Well, this is the way it is right now. Yesterday, May 16th, was election day in the Dominican Republic. By law everything had to be closed...which mainly was translated as ~~no one goes to work and all the bars are closed. By law no alcohol could be sold either. But sales of "Ron" and El Presidente just increase the days preceding the ban, so they are ready to celebrate at the given time. In case you're wondering, Ron=rum, El Presidente is the national beer.
In the Dominican you vote in the city of your birth. To allow everyone the opportunity to travel, the President declared Noon Thursday thru 6AM Saturday a national holiday. Our med clinic was only open til noon on Thursday to be in accordance with the law.
Yesterday was so unbelievably quiet. Pleasantly quiet and tranquil. No music, no construction sounds (several condos are going up near us), no campaigning (which meant the pickups with beds full of loud speakers were finally silenced) NADA! nothing. It was a joy! No sounds of moto-conchos (motor bike taxis). We kept marvelling at the silence. Only an occasional bird could be heard. It was a delight!
THEN the next door neighbors arrived.....They live in Santo Domingo and only come on an occasional weekend. We knew they were coming when our caretaker cleaned their built-in pool and re-filled it on Thursday! They stayed subdued until 6:06pm (voting pools closed at 6pm).
No election results until the JCE (election board) announces (which turned out to be about 10PM). Dominican law states that the winner has to gain 50%+1 to win (NOT 51%). If no candidate gains 50%+1, then they have a run-off election June 16th. Due to Dominican history (dictator, who was assassinated after 30+ years, followed by years of his right-hand man) they had a law that a president could not run for a second term without sitting out a term first. Well the previous president changed that law hoping to win re-election for himself~~which he didn't. Current President, Leonel, won last night with 53.55%. So,this is the first president since the 90's to win re-election for two consecutive terms (he already served in 1996)
So, back to why I'm probably going to get cranky today...our neighbors started their party at 6:06PM LAST NIGHT! It is now 6:45AM and the music has only gotten louder! It has never stopped! I'm not referring to music that is faintly coming thru their closed windows! OH NO! Speakers of several sizes and shapes, spread out around the pool and in the house....It's cranked up playing something that sounds like a scratchy record with an outer space sound and a constant deep bass beat.
We had moved our mattress to the living room floor, and closed the bedroom and bathroom doors, ( our bedroom is on the neighbor's side). But that only lowered it by about .01% I think. Bob uses ear plugs anyway; so, he then put a pillow over his head and actually got some sleep. ((Although there were those few minutes about 3AM where my hubby set off the alarm on our Explorer thinking that might get their attention...nada!))
So, I have now been awake since 6:30 Friday morning and no prospect of sleep in my future.
Yes, I did yell "Silencio!" several times out the bedroom window about 5AM! Yeah, that helped! The people sitting by the pool just went inside and turned the music up!
You might want to pray for my attitude today...and my sanity....and whatever else you can think to go along with that. After being declared the victor last night about 10, the President declared the country should celebrate for the next two days! That means this party could go on til tomorrow night or Monday morning!
Why, oh why, is there never a power blackout when I WANT one!!!!
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On one of our first trips to the Dominican Republic, I remember hearing another missionary say: "If you want to serve, do it because you love Jesus and want to honor Him. NOT because you love the people. The people will disappoint you, frustrate you and make you doubt why you are here. Your love for Jesus will keep you focused. "
This is one of those days when I have to focus on Jesus and remind myself that I am here because I love the LORD and want to serve HIM; I want to bring glory and honor to HIS name.
Because in all honesty ~~right now if it was based on love for the people, I just might not make it til noon today even.
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I really liked your last paragraph, about doing missions out of a love for Jesus and not just a love for people. That holds true with any life calling, I think. I'm sorry you had such a rough night. Hopefully they'll wear themselves out and tone it down tonight!
ReplyDeletePabo, another man who lived 1 block away, a tenant in our apartment and Bob got together and each made phone calls to the police within minutes of each other. Got a promise of 15 minutes til they would arrive (less than 5 minutes from police station!) 20 minutes later they did the phone cycle again! The music stopped 5 minutes before the police finally arrived at 9:30 last night! The music had been continuous since 6:06 the evening before!!! But the police talked to them, the music was silenced, sleep ensued! This morning they were all gone! So, atleast we will get a day of peace, and they know for the future we will call the police and EVENTUALLY they will respond. Actually, we think it was the two American men making phone calls that got the police to come. The party had grown in size during the evening and music, if possible, was getting louder!
ReplyDeleteGood grief. I would be going insane by now. I can't stand that. Our neighbors above us are pretty bad sometimes too. Especially at 3 a.m. in the morning when they wake us up. I guess they were weird shifts or something, but good grief! I feel sorry for you!
ReplyDeletei'm with charity - i like the advice you were given by that wise person. i hadn't really thought of it that way before, but it applies in the classroom, too. (right now i'm not liking a lot of my students!)
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