Well… I know my last blog was quite a tirade because things were not going well…. but this week my faith in humanity has been restored.
So last I sat down to write I had been having an awful time with a mechanic (Nairo) trying to get my friends engine rebuilt. My frustration was just brimming over and I was very uncertain about how things would turn out.
Well if you remember my last post I had met a new mechanic named Junior. Junior is a fabulous human being who chose to be very kind to us girls and helped us out tremendously. He is honest trustworthy and very fair minded. He has no interest in stealing from Gringos and is completely happy to work to earn his money fairly. From what I have gathered from other sailors Junior enjoys a good reputation in the harbour among us gringos and has done excellent engine repair work in the past. If Nairo is an example of a bad Dominican; Junior would be exactly the opposite, Junior is a shining example of the goodness inside the Dominican people.
Monday he drove us all the way to Santiago where we went to the machine shop that was holding our cylinder head awaiting payment. I had fired Nairo and told him to meet us at the shop Monday at noon where we would pay the shop directly and reclaim our engine parts. At the same time we would settle up FAIR payment with him for the work he had done to date.
When we got to the shop Nairo was already waiting for us. Interestingly he drove there in his car which just 2 days previously he said did not work and he could not drive us to the shop to see the work done for ourselves. The cylinder head was just sitting on the floor in the back corner of some dirty poorly maintained mechanics shop and there was no work done to the head at all. Well… it had been turned into many little pieces. Nairo had been pushing me just 2 days previously that I had to pay him $1000usd for all the work the shop had already done to the cylinder head. No work was done. Well they did replace 4 of the injector nozzles which we did pay for, it came to $140usd…. NOT $1000usd…. so clearly Nairo was lying and trying to cheat us.
Then came the debate about FAIR payment. I had told Nairo to bring me a labour receipt from his business and if it was fair I would pay it. He arrived with no receipt and was demanding $600usd for maybe a days work… maybe a day and a half. Well… I happen to know that the average Dominican makes between $400 -$600usd a month. So Nairo was asking for a months pay for (at most) 2 days work. NOPE…. sorry hunny… ain’t gonna happen. I am still not the stupid Gringa you think I am… after all… I’m a girl… and girls are way smarter than boys… for sure.
I still had the problem that he was holding the rest of my engine parts in his trunk for ransom until I paid him what he was demanding for labour. Again with the help of our new friend and trustworthy Mechanic Junior mediating in the middle we were eventually able to work out that I would pay him $10,000 pesos (or $200usd) in cash right now to settle up… but without a receipt I had Elena take a bunch of pictures showing the money exchange hands.
With our new mechanics help we found a professional and reputable machine shop in Santiago to take the cylinder head to get it repaired properly. Junior drove us back to Las Velas where we transferred the remaining engine parts back to Timy (Alain’s yacht) to await Junior. Junior will be starting this repair job next week. Poor Alain it seems his engine is really in bad shape and needs to be completely rebuilt, but we have faith Junior is the correct mechanic to get er done.
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When Nairo was supposed to meet us at Las Velas Tuesday with the receipt he promised us we waited for him for an hour and a half… he never showed up. It seems the police were waiting to arrest him. I did not realize that there is an arrest warrant out for his dad Papo2 and apparently also for Nairo. For cheating gringos out of money for false repair work. Nairo never showed up because someone had warned him that the police were waiting for him.
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Justice does balance out
Well…. interestingly yesterday (Thursday) I was asked to go into town to meet with the minister of tourism about this whole messy affair. It seems Sobeida (the tourism minister here in Luperon) had heard of the unscrupulous behaviour of this mechanic duo Papo2 and his son Nairo and they were determined to do something about it. As she said… this is my town and I do not allow these bad people to do bad things in my town. (I was duly impressed)
She is investigating our incident and several others and will have Papo2 and Nairo banned from being allowed to do any business in Luperon anymore. She will protect us gringos from the bad people to keep the bay safe for all sailors who come here. She contacted the prosecutor in Navarette and the police there to have the arrest warrants carried out so this issue can be brought forth to the courts.
Sobeida really impressed me. Again where there are bad people there are also good people. Her society has a process for dealing with the bad people like any other society. It takes time effort and the energy of good people like her to keep the world safe for all of us. She is very intelligent and wise and thoughtful and her earnest interest impressed me. She also said something that caught my attention.
She asked me what country I was from, and quite proudly I replied I was from Canada. She thought for a moment and said… “you know…. just a few years ago we had a 65 year old Canadian man who came here and was raping a local 12 year old girl… we had him arrested…”. Hmmm…. good point… every society has bad people in it… even my precious and revered home country of Canada.
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The Festival
And here is another interesting thing. This weekend the town of Luperon is holding an all weekend festival ( I think in honour of the town’s founding… maybe..??) and yesterday, the first day of the festival, was dedicated to all the gringo sailors who come here every year.
In the city center in the park they closed off some of the roads and set up booths and had vendors. There was plenty of music and beer and there was a feast free for the gringos. Like the whole town comes out to say hey Gringos… we really do welcome you here and we really do appreciate you. Well how amazing is that…! Name one other small town in the world that does the same thing? Name a town where the locals have a day to celebrate all their guests and visitors…
They setup a stage for live bands to play for the gringo crowds and of course… the Dominicans like their music LOUD…. One of us gringos Jan Marie even played a few songs on the stage. Elena and I sat among the locals and had a beer to participate in the festivities.
Us girls got very excited when we found a cotton candy machine… 🙂 girls can be so easy to please. While enjoying our sugary treat we wandered among the merchant stalls and found a local craftsman who was selling bracelets. Elena and I got matching ankle bracelets just for fun. I think they look pretty and the merchant was more than happy to help us with our request.
It did feel a little weird when Elena and I showed up at the back of the food serving line (we were a bit late) and all the local people already in line ahead of us were more than happy to usher us to the front of the line to be served before them. How wonderful was that. The everyday average citizens of Luperon wanted to honour us 2 Gringa girls out of the genuine kindness in their hearts. These people really are so well intended and sweet inside when you take them as a whole.
I think my faith in the goodness of humanity has been restored in the last few days. I believe again that the good outweighs the bad. I think maybe this little Dominican town of Luperon is beginning to grow on me. Yes it is very different than my home town in Canada and that culture shock has taken me a while to adapt to. After 2 months here though… slowly the culture shock wears off and I am beginning to realize this place is more like an unspoiled gem.
I am really glad we accidentally stopped here for hurricane season.
Maybe other sailors would be well advised to join us here again next year.
Cheers Sailor Fans..
Captain Lexi the happy…
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