Heavy in the streets

So here's an update of my vida in the Dominican

I am always in the streets here. Allow me to illustrate...

I was walking back to my apartment and thought I would get a coconut to drink as I was incredibly thirsty... here you can get agua de coco for 25 pesos from hatian street vendors. They are usually pretty good and sort of like a natural gatorade... anyway I went to one and he was garbage. First off, he handled a machete like a bumbling idiot. Imagine kramer with a machete. Scary. He almost hit me in the eyeball. Me and an old man were watching and mumbling about his "talents". I got my first coco and it was delicious. The old man got his and tasted to see if it was good, spat it out and walked away. I wanted his as it was just going to waste so I tasted it. It was horrid. Skunked coconut tastes sort of like vinegar, milk, and water mixed together. I spat it out. I figured I would buy another since I was really thirsty... I tasted it, spat it out and told him it wasn't fit for consumption. He didn't like that. I told him to give me another and he did... same result. Garbage water. So this is when things got ugly and we started screaming at each other about the coconut. We nearly came to blows.

Next illutration....

I was sitting in my apartment when a guy came to my door and asked if he could charge his phone. He had a slit cheek... Like when gangs hate other gangs and they use a knife to cut the other gangmember's cheeks. It is a horrible scar. So I knew he was heavy in the streets for sure. I let him charge his phone and we started talking. The next thing I knew he was in my apartment teaching me how to cook the best rice ever... the dominican way. Basically you put oil in the bottom, salt the hell out of it, then add water to make an oily broth... you then wash the rice and add it to the broth. This works really well and makes really flavorful rice. Anyway, we had eggs and rice and hung out in lawn chairs outside my apartment (this is what everyone does here)... then we went to the colmado ( corner store) and split a jumbo beer.

Other examples...

I now own a machete for coconuts and know how to use it properly
I know prices and call bull shit on cab drivers, and store owners
I drink water out of bags instead of bottles (bags of water cost 3 pesos, bottles cost 12-15)