My Day, Part 1

For the past year and a half I have been involved in manufacturing bras in a factory in La Vega. Sadly it never reached what we were told was its potential and the decision was made, about a month ago, to close it down. We finished the work that we had and all we had to do was ship the finished bras, uncut fabric and trim, along with some sewing machines back to the US and that would be it. Not so easy. There are not a lot of things that have been developed in the DR to the extent to which the bureaucracy has. Each person involved with the process has forced the factory owner, Rafael, to jump through a different hoop. Meanwhile, I have all sorts of people expressing all sorts screaming and carrying on, not caring to understand what it is like to try to do something that is actually as simple as shipping a container. Monday we were told we had all necessary approval. Monday afternoon we discovered there were more papers necessary. In an effort to help in any way that I could, I volunteered to go to Santo Domingo with Rafael, to see if the presence of an Americano would help move the process along.

This morning at 6:50 Rafael picked me up. I offered to drive. When I have gone anywhere with Rafael I have always offered to drive. He loves to speed. I have no problem with that, I drive quickly as well. However, Rafael likes to do a hemorrhoid check on the drivers in front of him and in order to do that he climbs up the asshole of every car in front of him. It can really be frightening. He declined my offer so I told him why I always want to drive. He promised not to do it and we drove to the factory in La Vega. There were a couple of things that Rafael had to do and once he finished doing them we went to find a fellow by the name of Perroa. He works for the Free Zone Association and is friendly with the person we were going to see in the capital. I worked this past weekend at a Poker tournament in the capital and on the way I realized that I should have brought my camera. The trip through the countryside always brings home how beautiful the island is. It's amazing. This time I did take my camera. The above pictures were taken going to and from Santo Domingo. They don't really do justice to the beauty.