As you may know, we get around the project with golf carts, 4 wheelers and a few trucks. We built all of the roads and they range from flat gravel that is easy to drive on, to steep and rocky with patches of mud and drop offs on either side. There is one short road of pavers in the villa neighborhood just above Turtle Beach and that is a dream to drive on. The walk from the marina and logistics (warehouses, machine shop and office) to the villas is just 20 minutes, but tough to impossible if you are lugging a weed whacker and a jug of gasoline or a mop and bucket and other cleaning supplies. Two members of my work crew, Javier and Licinia, have never driven any kind of vehicle before, so I have on several occasions had them switch places with me and started teaching them to drive a golf cart. On Saturday, on our way to clean the marina bathrooms, I asked Licinia if she would like to try driving the golf cart again and her eyes lit up. We started slowly and she was doing much better than the first time--- she was able to keep the cart on the right side of the road and go at an even slow pace. We went on like this for about 15 seconds and I was so pleased that she was doing so much better than the first time. Then all of a sudden she put the pedal to the metal, so to speak, and cranked the wheel to the far right, don’t ask me why. I yelled “STOPSTOPSTOP!!!” (no, she doesn’t speak English, but I was reacting in the moment and hadn’t practiced yelling PAREPAREPARE!!!! ) I reached my foot over to press on the brake, but not in time—we barreled straight off the side of the road and about 10 feet into a marsh. We were stopped by the soft vegetation in front of us (luckily there were no trees in our path) so we weren’t hurt. Licinia’s eyes were wide as saucers and we both were exclaiming various things I can’t remember in our respective native languages. Finally I laughed and said, Esta bien. No problema! (everything’s cool- no problem!) Then we sat there and laughed for about 2 minutes. I was able to back the cart part of the way out but couldn’t get it over the hump along the side of the road. So Licinia walked the remaining 100 feet to the marina to start cleaning and I walked back until I encountered some “helpers” to pull the cart back on the road. They were all laughing their heads off- a hilarious start to the day, I have to say. (and next time I will have her practice stopping and starting and it will be in a parking lot instead of on the road).
Oh, by the way, to follow up from last week- the beach was back as beautiful as ever by Tuesday. And a few pictures….
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| "mama and baby" coconut palms |
neighbor kids with machete and homemade wheel barrow, on their way to scavenging for coconuts
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| beautiful leaves |
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| blossom on banano tree prior to fruit budding |
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| Maguly, Anselmo, Enilda, Javier and, in back, Licinia- on boat at end of work day Saturday |
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