SO…part two
We drop off one translator in a dimly lit
parking lot in the middle of who knows where. Then the other approaches
us with a huge smile and we’re off to find our way back home.
Everything
initially seems to be going smoothly until the van in front of us
leading the way all of a sudden slows to a coast and pulls over…the
battery on that vehicle is now dead.
We rig it up and play with
the wires and are off again. This night is quickly feeling like a big
game of leap frog and frogger all in one with these vehicles.
We
get about 30 minutes away from home and the belt comes off of the truck
again and we slow to a halt once again. Steph needs to REALLY pee by
now and the people at the house have been waiting for us for quite some
time.
The van pulls up and Geftay, my right hand man (Haitian
translator) steps out and walks up to me. We have a brief discussion
about needing a mechanic in order to get this thing home because
without the belt we have no breaks or power steering so it won’t be
safe to tow.
I look up and see a police officer about a hundred
yards and mention we could use a policeman to stay with us as the
others ran home to drop everyone off and pick up a mechanic to bring
back here…
As we are chatting I see another police officer who
is driving past us. I instinctively throw up an arm and wave him
down…This man pulls over and backs up in front of us. The two of us
approach him and tell him of our situation. He then promptly jumps out
and comes over to take a look at the truck…
The rain starts to fall.
This
man starts looking at everything and I’m feeling like “here we go
again…another guy with good intentions who hasn’t seen a Ford before
and really won’t understand that we have a bigger problem than the belt
being off…”
Well…God is bigger than that I guess because it
turns out this guy was a police officer but his main role was being the
master mechanic for the entire police department in Port au
Prince…what are the chances eh?
We sent people home while he
starts diagnosing the problem and throwing the belt on. While the
others are gone we keep putzing around the engine and find out that the
truck was built to have two batteries and we only had one in there for
whatever reason! He also locates the faulty parts and tells us what
needs to get fixed.
About 50 minutes later a couple guys get
back from the house with some tools so that the guy can fix the problem
a little better.
FINALLY, it’s time to head home but we have the
realization that until those pieces are exchanged, its just going to
keep falling off. Needless to say, along the way home we lose the belt,
and the battery is dieing but Tim strong arms his way forward until we
coast into the gate back at home and get some cold dinner and join the
others…after about 5 and a half hours of being in some places most
people wouldn’t particularly want to be…
thankful for His faithfulness through every part of that, but it ended
up being a bit more of a full day than I was anticipating for our “day
of rest”…
