Almost Trouble

I almost forgot one of my most terrifying moments. Last week I was driving one of my crew members, Jim, home because we worked until after dark. We got stopped just a few hundred yards up the road by some clean up crews. They are clearing the brush from the side of the road. They started backing up toward me and I don't have a horn. I immediately jammed the truck in reverse and started to back up. Jim suddenly started screaming to stop.

A little boy about 8 to 10 years old was attempting to use the truck to pull his bicycle along and I had not noticed him in the dark. I had run over his bike and mangled the front wheel. Luckily the boy was not hurt but he was crying and upset. He kept saying his mother would kill him. Lucky for me, Jim knew the boy and his mother. We loaded the bike into the truck and took the kid home. Jim went and spoke to his mom and I offered them about 25 to fix the bike. Jim offered to get the wheel and install it. Everyone ended up happy I think.

Even more interesting, the boy's grandfather came out to talk with me. It ends up that he knows my boss very well and they are good friends. He introduced himself to me and we a had nice conversation as if nothing had even happened. I was so relieved.

Jim was suppose to fix the wheel on Sunday but he ended up in Jail. Apparantly he's lost some Honduran papers and was picked up for not having them. I suspect he was pretty drunk Saturday night and may have ended up somewhere he shouldn't have been. Anyway, he missed work on Sunday and didn't get the wheel fixed yet.

We had some divers last week that hated everything I did. I made an embarrasing mistake in the handling of some tips (party my dive masters fault). Because of that 2 people just laid into me personally and listed everything I did that they didn't like. I had some personal snacks on the boat and they thought I should have shared with them. They didn't realize I start work before they even eat breakfast and often don't get lunch. They were also told the bring snacks but didn't. They didn't think I acted like a divemaster and they were clearly told I didn't perform that role. Henry, the divemaster, explained it on every dive but they chose not to hear it. Other divers clearly understood everything and had no problems. One even came and talked to me because he overhood the personally bashing I took. It was my worst week but I survived and have learned some good lessons.