island nation, there is not much manufacturing.  Exporting products is extremely expensive. The largest industry here is tourism, and that tourism and money is limited to the coasts. 

The Dominican Republic is listed as a Medium Developing Country by the United Nations.  The reason for that is because of its GNP level.  Its GNP is skewed by the extraordinarily wealthy landowners and resort owners.  Because there is so much wealth in the tourism industry, it skews the picture of what the rest of the people in this country actually make and have available to them.

A Dominican Home in a rural barrio.

Many of the rural Dominican homes are much like this one or much like the outdoor kitchen under a tarp above.  These homes have dirt floors.  They leak terribly.  They are miserably hot because they are made of tin and wood.  They are structurally unsound.  This is the reality of life in the Dominican Republic for so very many.

One thing that many students and foreigners notice is that a lot of Dominicans "just sit around" outside doing nothing.  These people are usually unemployed with no prospects for work.  The temperatures are hot and make working outside difficult.  If there is no water to drink or places to cool off, then not exerting oneself in these conditions is actually a healthy thing to do.  But rest assured, they are not doing "nothing."  They are creating a sense of communion and community that is so crucial to survival and happiness here.  While the Dominicans have little in terms of material goods, they are so wealthy in relationships and spirituality.  We in America have so much and want more and are miserable because we don't have what we want.  The Dominican people have so little and are so grateful for what they do have.  Maybe there is a lesson to be learned from these people.

So that's what I can say about a day in the life of a Dominican.