Prince during the evening to get back to our little dwelling place.
Unfortunately, on the way, our truck broke down right in the projects.
First of all, I’m fairly confident that Haiti could itself be
considered the “projects” but this place was exceptional 🙂
With
the sun quickly dropping, a few of us guys hopped out, popped the hood
and started looking at our problem. We had no brakes, power steering
and the truck just died. Well, it turns out the belt was off and it was
a pretty complicated system. A couple the guys jumped on it to start
putting it back together while a random Haitian man walked up to me
speaking English. He asked what we needed and then went away to find a
mechanic on the street.
In the meantime another man came up to
me and said he had no family and no job. He had a speech impediment
and when he realized we didn’t have a flashlight, he literally ran away.
The
first man comes back with a guy that has alcohol on his breath but says
he knows what he’s doing. In the end he really just messes up the
progress Tim and Branden have been making on the belt. We smoothly hop
in and usher him out. Our English speaking new friend runs off to find
another mechanic. (side note: it is a high rarity that we
travel without an interpreter)
We make some headway again
but in no time at all, our guy is back with another mechanic who is
sober and legitimately looks like he knows what he is doing. He busts
out some tools and we start going to town. (unfortunately, only figuratively)
Soon the belt is
back on and we try to turn it on…and within seconds the belt is back
off. We all look at each other and realize there is some other problem.
The mechanic hops in there and starts tightening random levers and
pulleys and we throw it back on again.
Meanwhile, I had called a
second vehicle with a translator, tow rope and a couple guys to come to
where we are. It’s also important to note that the sun is now down,
we’ve attracted a crowd of Haitian men, the UN guys have driven past us
without stopping and we find that we are in the ONLY stretch of lights
within a good distance.
Enter the man who ran away from me
earlier… He had literally ran like two communities away to buy a new
flashlight and batteries and then ran back so we would have light. I
thank him and we keep chatting.
So back to the truck and the
belt…we’ve gotten the belt on a few times and it has kept coming off.
Finally we think we have everything tightened right and we’re ok to go.
However, by now the battery has died and we can’t check to see if the
belt is on right…
We try push starting the vehicle to no avail
and decide to wait for the other guys coming…Thankfully that only
lasts a few minutes longer. They pull up and realize we need a jump,
but wait…they don’t have the jumper cables because they were left in
the other truck. We discuss a few options and then eventually bootleg
rig our own cables to the van.
Meanwhile, Tim turns the corner
of the van to realize that the two guys Ben was talking to were now on
their knees accepting Christ!
Now all of the Haitians standing
around are realizing that it’s all about done and we will be leaving
soon and know that we probably have money. Some of them are starting to
get a bit riled up and we are in a precarious position of truly wanting
to help the guys who so faithfully helped us get back under way without
starting some sort of a riot. While we are finding a way to pay the
ones who truly helped, calm the ones who want a free handout of money
without really paying them, I find myself in a unique conversation.
The
man who had run off to get us help took me aside and wouldn’t take any
money that I had put in his hand. “I don’t want to take your money. I
don’t want to have anything to do with it. You are like my father. When
I was younger I was really sick and people from America got me better.
So, if there is a problem with an American there is a problem with me.
If there is a problem with a Canadian, there is a problem with me. They
are like my parents. You are like my father. It is a gift. I don’t want
any money…”
I look back to realize that Ben was so jacked
about the first two that now he had gathered all of the guys together
to share the message of Jesus Christ with them! I love that guy.
With
a little time and effort we were back in the car driving away from the
area towards a bus/taxi area where we could drop off one of our
translators so he could get home and pick up another who happened to be
somewhat stranded there.
The story really should end there…but
it doesn’t…part 2 coming soon…
