Information about living in the Dominican Republic

Will you be a GOOD Ex-Pat., or a BAD one?

Over our 14 years of living here we have come across a number of Ex-Pats who have settled well & succeeded - but many more who have failed. Being lovers of the Dominican way of life, the culture & friendliness, we prefer to help those who are going to be accepted into this type of environment rather than those who only want to bring/impose a little bit of their personal homeland here. Those who feel they need the comfort of ‘Gated Communities’, Electricity 24/7, the ‘comfort feeling’ of all their own belongings from their old home & are looking to be told how to Relocate with ease, should perhaps move on to the webpages of Realtors that specialize in these services – you won’t find much of that here.

So, what makes a successful immigrant to the DR? Experience shows it is someone who wants to integrate with the Dominicans, who embraces THEIR culture & is anxious to learn THEIR language. The more successful immigrant is one who gets to know the history of the country, who understands WHY Dominicans behave the way they do & is prepared to put up with the failings so as to experience far more the pleasures of living here! Yes, English, German & (to some extent) French are spoken by some Dominicans, normally in the Tourism section, but the predominant language is Spanish – LATIN American Spanish - & those wishing to be accepted here MUST learn it to be at least conversational level.

This does not happen overnight of course & a LOT of study by the re-locator needs to be done (preferably) prior to coming to live here. So, do not rush your relocation process, make up a program for acquiring this information & adhere to it by learning all that you can before coming here. We will help those who want information by putting as many websites as we can think of where reliable information is available – YOU must do the investigating & learning. We can point you into specific areas that pertain to YOUR circumstances, but YOU must do the reading & understanding of it.

Enjoy the site & please give your feedback so that we may improve the layout & information it contains. The feedback should be sent to info@casabush.org.

Those wishing to do some further reading on this subject should visit www.ginniebedggood.com to read update articles not yet covered here & also order the book Quisqueya – Mad Dogs & English Couple. It is available for immediate download as an e-book OR from the sites shown there if you prefer a hard copy!