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Well, I've lived here nearly 13 years; things are never 'ready' when you are told they will be. Things take time here in the Dominican Republic. You learn to stop overstressing like a Westerner and become laid back. I let 22nd, 23rd. & 24th. go by & visited the office on 25th. It wasn't ready. Friday was a holiday, said the jefe (a Spanish word meaning boss and pronounced 'heff eh' or 'hay Fay' depending on where in United States you come from). Indeed it was, but Friday was 24th. & this should have been ready on 22nd. Not to be picky I desisted from pointing out the obvious. It'll be ready Monday 27th, he said. I call by Monday - the whole place is wringing their hands. Jefe having conniptions. The air full of 'Ay, Dios MIO', 'carramba', 'ay, ay, ay' etc. The electricity company, CDEEE, has just sent a surge, computers busted, data collected over a 10 year period, destroyed. I empathised.......at length. It would have been churlish to enquire the connection between this act of God & the non-production of my stamp. Today was the day for sympatico. Lots of it. Tomorrow, said the jefe, Tuesday 28th. It WILL be done. As a side note, such electrical surges are not uncommon here in the Dominican Republic. If you are a foreigner building a house you allow for this by using surge protection. And if you are in any doubt you employ low tech devices such as earthing yourself via wellington boots and rubber gloves............. Tuesday 28th. "the man who makes the wooden base for the stamp hadn't finished it, because he had no power". I empathise........at length. Life isn't fair, is it, you either get no power or 300 volts rocketing through exploding everything. Tomorrow for sure, said jefe. Although this print office is now rapidly becoming my social centre, I deprived myself of the opportunity to visit on 29th. & 30th. When I arrived at the office on 1st. October jefe is BEAMING............... The stamp is READY! Looks impressive, if a little large. He proudly demonstrates...................it goes right off the page!! We both scratch our heads (for the uninitiated this is a DR ritual, it denotes sympatico). Jefe once more presses stamp in ink pad, gets up, goes away...........and comes back with 5 SHEETS of raffle tickets. It appears this company prints them. So not only did I leave a sample ticket & the exact size required........they have THOUSANDS of the things. I enquire as to why the error. 'New man' making stamps. New man is summoned & he & jefe have a discussion. New man says he will make another stamp immediately. Not so fast, I say. I ask new man, in Spanish, to explain to me why the error. Shoulder shrugging. Silly me, wrong question. I ask if he understands WHAT the error is. Jefe sits forward on his chair, all agog, to listen to new man. New man mumbles through his embarrassment that he knows what error is. Good, I say, what is it? New man looks beseechingly at jefe for help. Jefe sits even further forward. By this time the rest of the work force have downed tools & are assuming the role of audience participants. I'm waiting for your answer, I say. Eventually new man looks at his boots & says stamp is too big. Splendid, I roar, clapping him on arm, you are correct. Indeed it is. Now, señor, one more question....why is it too big when you had the ticket size provided by me, nay, when YOU print the tickets, every day, for weeks? Silence. Well, it went on a bit & eventually new man scuttled away, vastly relieved I think that I wasn't going to damage his marriage prospects, on top of having made him lose face. Jefe told me I had every justification etc etc which lead into a discussion of how he could make his staff accountable for their work. During the course of which, the new plate was made (it is a 10 minute job). BUT, you've guessed it, we now need a smaller wooden base to put it on..............Monday 4th, he said. Anyone prepared to place a bet on Monday 4th? It wasn't ready. The man who makes the wooden bases didn't want to work at the weekend. Jefe says there is only one man in Puerto Plata who makes these bases. Last March jefe bought 300 bases of different sizes from a man up from Moca, but he hasn't been up again since March. We have an empathic 'where do you get the staff these days' chat. We will pass over the 5th. 6th & 7th. October! Finally, Friday 8th. It is ready. It is attached to its base. It is the correct size. IT WORKS! 'Carramba', 'Ay Dios MIO' etc etc this time in tones of exultant joy. Moral of the story - I was of a sunny disposition throughout because I don't actually NEED the stamp until Christmas. Forward planning. Damage control. There was no urgency for me. That wouldn't have been new man's understanding, of course & he wasn't there on Friday 8th. for some inexplicable reason.......... So, a ten minute job took some two and a half weeks. By Dominican standards, that is not bad. Bad would be three months. It is all a matter of perspective. New & potential residents, start early, it will get done eventually. Never lose your cool, or if you pretend to, let them know afterwards that it was 'pretend'. I have made a new friend in jefe & his wife, he has hopefully learned something about staff management, she has assuredly learned something about being assertive. Jefe thinks I am TOTALLY knowledgeable about the print business. I'm not, but it doesn't do any harm............................... There is a follow up to all of this. My other half and I pondered the shortage of these wooden bases and the somewhat casual work practices of the one and only person in Puerto Plata who makes them. My other half is a golfer and recent changes made by the new management at the golf club mean that prices have gone up noticeably for players, who are no longer obliged to take a caddy with them when they play. The result, inevitably, is fewer players and less use of the caddies. So the caddies sit around at the caddy shack, hopefully waiting for a punter and in the meanwhile doing...............well, nothing. These wooden bases for the stamps are hand made and very low tech. All that is required is a piece of wood, a knife, and later some sanding and varnishing. Something which caddies sitting around a caddy shack could easily manage. We went with one of the caddies for an impromptu visit to jefe in his print shop. In fact everything is impromptu here. You just turn up. If they're not there you go back later. I introduced my other half to jefe and he explained his idea of piece work for the caddies, making the wooden bases, so they could earn some money whilst they weren't caddying. He then left the caddy with jefe to sort out payment details. You don't want a gringo interfering in a business negotiation between two Dominicans! Hopefully this will meet both jefe's need for bases and the caddies need for some cash. If both follow through, of course, and in this culture you can't take that for granted! The following is Ginnie's first article for the magazine:
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Haven In The Sun? ~ 
