(Continued from When You’re a World Racer, Life is Different Pt. 1)
with 4 teams. We woke up early to
prepare for the day. I had told the
teams we would be leaving around 8:00 or 8:30 and they needed to be outside,
packed and ready. After a light
breakfast of bread and coffee, quiet time with Jesus, and sitting in the
rocking chair on the porch, our contact was still nowhere to be seen. We had communicated our need to go to an ATM
to get Haitian money and that we needed to purchase SIM cards for our cell
phones to communicate with one another for the month. Two things… two very small things. But when you are a World Racer, life is
different and small things aren’t always that small of a task.
So after some spontaneous worship time, games of Phase 10
and Settlers of Cattan commenced outside around some tables. Doudou walked through the gate around
11:00. He said, “The buses are here, are
you ready to go?” I’m sure I gave him a
blank stare for a few seconds and then I finally squeezed out the words to
remind him we needed to get some cash and SIM cards for the phones.
“Can you take us to the ATM, we don’t have any money.”
“Ummm.. . I do not think it is possible.”
“What do you mean?”
“There are no ATM’s working.
I can not find one.”
….
By this time a couple of leaders had entered the
conversation. Jen Denman was looking at
me with a blank stare. Emily Hunnicutt
had a little smirk like she was ready for an adventure or something. I think I probably had look of shock. Surely this wasn’t true. Doudou continued to
tell me that there were very few ATM’s in Port Au Prince and that there were no
ATM’s anywhere else in the country.
Awesome.
I asked if we would be able to get money inside of a bank
with our debit/credit cards. His
response was, “I do not think it is possible.”
Perfect.
So there was a dilemma.
We didn’t have any Haitian money.
The few ATM’s in the entire country don’t work, we can’t use our cards
to get money out through an actual bank, and nobody would exchange Dominican
Pesos unless you were at the border. I
wasn’t going back to the border. I had
finally crossed that bridge and I didn’t want to do it again! While I knew that Doudou would take care of us, I also wanted to get the teams to their ministry sites and get them settled. What is a squad
leader to do?
I did what every other squad leader does… I called Jimmy and
Casey in the AIM office. Not only are
they the World Race Staff on call 24/7, but they’re two of my best
friends. I’ll call them! Doudou had a wireless router he can take
anywhere, so I plugged into his connection, got online, sat down on the porch,
and called Jimmy via Skype.
“Jimmy I have a little problem.” By this point I think Jimmy must be tired of
hearing from me. I had called on Sunday
from Santo Domingo with a few questions.
I had alerted him of our border problems on Monday, and he was probably
just waiting to see what came up on Tuesday.
I explained our money situation. Jimmy and Casey, both being World Racers,
thought the idea of a country without one working ATM was absurd. I used to think that. Now I know better. We talked through the problem and decided to
send the team leaders out with Doudou to check and see if we couldn’t convince
a bank to use our debit/credit cards at a bank, or if one ATM hadn’t been
fixed. I stayed to talk through back-up
options. The leaders left with Doudou
and I sat and waited by the computer.
After an hour and a half, the leaders returned. As they
walked through the gate, everybody turned to look at them expectantly. Phase 10 stopped, Rummy stopped, and Settlers
of Cattan stopped. I knew when they
threw their hands up in the air that they didn’t have any money. So I returned my attention to the computer,
now baking in the midday sunshine.
I explained to Jimmy that the leaders had visited several
banks, and the ATM’s, and they had nothing to show for it. Doudou was right. The bus drivers were still waiting outside. The racers were sitting around wondering what
in the world happened to “We’re leaving around 8:00 or 8:30.” We started talking through the process of
getting money sent via Western Union. By
this point it was 2:00 in the afternoon.
The Western Union office closed at 4:00 and we were already way behind
schedule for our departure and arrival.
Jimmy went to work fast to get a check cut, the check cashed at the
bank, and the money sent at the local grocery store in Gainesville, GA. The leaders and I sat around the computer
waiting for the message from Casey that Jimmy had successfully sent the money
through the wire. Doudou left to run his
own errands and gain some sanity I think.
At 3:15 Casey sent the message, “The money is already there,
go and pick it up!” We called Doudou and
aksed him to return. At 3:30 we bolted
out the gate and rushed into town to the Western Union office. Jen Denman and I talked with the lady to
receive the money Jimmy had sent. We
gave our confirmation numbers, our passports for identification, and then the
lady asked, “What telephone number for James McCarty?” Humm. She’s asked a good question. The Lord brought to my mind that I had saved
all my Outlook contacts onto my iPod. I
pulled it out of my purse and looked up Jimmy’s number. It was not the same number as the one in the Western
Union computer system. A man had came
over by this point and said we could use the phone to call.
“Jimmy… you there? What telephone number did you give
them?”
“I gave them my cell phone number it’s…”
“No you didn’t. I
gave them that number and it’s not the right number.”
“Oh, I gave them the office number.”
“Perfect… thanks.”
With that said, Jen and I were back at the counter trying to
receive the money. “That is the correct
number. Do you want USD or Haitian?”
There was pure elation as the lady began counting the
money. Emily and Benny had come along
for the trip and while we were getting the money, they had found a lady that
sold SIM cards. They began that process,
and before we left the Western Union office we had money and working cell
phones.
We went back to the hotel parking lot, grabbed everyone, and
loaded up the buses. The leaders divided
the money up between the teams. I
emailed Jimmy and Casey to let them know we had received the cash and were on
our way to our ministry sites. We had
originally planned on leaving at 8:30 in the morning, but it was now 5:30 in
the evening. What at day!
The bus drivers were excited to see us moving! I hopped in
the giagantic bus with Team Manna and we were on our way out of Port Au Prince
to Les Cayes. It was supposed to be a 3
hour drive. But when you are a World
Racer, life is different.
After riding the bus through the busy city we started flying
through the country. The bus doesn’t
have any shocks at all. The roads in
Haiti are horrible. So when you add the
two together, you get sore butts and sore heads from bouncing from the seat to
the ceiling every other minute. I have a
fun video to show you just how bumpy the road got at one point, but you’ll have
to wait until I have a faster internet connection to see it!
At 10:30 we pulled into Pastor Louis’ house and the ministry
center. They carried our stuff upstairs,
and directed us to our rooms. YEAH!
Rooms! We opened the door and a breath of fresh air overtook us. Air Conditioning… you have got to be kidding
me! We walked in to see a bed for each
person with a fresh, soft towel and a take-out dinner sitting on the
pillow. There was a platter of cups and
juice in the corner and a chair with toilet paper rolls in the other. Down the hall we had flushing toilets, and
working hot showers.
For a minute I couldn’t
believe that the country without ATM’s could look and feel this good! It was a great way to end the crazy and
adventurous trip from the Dominican Republic to Haiti. God surely provided and showed up in each
situation, even if it was at the last minute.
He gets the glory for bringing us through. No matter how much planning and preparing I
did on the front-end, God gets full credit for making it work. Planning means diddly squat out here
sometimes because when you’re a World Racer, life is different.
