The D.R. Diarios
The
Magic School Bus Adventure
5:30 AM. We load a CRAZY painted Haitian tap-tap (pretty much a
spoofed up school bus) that has “Grace Divine” painted on the side
with a really long puma painted underneath. Looks like the puma is the mascot
for grace. Who would have guessed? (Haitians… that’s who)
It
took till about 1ish to make it to the border. We had one bus exchange in Haiti. This involved 28 of us
unloading on a street corner and waiting for about an hour to load our
luxurious new ride.
IT
HAD AIR CONDITIONING!!!!!! I forgot what cold air felt like. It was the most
foreign memory. We made it to the border around 1-ish.
This
was fun. Off the bus, show the passport, say no a thousand times to people
selling stuff, stand outside the bus because random people are looking through
our bags, get back on the bus, take off… then wonder where your passport is!
Hahahaha, kidding. Logistics got ’em.
This happened twice, once on each side of the border. God totally had
our favor in this… it seems no border crossing happens without a little strife.
PRAISE GOD.
HERE’S
THE FUN STUFF.
We
are about an hour or two into the D.R. and we all just finished our “in bus”
meal (rice, beans, mystery meat which I believe was either goat or a terrible
ending to the family dog) when our super huge luxury missionary ride began to
ascend a super huge non-luxurious hot mountain. We slowed down… the bus shifted
into a REALLY loud lower gear… started to shake… then shimmy’d to a jolting
halt.
WE
WERE TOO HEAVY TO MAKE IT UP THE HILL!!!
How
awesome is it that we got to take a break from traveling to climb a hill and
see the most awesome sight of HILLS AND HILLS AND HILLS. I felt like God totally stalled our
destination arrival to realize that the journey is what it’s ALL about. At the top of the mountain, a place our
bus could not take us, we looked out into the wilderness over our inheritance…
PRAISE GOD FOR JANKY BUSSES.
All
this to say, we did a bus switcharoo and made it to our destination with a few
less pesos, one additional bus ride, and a thankful heart for A/C and a house
to cover our bodies.
#
of busses:5
#
of minutes with A/C: 8 hours
Decibals
of loud D.R. music: What’d you say?
#
of steps up the hill: blister
#
of different ways I learned to thank God: too many to count
WORD OF THE MONTH:
