Halfway to our destination, which was the COTN Mission house in Barahona, D.R., we noticed a lot of speed bumps with checkpoints. Apparently, being close to the Haitian border, many of the armed guards would check cars for illegals who may be coming into the city. Come to know, there are a lot of D.R. residents who feel badly towards Haitians. I didn't want to know their reasons. Only that, I know that we were there to help them and that good will eventually overcome the bad.
As dard approached, we our logistics leader, Justin asked the driver to make a stop at a local stop where a lot of the drivers union would go to eat and rest. Just before we got there, the bus went over a speed bump and we all heard a THUD. One of the men got out the bus and discovered that the spare tire had fallen off! One of the gals behind us, Dody (RN) commented, did we get a flat? To which I joked, "Yes, we did and the guy quickly replaced the tire! Just like NASCAR! LOL.
We arrived at the rest stop and we got out to stretch our legs, use the rest rooms, and grabbed some chicken fingers and fries so that we could eat along the way.
Now that it was dark, there were a lot of headlights flashing. At first we thought that it was just a rude gesture from the oncoming cars/busses. But, turned out that it was sort of a code amongst the drivers on the road...such as, "I'll be passing you, or hurry up and go". There were no set rules either. We came up behind an ambulance who had its emergency lights on. And instead of yielding, many were flashing their lights at it and passing it. We thought that was funny. The guy who sat in the front, Courtney looked as though he was going to pee in his pants on some of the near misses between our bus and the oncoming traffic. I have to say, that our driver was very good. He got us to our destination in one piece!
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