Las Mercedes Day Procession Sept. 24, 2008

The patron saint of Dominican Republic is Las Mercedes (their name for virgin Mary). this day most of the businesses are closed and most people make their way to the church. I am not Catholic so I do not know much of the customs of the Catholic religion but it is very interesting.

The day is celebrated by a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Cerro atop a hill that is close to the city of La Vega. But those who cannot venture to La Vega go to their own church to notice this important religious day.

Here in Colonial Zone all head to the Iglesia y Convento de las Mercedes / The Church and Convent of Our Lady of Mercy (more information about the church here.


















I was waiting for the procession to start in front of the church. The people waiting to enter outside the church were all sort of solemn while just a few steps away it was almost a carnival type atmosphere with vendors selling ice cream and popcorn.


I got tired of waiting so I went home. Then about an hour later I heard the band in the street and got to view the procession from my own balcony.

This is the video I took. I tried to do some zooming in on the statue of Las Mercedes but just couldn't get close enough. Sorry for the camera movement. My video taking skills are not the best.

Neighborhood Vote San Jose Montecinos 2008

I learned another new thing about Dominican life this past weekend, neighborhoods vote for their own President. This vote is done neighborhood by neighborhood, the neighbors choosing who will represent them to the local government. This vote is called the "Junta de Vecinos".

I also discovered that each larger neighborhood is divided into smaller sections. (I'm trying to find out the exact information about Colonial Zone to place on the web site). I believe there are about 8 different sectors inside the Colonial Zone area. Each voting for their own President, Vice President, Secretary and so on.

I got to watch my old neighborhoods vote (I could not vote as I don't live in that section now. I hope to vote in the Parque Duarte elections coming up in a few weeks) and it was a serious matter indeed. There was even a policeman watching over the elections. There was a designated committee to take care of the voting table and to count these votes.

The first step is to go to the table where the committee sits, sign in and take the ballot. Go over to the table with the policeman and write your selection (this table was a dominoes board which I thought was very interesting and quite official looking). The next step is to go to the big box to deposit your vote. Then sit and wait for the results, conversing with the neighbors and maybe partaking of your liquid of choice.

At 5 the voting was finished. It started raining so the election board guys moved into the Colmado owned by one for these guys, Colmado Arca. The place got especially packed and loud as the votes were being counted. One of the counters had to even call for silence as this was a very critical moment in the electoral process.

I moved outside to wait for the results because there were just too many people inside the small Colmado. Soon after there was clapping and lots of commotion at the Colmado as the winner was announced. People were clapping and singing as they left the Colmado to share the results with everyone. It seems that the victors won by only 3 votes. Now lets hope her and her team will bring some good parties to the park and also do some good things for my old neighborhood.

Travelers Checks! Fat Chance!

Whatever you do DO NOT bring travelers checks to Dominican Republic!!
Maybe if you are in a large resort hotel or if you are lucky you can get a travelers check cashed and if you are really lucky it won't take you all day to do so.

My aunts came to visit and Jetta wanted to bring travelers checks. I asked my bank if that was an OK thing to do and , of course, they said "No problem". Well, it was a big problem.

Jetta signed the checks and handed over her passport. The girl behind the desk took the stuff to the teller and we waited. A friend of mine came into the bank so we talked a bit. And we waited.
Finally we asked what was going on and they said they had to clear the checks..."No problem". so we waited.
Another friend came into the bank and we chatted a bit. We were starting to get a bit annoyed after about an hour and a half and we were getting louder and hungry.

Some other friends entered the bank and they spent about an hour hanging out with Lois, Jetta and I. We made up a song called "Fat Chance". The 5 of us were making up verses (my friends have a band and sing really well...my family and I don't sing at all) for the song like "We have been waiting in the bank 2 hours. Trying to get our money. Will we ever get out money? FAT CHANCE". We wanted to take a walk about of the Colonial Zone. Wanted to see the sights. Will it ever happen? FAT CHANCE!". We wanted to get some beans and rice. Go to a typical cafeteria. Will we ever get to eat? FAT CHANCE!". The 5 of us were singing away. entertaining ourselves.

The friends finally had to leave and guess where we were? Still in the bank! One of the workers kept telling us we had to be quiet because it was a bank. Another brought us coffee. But we kept getting louder and more annoyed. I finally lost it and got angry. We got the bank manager lady out of her office to see what was happening and I called my friend Mamita to see if she could help.

We couldn't go to another bank as the travelers checks were already signed. They told us we could leave and return..Yea, right. Leave the travelers checks and passport in the bank. When we returned they would probably say they didn't know us and there was no travelers checks or passport. FAT CHANCE!

After 3 hours they finally said that the system was working again and they gave us the money! I finally got to take the aunts on their little tour to Mangito. We didn't get to eat la bandera that day but we did get some great roast chicken in the street later. So even though we spent 3 hours in the bank we tried to look at the positive side. We had 3 hours of air conditioning. They met some of my friends. We made the Fat Chance song. We had some good laughs and another interesting story to tell.

The moral of the story is if you think travelers checks are accepted worldwide and you will get them changed easily and fast. Remember...FAT CHANCE!!