¿Que lo que?

"¿Que lo que?" is a greeting used by the Dominicans, and is similar to the South African "Howzit?". It's normally followed by "tranquilo" - "it's calm", "chilled", or "no worries", kind of like "hakuna matata".  I learnt this and other Dominican peculiarities, during the last few days of community service in Manabao, when we were working side by side with the locals (see my post). 

Our worksite in Manabao 

Although my Spanish is coming along in leaps and bounds, it's sometimes quite difficult to understand what people are saying here, because Dominicans like to drop the "s" from certain words. So, they say "¿cómo tu ta?", for how are you, instead of "¿cómo estas tu?" And, depending on where you live on the island, random i's, l's or r's can also be added in.

One afternoon, near the end of our service session, it started raining. An elderly woman started scolding a boy from our group, who continued to work, instead of taking cover. She was worried that he would get sick, going from hot to cold temperatures so quickly. (So, our cold showers the last 10 days would have been a big no-no!) I've heard that in other Latin American countries, like Nicaragua, they believe you must avoid the cold, even water and ice, if you are hot. If you're cooking, you cannot fetch anything in the fridge or freezer. You have to ask someone else to get it for you. And don't even think about walking around barefoot!

Samo seeds: if you have diabetes and keep them
in your back pocket, they'll  keep your blood sugar low. 

Another thing that is very important here, is showing respect by dressing conservatively. Even when it is 1000°C outside and you're sweating out of all of your pores, us girls have to wear long pants and T-shirts to community service. But otherwise, all is "tranquilo".

Mountain views on the way down

Sorry for the big gap in posts - we haven't had Wi-Fi. More soon, I promise!