Dominican Housewife Chronicles - When the door closes

Hello everyone.  I've been back for 12 days and I think I can finally say things are back to normal here.  I came back with a head cold which had me down for a few days.  Just as I was back on my feet and working on getting the household affairs back in order my husband came down with a cold which was much worse than mine (at least according to him).  He's a trooper though he didn't miss any time of work but once he got home I was in full nursemaid mode, making tea and trying my best to get him to take medicine.  I have my stash of medicine from the US with me,  you know the basics NyQuil and DayQuil.  Well those don't look like anything he's used to so it wasn't easy convincing him to take it.  I finally just gave up and went to the pharmacy to get something he was more familiar with.  It's still not easy getting him to take medicine.  He's one of those people who prefers to tough it out or natural remedies.  The good news is that as I write this post he's on the mend and just in time for his vacation which officially starts on Monday.

I'm happy to report that my cooking skills remained in tact even though I took a month off.  There haven't been any bad rice incidents or anything burnt, over or under cooked.  I guess you can say cooking is like riding a bike LOL.  As for laundry well I remembered the process just fine but  my husband seems to have forgotten to rules around what clothes to place where so my first laundry day consisted of me washing almost a full load of already clean clothes.  In my defense they were very close to the dirty clothes hamper and NO I don't smell the clothes before I wash them (My husband asked me this question).  If the clothes are in, on or anywhere remotely close to the dirty clothes hamper they are getting washed. 

I titled this post when the door closes because while talking to a good friend of mine this week I expressed to her that one of the things I still struggle with is the door being open all day.  So here's the deal.  When my husband wakes up in the morning one of the first things he does is open the front door.  Once the door is open it stays open all day until we are ready to go to bed at night.  This doesn't just apply to the front door in our house.  It's just a cultural thing.  Most doors are open here and that means that everyone is visiting and talking (mostly yelling) to each other from house to house.  This steady stream of visitors throughout the day means that my husband is always entertaining someone. So when I was talking to my friend I told her that I don't feel like I get any of my husbands time until the door closes at night.  Of course I'm exaggerating a little bit but not much. I talked to my husband about it and he confirmed that this is the culture here, people hanging out, visiting etc especially in the evenings after dinner time.  He encouraged me to join him on the porch and not to stay inside away from him and his friends which is what I typically do.  I'm working on it but it's a little uncomfortable for me to be sitting among a group of men with no other women around and especially when they are all speaking Spanish and it's hard for me to follow the conversation.  This picture is one I took a few days ago.  After my husband's friends left he closed the door and we shared some time together with him laying on my lap.  I posted a black and white version of this picture on Facebook a few days ago with the caption 'when the door closes my heart is full'.  It lead to some pretty interesting comments and responses. Some confusion about what I meant but at the end of the day I knew what it mean so that's all that matters.

A brief update on my non profit.  I had a Spanish version of my logo created for the baskets here.  I filed my application for tax exempt status and am awaiting a reply.  I am waiting for the supplies I sent over to arrive so that I can start putting baskets together and delivering them to the women in need.

My husband is off work for the next three weeks so things are about to get real interesting.  I'm a creature of habit and I love my routine.  With him here with me everyday all day my daily routine is out the door that of course will always be open:-)