What does $3,600 Dominican Pesos buy you?
Two new tires for your Kia rental car.
A moped ride for your live in {and the blown tire he is carrying}.
An invite into a Dominican home to watch Spanish soap operas and curl each others hair while you wait for your live in to come back from the tire "store".
A chance to meet some of the nicest people in the world.
So yah. An hour out of the airport and I run straight through the largest pothole that has ever
been seen by mankind. I'm not kidding, it was huge.
Don't ask how I didn't see it, but I didn't. And frankly, neither did the live in.
So, realizing immediately that we had a flat, we pull over to the side of the road and park near someones driveway. One flat would have been fine, but two makes for a more dire situation.
The live in, who remained very calm and instantly proved why he's so darn good at his day job, started going to work on replacing one of the tires with the spare.
By this point the family who's driveway we'd be parked in had come out of the house to
take a look at the crazy Americans dressed for 35 degree weather.
With no other ideas about what we were going to do for the 2nd blown tire I make my way up to their house. I take our car rental brochure, which has a picture of a nice damage-free car on the outside, and I point to the tires and then I say "POP".
They got it.
They made a phone call and within minutes a friend rides up on his moped {which is the transportation method of choice for most Dominicans}. He's speaking in Spanish, we're speaking in English, nobody understands anyone, but somehow somehow we figure out a plan. They are pulling tire pumps from out of their house, they are bringing me a chair to sit it, they {a mom, a dad, a 14 year old daughter, a 7 year old daughter, plus the mechanical friend} are all huddled around the car - just hanging out.
After they are sure there is no salvaging the 2nd tire {I told you it was a big pothole} there is a lot of hand motions, and loud talking, and the next thing I know I am waving good bye as the live in rides off on the back of the mechanical friend's moped carrying the flat tire.
I am taken back up to the house to hang out with the girls. They are curling each others hair using hair gel and a twig. They would drench the hair in gel then curl it around the twig- it actually turned out really cute. They showed me baby pictures of the two girls, they talked in Spanish, while I talked in English. And while I was on my way out of the
house to go back to the car to grab my camera - the live in pulls up.
He's smiling. A lot.
I must have been smiling too because when he realized I was only coming out to get my camera he asked if I wanted to stay for a little while longer while he went back to "his homeboys".
I said no, but turned back around to say goodbye to everyone.
There were hugs and kisses and Feliz Navidads all the way around.
The live in exchanged phone numbers and bro-mance handshakes with the mechanical friend and we were off, back to the tire store to replace the spare with a new one.
{Since he could only carry one tire back on the moped}.
The tire "store" was not Les Schwab, let's just be clear. It was the side of the road. Literally. But, as anyone who knows the live in will attest to, they had already become his homeboys.
It never takes long with him.
And as we were driving away we agreed that we wished it wouldn't happened, me driving into the Grand Canyon of potholes, but it a way we were kind of glad it did.
Hands down - the nicest people in the world live here. Hands down.
p.s. It's to die for here - I'll post pictures and more stories as the week goes on.
{Mom, please don't freak out by this story. I promise, everything was fine the entire time.}
