Posted in January 2009 World Race by Ashley Musick on 2/6/2009

After two days of traveling, I was in Port Au Prince Haiti 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