WOBIK Blog views: 7006879

On or about the 6th or 7th of July (2014) Yesenia Rodriguez was electrocuted by a high voltage electricity cable as she walked through the street coming from her house.

The electricity on this street is free.  This street is located on the top of a large hill, or a small mountain, and is not a street that is listed by name on any map that I am aware of.

Everyone who lives on the sides of the hill also has free electricity. The same can be said (free electric) for the other hills near this hill.  The water is also free.

Tangled and weaved electricity cables or lines are everywhere and its just a part of life in these places. I’ve been shocked a number times and have connected power to my house on countless occasions when the cables came apart or burnt-out.   Exposed power lines can be seen on the insides of every home in this area and its just a way of life.   Its not like in the United States where little toys have sticker-labels warning little kids to not swallow the plastic toy (ridiculous).

Here little kids just know not to touch electric wires in their house and outside in the street.

Houses are built on top of each other and sometimes narrow cement walkways and stairways, 15 to 30 feet above the ground, interface with other houses, walkways and hills.  There are typically no railings or other protection.  If you fall off you could easily fall to your death, especially if you are a child.   However, no one ever falls off not even little kids at ages 4, 5 and 6.

That being said, sometimes accidents do happen in which no amount of skill, balance, insight or strength can save you from.   If something breaks or malfunctions sometimes it may result in death and that is what happened to Yesenia Rodriguez last month (July, 2014).

On that very same day I walked, and also road my motorcycle, over the same high voltage cable that killed Yesenia.   I did so many times throughout the course of that day.

Why?

Because daily life is not the same for all cultures and societies.  In the United States it may be, depending on where you live, more comfortable to spend your days primarily indoors (unless you work outdoors).

Most people here in this area are outside in the daytime, or at least intermittently.  Many people here go to bed late and wake early.  In between those times you’ll likely find them outside, several (and likely many more) times each day.   It’s also invariably hot inside many houses here or the houses lack the breeze of the wind and often times can be filled with pesky mosquitoes.

In any event, I was not electrocuted but Yesenia was.

I was there ten (10) minutes or so before she was electrocuted and I had just picked up (on my motorcycle) my surrogate son (he’s not my wife’s son either), age 5, (he sits between me and the handle bars) and we were off to collect a bit of money.

Its raw capitalism here.  Products and services are swapped at every moment of the day and money is constantly changing hands.   I’m not talking about anything illegal, I’m referring to simple products such as, though not limited to, a mop (which is called ‘swape’ here, you say it in English like ‘swa-pay’, and its a Dominican, not Spanish, word made from the English words SWEEP and MOP).

In any event, my surrogate son and I arrived back, with the motorcycle, about ten (10) minutes later and as is normal and not atypical, we passed pedestrians at just an inch of length without hurting, harming or offending them because that’s just the way people drive and walk here and to try to do it the American way would only cause and accident (and it does), we soon noticed that something was wrong.

There are always crowds here but things looked different.  As we drove further in I parked the motorcycle and noted that there were black holes in the street which looked like they were the result of small explosions which had been ignited in the road through holes which were drilled first.

I soon discovered that a power line (electricity) had blown up and electrocuted Yesenia.

She did not die though, she lived.

For a number of days there was talk that her leg would need to be amputated.  News then followed that she would be able to keep the leg.  However, not long after it was then ascertained that the leg must go.  The leg had suffered much damage from the electrical jolt of the power line.

The leg came off.

Then on the 9th day of this month of August (2014), about a month after the electrocution, and at 29 years of age, her heart stopped and she died.

Very sad.

Up until Yesenia’s death I myself, and many others, were suffering from a virus called Chikungunya (or Chikunguña in Spanish).

Chikungunya was one of more than a dozen agents the United States researched as potential biological weapons.

Chikungunya is usually found in Africa and southeast Asia.  However, in April (2014) cases began being reported in the Dominican Republic.

I developed a fever and my joints, particularly those in my hands, began to swell.

