Leonel

The President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, came to my barrio Saturday. He was here for about 53 seconds. Enough time to shake some hands and give a wave. But he was here. I kind of took a picture of him.

I was really impressed when I arrived in my barrio, more than 3 weeks ago now, to find that nearly all of the roads were paved. This is most definitely not the norm in towns and barrios across the country. But I learned Saturday that as recently as August, none of the roads here were paved. In the last 3 months the government has aided my city and a beach town north of here in laying asphalt atop formerly dirt roads. My barrio is pretty big and it is quite a Dominican feat to get such an infrastructural project done in a timely manner.

There was still one road to finish the night before Leonel arrived and the road crew worked late into the night to get it finished. The heavy machinery needed to do the roadwork had sat parked and untouched for more than a week, but with a presidential visit imminent, the road was completed and painted in a matter of hours. What I deduced from this chain of events is that Dominicans should always work as if the president was coming to visit. Much, much more would get done.

So he came to check out the streets his government laid. He swooped into town on a helicopter to get a bird’s eye view of las calles and then hopped into a motorcade of jeepetas to be the first to drive on some of them. Then he was gone.

I’m told with midterm elections in May, his presence will be far more visible in coming months. While he is not up for reelection, he is getting out there to campaign for his Purple Party. The entire country is littered with political signs and billboards and not a day goes by without a camióneta, equipped with speakers in the truck bed, passing by to broadcast the platform for some obscure candidate at an obscene decibel level for all to hear.

Politics are ridiculous here. Politics are ridiculous everywhere.