Hello All,
This update will be about our new speed bump, as well as a funny story about one of our little children.
After 28 months and a lot of petitioning, we finally have a speed bump. Seeing people slow down for the speed bump brings a big ol’ smile to my face every day. I would like to first thank Marcos Sanchez and Chabela Ortega. We would not have been successful without their help.
The government did not install the speed bump or provide us with any directions or materials. As you may be able to guess the installation of the speed bump was a bit bumpy (pun intended). The first step was to make the two signs that warn drivers there is a speed bump ahead. Catherine free handed both signs and while they are definitely serviceable, I am not sure they would be accepted in the USA.
When it came time to actually make the speed bumps we used some of our construction guys and Henry, a friend and middle aged man who runs another foundation in Esperanza. Henry has some construction experience but this was his first speed bump. When you build a speed bump the cement cannot be driven on for several days, so you have to build half of it, let it dry, and then build the other half. Now, blocking a street off when you have no government assistance is not the easiest thing to do. We built a little wood barrier and painted it yellow, you can see a picture below. We also made a makeshift “lantern” made from an old paint can, sand, kerosene, gasoline and some stale bread. Despite our lantern and best efforts, our road block did end up being a factor in 4 or 5 motorcycle accidents. Many people in Esperanza are extremely fond of getting drunk and driving their motorcycles fast without a functioning head light. This hobby results in an untold number of accidents and about one death a weekend. Once night hit, some fool would inevitably come bombing down our street, not see the barrier until it was too late and then smash the barrier and crash. Luckily nobody was hurt badly, although our wood barrier did get broken 4 different times. We nailed it back together each time, by the end of the week it had a very unique shape and look to it.
Besides the accidents, we had one other major problem- we probably made the biggest speed bump in the Dominican Republic. Henry and I knew that we were only going to get one chance at making the speed bump and we definitely did not want it to be too small. When we first made it there was talk that it might be on the big side, but it wasn’t until it dried and we saw cars try to get over it that we realized just how monstrous the thing was. If a car was low to the ground, it just wasn’t going to get over it without scraping the bumper and undercarriage on the cement. We would have had to completely destroy the speed bump and remake it in order to make it smaller, which wasn’t going to happen. What we decided to do is make the part of the street that led up to the speed bump a bit higher, so that now it’s more like a ramp and cars can get over it, although not without slowing down first. We are overjoyed that we finally have this speed bump in place and the foundation is definitely a safer place because of it.
The other day I was sitting around playing with one of our 5 year old kids. His name is Yubensli, he has 3 older brothers at the foundation, and loves to climb things, especially me. He will grab a hold of my shirt and try to make it all the way up to my shoulders, and he is pretty damn good at it. He also likes to rough house and wear shorts that are about 10 sizes too big and have gigantic holes in the butt. Before I tell the story I should note that at the foundation the little children affectionately call me “machine pete” or fart machine, while Catherine’s nickname is “machine bobo” or kiss machine. So, I was playing around and kissing his cheek when I told him in Creole that I was a “machine bobo” or kissing machine. He immediately stopped laughing, got very serious and pointed at me and said “NO, you are machine pete, Catherine is machine bobo.” He has mostly known me and Catherine by these nicknames and so I am not sure if he actually thought I was trying to steal Catherine’s identity or if he was making a joke, I would guess it’s the former because he was very serious about me not calling myself that.