Then one day I woke and rose from my bed and I felt like (or at least what I imagined to be) a 100-years-old man.   The muscles in my back felt as if I hadn’t stretched them in years.  I could only slightly move or walk.   I began stretching exercises immediately and told myself to man-up.

In many cases those who are infected with Chikungunya develop a harsh rash on their skin.  My wife also became infected with Chikungunya and developed a savage and grating rash on her face, head, neck, back and chest and to a much more marginal degree on her arms and legs.

The skin rash was like no other and a person sometimes developed small volcano-looking blisters on their skin.  A massive mountain of skin pushed upwards with a blister or blood at the tip of its precipice.

I felt that I myself had lucked out because I did not develop a rash myself (not everyone shows outward signs of the rash segment related to the virus).  However, weeks later (Chikungunya can stay with you for months, and sometimes years) I broke out with the skin rash but mine, though somewhat uncomfortable, was more comparable to Polymorphic light eruption (PMLE).  Something that people sometimes get from the sun.   I refrained from itching it and, luckily, I didn’t turn my skin into a mass of bloody holes like many others have who were infected with Chikungunya.

You read that Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes but almost everyone in the Dominican Republic will tell you that that is simply not true.   Not just the unfortunate (who a great in number) who lack education but you’ll also hear it from attorneys, reporters, media staff, teachers, the churches, the pharmacies, bank employees, telephone operators, and computer programmers including front-end developers.

What do they all say?   They say that it the Chinese have spayed something in the air in the Dominican Republic which has caused the Chikungunya outbreak.

The Chinese are vital to the economy of the Dominican Republic as it is the gateway for Chinese products to US and European markets.   The Chinese have also invested a great deal of money in the Dominican Republic.

Do you think Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes or is it something in the air (regardless of whether or not it put there by the Chinese )?

If you’re an American this sort of stuff may likely sound somewhat crazy to you and you may be thinking of images of tinfoil hats and chemtrails.

Did you know that similar things are happening in Africa?   Not with Chikungunya (Chikungunya is nothing new to most of Africa), but with Ebola.

In Liberia word is being spread from community to community that doctors are spreading Ebola.   Doctors are chased with machetes and sometime killed.    Many in western Africa are claiming that Ebola does not exist other than as a virus that doctors are spreading.  Its been reported that many patients are suffering only from Malaria until doctors arrive spreading some other sickness.

I have no personal experience with Ebola so I will not offer any comment here regarding the virus.   I’m also not indicting that doctors are spreading Ebola or that Ebola doesn’t exists.   I’m also not implying that Chikungunya in not spread by mosquitoes nor am I implying that the Chinese have ever had anything to doing with helping the spread of Chikungunya.

What I can tell you is that once you leave the United States and enter places such as black Africa or black Latin America you soon, if you spend enough time there (and not at the tourist areas and not being lead around by past-their-prime losers who prey on dumb Americans), learn that mysterious, inexplicable and impossible-like things happen which are not capable of being explained in rational American terms and standards.

In black Africa and black Latin America curses are real things and people die as a result and their lives are destroyed.   Witchery, a practice often interlaced with rituals and Saints of the Catholic Church, can kill, cause sickness and bring financial ruin to those who have been cursed.   I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

One particular case involves a child who was mistakenly cursed by an adult over jealously.   Curses can be placed by acquiring coins, paper money and clothing  (but not food, although a curse can be passed by giving food to the intended victim) which has been previously handled by the intended victim.

The curse was placed on a child (as form of revenge, sort of) and the child was set to die in three (3) days.

However, an error or mistake occurred (e.g. a tangible item belonging to another child was used in the curse) and a friend of the intended child victim died three (3) days later.

There’s no evidence of murder, no perpetrator who stalks the victim in the night hours and hits them over the head or throws them over a cliff to their death.

Typically, the victim just drops dead or becomes weak and dies.

Please exercise your free speech in the comments section below. There are no stipulations of political correctness on this blog. Speak your mind, give us your thoughts, both objective and subjective. Share your ideas, hunches, inklings or your expertise. Please provide recommendation and corrections if you spot errors in fact within the blog report. Lastly, remember that posting a comment is much like casting a vote, so please do so.