Teaching English in SPM, Dominican Republic: Forgetting I'm Different

After being here for 8 months, I sometimes forget how much I stand out.

The people I see every day are used to me. My neighbors, friends, students, the people who own shops and restaurants around me, and the people I work with know me as a person. To them, I'm Tina who teaches English and makes good American food. I'm probably a lot of other things to them too including a customer, friend, neighbor, co-worker, teacher etc. They call me by my name and say hi and ask me about things in my life and I ask them about things in their lives. We are all just people who cross paths in our daily lives.

Serving food at San Esteban after Mass

Because I am used to people who know me and are used to me, its always jarring when I am reminded that I am so different. In new places, kids will shout, "Americana!" and guys will whistle at me and call me "Rubia" (blond) or "Blanca" (white girl). Little kids sometimes stare at me as if they have never seen anything like me before (which could actually be possible if they live in an area where foreigners don't usually visit). Every once in a while in a store a worker will talk to me in English, assuming that I don't know enough Spanish to get by, and sometimes people mime instead of talking, again, assuming that I won't be able to understand them if they try Spanish. There are many days at this point that I don't speak a word of English all day and I conduct every aspect of my life in Spanish, even watching Spanish TV and using Spanish internet sites. Its just easier sometimes, and now with my level of fluency, I don't struggle, but people who don't know me don't know that, and I am quickly reminded that I am foreign in those situations.

Some of the students in my adult class

With my 4th graders

In open air markets, both the food market and the used clothing and shoe markets, I know that the price will be a little higher when they see my color, but since I go a lot, its getting better. I can bargain, I can walk away, and I can argue that I know the price is lower somewhere else. The more people see me, the less strange I am, and I start to get treated almost like at Dominican.

People who are used to me still can't get over some things though. People stare at my eyes all the time. Sometimes when I've been wearing sunglasses for awhile and I take them off, I am startled by the intensity with which people "study" my eyes. They are usually blue, but can change to green or grey with my clothes and with the weather, something that is very rare here. Just about everyone has brown eyes, even people with lighter skin. The little girls I know still want to play with my hair whenever possible and I get a lot of questions about if the color is natural or not. They also always laugh at me when they catch me enjoying the sun on my skin because here, they hide from the sun and tanning is a bad thing. I'm now used to crossing the road to walk in the shade, but I still like the sun on my face from time to time.

A friend of mine who lives in New York but has a house here and has been coming here for many, many years, told me that you can always tell the difference between American-Dominicans (people who are American but live here) and American tourists because of their clothes. If you are used to life here, you wear long pants or capris because woman are almost never seen in shorts in public, you wear plastic flip flops only around the house or to run quickly to the store, and if you're out to a restaurant or any other social place, you have jewelry, make-up, shoes, and clothes that all match and go together perfectly. I can spot an American tourist from a mile away with their tank tops and shorts, flip-flops, sneakers, tans, and especially if they have braids in their blond hair. I join my friends in saying, "look at the Americans" and sometimes forget that I am one of them too.

I'm obviously still American, but I like to think that some Dominican has rubbed off on me and I'm not quite as out of place as people who see me for the first time think.