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Archive for the ‘Dominican Postal System’ Category

Sunday, November 30, 2003
Being a public bar in a very public culture we tend to be witness to or engaged in all kinds of fare… in fact acting as a sort of public assistance bureau. The other day was a case in point. We felt very much as if the scene was temporarily transferred to Philadelphia, because it was by way of a number of good customers emanating from that fine city, including ex-members of the Philadelphia police department, who were trying to help out a poor woman from the neighborhood here who had been robbed of her most valued possessions – her credit card and cellular telephone… the credit card being her financial lifeline and the telephone her communications lifeline. She had been given the credit card and the telephone by her husband who was resident in, of all places, Philadelphia Detention Center. After quite a discussion over whether a detainee at such a place had access to receiving fax or telephone messages and after an internet search did not come up with a fax number, it was decided by this willing group of Philadelphian helpers that a phone call would not get through as this was obviously one of the privileges denied to such residents. The woman then presented a ready-made letter explaining her situation and was prepared to post it to her husband, but was concerned that it could take either 3 weeks by snail mail… or would cost an exorbitant 900 pesos to send by air courier.
After all aspects were thoroughly debated, the collective decision was made to provide a clean crisp envelope, address it to the PO Box number that went with her husband’s name and detention number and give it to the member of the assembled group who was due back in the States first to put in the regular mail.
The woman was exceedingly grateful, for she believed her husband would now be able to cancel his credit card and order another one for her – that is if Philadelphia Detention Center inmates are allowed to contact their bankers of course. Time will tell!
So folks,… take your problems to Playa Vista and we will work it out with a little help from our friends!

Meanwhile seven years later:
As is often the way with sudden appearances we never heard any more of what happened to the letter or the woman in question. We like to think that the problem was resolved or she would have been back to ask for further assistance wouldn’t she?

Friday, October 24, 2003
Calle Abraham Nunez where we are located is a very short uncomplicated street; and when we moved in we asked the local postman what number the property was. “No. 3”, he said very forthrightly. All right, we thought, #3 it is! Nice simple number, we are more or less at the beginning of the street and above all the postman recognized it as such.
We haven’t had any difficulties with being #3 in general, but merely observed that the water company has us down as #13, the cable TV company as numberless and the electricity company as #8. However, further to this we couldn’t help noticing the other day a very large #52 being painted on the wall of a restaurant next door but one to us! We do know it is a situation not entirely rare around these parts but we mention it by way of backdrop to an even more entertaining story I heard at the bar the other day from a friend and customer. He owns a restaurant in Calle Caracol… one of the principal streets leading from the high street up to the main freeway running between Santo Domingo and San Pedro. He has always believed that his property was #15 only to discover that Hotel Hamilton almost opposite also uses #15. He was further surprised to then discover that the florist shop some doors down on his own side also uses #15. He visited the post office to try and point out what he thought was a ludicrous situation. The post master said “Well, actually that isn’t too bad because if you carry on up your road and cross the freeway there are actually fourteen #24s.”

Meanwhile seven years later:
After some considerable time had passed we discovered that #3 Calle Abraham Nunez was not unique to us either. Calle Abraham Nunez had indeed been a long coastal road in days gone past and although it appeared to begin a few yards to the east of us that in fact was merely the recommencement of a road that could be trailed well beyond and out of sight beyond the hotel Hamaca. We have yet to learn exactly how many #3s exist in that parallel universe.