He had the Chinese restaurant adjacent to his bar for a while and it finally tanked because they were making people sick and the food was horrible. I asked about renting it from him a few weeks after I got there and he said $800 a month plus he wanted some money for the "existing" restaurant. So I spent like six months shopping for other locations and waiting for something to open up. Finally in Febuary, he offered the store front at $500 a month with a year lease and no up front fees other than a month security. That was still overpriced, but given that it had a kitchen, some equipment and chairs, I took the deal and signed a lease through his lawyer.
It started to get going and I had the normal small problems until about late May when all the tourists disappeared. I wasn't really making any money, but it was doing enough and I had enough repeat customers that gave me the idea to stick it out until things picked up. I put some effort into painting the front of house and used the so called kitchen as storage for my equip when it wasn't in use. I brought two heavy duty camping stoves like these:
That I had bought on sale for $50 each with a grill for cooking burgers. Because we shared a bathroom, I stored the ranges in the kitchen and locked it when I was done for the day.
So I was limping along, and one day I come in and the water has been shut off. The Dutch guy is conveniently out of town and I try to figure out what is going on. His bar, in the same building, still has water, just not my space or the toilets for that matter. So he finally shows up a few days later and goes through the motions of trying to fix the water and gives up on it. Meanwhile, I'm crazy enough to try to keep the place open so I'm filling up buckets from a hose hook up just outside the shop to wash dishes and my hands and to bucket flush the toilet. This goes on for about two weeks and I tell him I'm not going to pay rent until the water gets back on. He tells me that since it wasn't written in the lease he didn't have to do anything and I still had to pay rent.
Meanwhile there are rumors going around that he already has a new tenant lined up for my space that is going to pay more rent than I do. Makes the water going off seem kind of suspicious huh?
So I'm already about to call it quits for Sosua. But one night this really ugly Haitian tranny with a mustache comes up to me and flashes me full frontal with him obviously excited. I was pretty enraged and said "Donde es mi cadena?" and he ran off when he saw I was not going to just let it slide. It was a bad night altogether and I get ready to go home for the day. I go over to the German bar on the corner where the motoconchos are, and there is La Bruja(well known Mafiosa of Sosua) waving an empty beer bottle at this poor German bartender who is behind the bar screaming at him to give her a drink or she is going to chuck this beer bottle at his head. He is behind bar holding a baseball bat and it is a standoff. My shop is like two doors down from there and somehow I get the crazy notion that I will be able to scare her off if I show her the chain I keep for protection. Waving the chain at the tranny had worked just a half an hour before that. I'd scare off La Bruja and look cool and nobody would get hurt. Good idea huh?
So I go get the chain and show it to her from about 15 feet away and say "Afuera te" or whatever to her, but she is drunk and probably on crack so guess what? She isn't scared at all. In fact, that is when I found out that she keeps a knife on her-- because she came at me with it and stabs me in the forearm. Now there is no turning back and I start swinging at her with the chain while I'm backing away from her until we are both in the streets. She is still coming at me with the knife but now we are out in the open and finally I take a swing at one of her kneecaps. THAT put her down.
Of course by now(ten seconds later) there is a crowd of about 20 Dominicans gathered around and I'm bleeding and not much in the mood for giving any quarter. But about five guys VERY gently put their hands on me and said "se acabo." La Bruja is down but she is still cursing at me and saying how her friends are going to "get" me. But I take the advice of the folks around me. I back off, and she manages to get onto a moto concho and takes off into the night.
The owner of the Shark Bar shows up with a stack of napkins and a bottle of 151 to disinfect the very minor knife wound and stop the bleeding. It stings a bit and then I grab the bottle from him and take a big swig of it.
La Bruja disappeared for about a week and there were rumors that she had gotten mugged by the moto concho guy because she had no money to pay him. But she finally showed up using a staff for her still injured knee and then I was watching my back for the next few weeks until I finally got the hell out of Dodge. The worst was when I would come into town at like 8am and she was still out on the street from the night before and drunk or whatever. I wasn't really that scared of her, but dealing with her before I had my coffee was a bit much. I filed a complaint with the local prosecutors and all, but as I've posted, the police have no interest in arresting someone with no money. I was probably VERY lucky I didn't end up in jail myself but there were a dozen witnesses and I had the knife wound in my favor.
It is kind of odd but I never really thought much about revenge from her. The few times I saw her she would just ask me for 100 pesos for some beer and I would walk away from her. She never followed after me because by then I was keeping my chain on me and after she saw it once, she didn't want to play anymore.
So I'm glad the Dutch guy isn't around, but it will still be a while before I spend too much time in Sosua.
