Pickleball in Dominican Republic

My mother surprised our family with a special Christmas gift: for my wife & I, and our 3 boys to accompany my mother for an all inclusive week in Dominican Republic. The first 2 days was rainy so  we felt right at home, then the clouds cleared for 5 days of hot sun. Perfect!
I had found out that the resort had 2 tennis courts, so I thought I would take down 4 pickleball paddles, some outdoor balls, and some sidewalk chalk to redo lines, as my family is always ready to play pickleball. The 3rd day after the 2 rainy days the courts were closed, due to them having to dry the courts, so we couldn't play. The following day we went to the resort courts for some family pickleball fun. We were told that we could not play, as this was only for tennis. I proceeded to tell the tennis pro that this was a game from North America, that is advancing around the world and is played on converted tennis courts everywhere. "In all my 25 years" he said, "I have never heard of this strange named sport." He told me I would be able to play with my beach paddles on the beach only. I pulled out my pickleball business card, and told him to check his computer to see if pickleball is a bona-fide sport. I told him that we would play tennis while he checked it out. We stepped on the court with borrowed tennis racquets and balls, only after we were made to leave our pickleball paddles at his office. All this time I had thought that the tennis courts would be a hard pavement like back home....WRONG! The courts were semi-hard packed sand. The tennis balls bounced normally, but my kids were not used to the extra bounce in the racquets. We rallied back and forth until, the tennis pro called out to us that he looked online, and pickleball looks real! He invited us to show him how to play, and I proceeded to tell him the rules, giving special attention to pickleballs uniqueness. I served first to my son, and the outdoor dura ball just went thud into the sand court with no bounce. We tried some more, and sometimes it bounced okay, yet other times the same result as before - thud! Not a great showing for pickleball in Dominican Republic. The tennis pro remarked that as he saw on his computer, it looked like the courts were hard pavement, and i told him he was correct. I also told him it is played indoors in gymnasiums. He told me that maybe 10% of tennis courts in DR are hard paved courts, and 90% of courts are hard packed sand.
In a previous blog, I had said how easy it was to play pickleball on vacation at a local tennis court. It is possible...you just have to know what the court is made of.