Having seen the DR in the headlines recently, I'm wondering from those who might actually be there right now how things really are. Being reasonably familiar with the political hiccups common to nearly all of Latin America I'm just wondering how serious this one is and how much it actually affects the lives of med students there. If anyone can give me a heads-up I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm planning a visit there this coming month and am looking to apply for the January semester at both UNIBE and UTESA, I've been told it's not yet too late for UTESA while at UINBE the clock may have already run out. In any case I appreciate any input you could provide.

Ozzie.

Hi Ozzie ! I´m Dominican, so what you will hear is fronm a very god source... in our country we practice a lot of sports i.e. basketball, baseball, but our best national sport is... POLITICS! and It is such an ordinary everyday issue that must of us are beyond saturation point and simply don´t pay attention anymore. every year we have an average of 3 major general strikes on which all universities and everithing else closes for 1 day or 2. People generally take it like a holyday and mostly go out to the Beach, the mountains or whatever. I would lie to you if i told you that everything is alright.. we are facing the worst economic crisis in the history, with 3 of our 4 biggest banks closed for bankrupcy, the dollar currency rate elevated from 23 pesos: 1 dollar to 41 pesos:1 dolar , and prolongued everyday blackouts. But, if you are an US citizen this won´t affect you that much, in fact, a higher currency rate would be good, because you will have more pesos for your dollars. You could handle the blackouts by installing an alternate power reserve source in your appartment (we call it "inversor") which costs about US$500 dollars.
We have national elections every 2 years, and the presidential elections are next year, on May 16. If you come near this date, you will see our streets filled up with political propaganda everywhere, big sound speakers on every corner with loud music of each political party, and public meetings, but that´s it !.. It´s pretty much like a carnival !. My last advise..don't pay too much attention to the news. I have Cable with all the news channels CNN, FOX, and the latin networks, and they usually cover the strikes the same way: they always go to our hottest neighborhoods where cops and vandals are always fighting, and where nobody, besides who lives there, has anything to look for there.
I hope this would help you, and excuse me for my bad english !

...Ivan.

Thanks for the reply. With family all over Latin America, I'm somewhat familiar with periodic flare ups that can get pretty serious for a brief time, I pretty much expected that it was something along those lines. Not that I pretend to know the particulars of Dominican politics or to belittle what may be going on, I just made the assumption and hoped that was the situation. It might be a little "chocante" to a person not used to one of "latin america's passtimes" as you put it. Not having seen too much front page coverage of these events I imagined that it mustn't be the blood and carnage some would have you believe it is. I just wanted to hear from someone more intimately familiar with how things are down there. Thanks again for you input I greatly appreciate it.
Ozzie.