Do tell!

Where I grew up, you don't ask people certain questions. Now I'm sure that there are forbidden questions here too--they just aren't the same ones I'm used to. I'm not in Kansas anymore.

Today, I was on my way home in a taxi. The driver asked me why I was here, how long I had lived in my apt., where I was born, who lives with me, am I married?, what about children?, how much does my apt. cost? What was I doing at the place he picked me up? Where do I work?--and a bunch of other stuff. Some things I answered, sometimes vaguely, and other questions I avoided.

As an American, I've been taught from a young age not to tell strangers--especially strange men, certain info. It can put me in danger. But here, no one thinks twice about asking very personal questions the very first time they meet you, even though they aren't meeting you through friends, but in an un-introduced context like a taxi ride.

This isn't the first time this has happened. It is a frequent occurrence. Dominican men will rarely converse with you without one of their first questions being about your marital status and the number of children you have. After that, they know better which tactic to use in their flirtations. I cannot even tell you how many taxi and public car drivers have proposed to me directly or hinted that they were interested in marrying me, two minutes after getting into their car! (They didn't say it was so they could get a visa to the US or share my dollar tree, but that was obvious.)

Usually I respond that I really only got in the car to get somewhere, not to find a husband, thanks anyway. And age doesn't matter. I've had 20 year olds doing this! These aren't the "sankies" of the resorts and hotels--professionals who spend their time wooing foreigners to try to divest them of some of their cash, and if they "get lucky" marry them and move to the Promised Land. These are just regular guys, working for a living. But I don't take it too seriously. I've learned that it is the custom,. Would a man really be macho if he didn't flirt with a woman? It's nothing to get upset about, just part of this Dominican Life.