Pido Auxilio!!

Copy and paste this link for a feel of the bachata performance we went to last night

http://nl.youtube.com/watch?v=uGHLS_E4kzk

The short chap in the white suit is the famous Dominican bachatero, Joe Veras. The beer-drinking dutchies are trying to work up the courage to hit the dance floor….

The Irish and the American beat them to it!

A dominican bar in Beron is quite an experience. The cost of a live concert is too much for the average Beron citizen to afford, and so many of them hang around on motorbikes or on the fence outside, whereas inside its full of Dominican players, young Dominican women, rich white men, and us…a perfect people-watching experience, all to the backdrop of deafening music and a pervasive sweat which gets worse with every dance [read: inept shuffle]. The routine dancefloor conversation with Dominican men goes something like this:

Juan: “Tienes novio?”[have you got a boyfriend?]

Unsuspecting archaeologist: “Que? Hablo poco espanol.” [sorry, I don’t speak much Spanish].

Juan: “You have boyfriend?”

Playing it safe archaeologist: “Si, tengo esposo..y ninos tambien” [Yes, i have a husband, and children].

Juan: “Estan aqui?” [are they here now?]

Naïve archaeologist: “no”.

Juan, triumphant: “Entonces, no tienes novio! Yo soy tu novio dominicano.” [Ah ha! So you have no boyfriend in the Dominican Republic. I’ll be your boyfriend!]

Nonplussed archaeologist returns to seat unable to puzzle over this Dominican logic.