A pound of Dominican coffee went for 45 pesos and a five-ounce bag of sandwich cookies was 13 pesos. Interestingly, while the Dominican Republic uses the metric system, gas is sold by the gallon and coffee by the pound. Some enterprising merchants set up shops on blankets along the curb or on vacant lots between buildings. A block away from St. Therese Church a young man butchers chickens on a street corner and sells them. He'll even cook them on an open grill.
Some residents survive by selling at the market or by working there.
It's not unusual to see two to four people riding on one of these motorcycles - often while clutching some item. To improve economic opportunities for the Dominicans, the government is beginning to establish free trading zones where clothing could be manufactured at a low cost for sale in the United States and other overseas markets. But there are problems with that, Secundino warned. The first is the risk of environmental damage made possible by lax laws. The second is the fear that some of the best students will leave school to accept these low-paying manufacturing jobs.