I’ve been loving taking public transportation everywhere despite having to plan everything with a 30 minute cushion. Some days, I walk out to my stop and get picked up in a couple of minutes. Other days, I’m not quite as lucky. I sat outside my stop for well over half an hour earlier this morning. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in a hurry and I just laughed as over 50 multicabs passed, none going all the way out to the orphanage. One guy pulled over and asked me how much I was willing to pay. My answer was, “Well the fair is 10 pesos to get out there, so I’ll pay 10 pesos.” He just laughed and drove off.
Finally, Ronald pulled up. He didn’t look very happy and his cab was actually completely empty. A rare thing for this time of day. I hopped in the back and just hung my head because I was still tired. A hundred yards or so later, we coasted in on fumes to the gas station, and I could tell he was starting to get upset. He pulled out some money when the clerk told him how much, and all he had was 40 pesos. That’s less than a dollar and less than a full liter of gas. I don’t know how far he was expecting to go.
We went a little farther and I reached in my pocket to pull out my 10 peso piece only to find I didn’t have any change. I pulled out my smallest bill and realized there was no way he was going to have change. I tried to silence God’s push on my heart and just hoped for others to hop on. As we neared my stop, nearly 20 minutes later, still no one jumped in. I scooted as close as I could to the front of the multicab and just tried to strike up a conversation. It turned out Ronald’s english wasn’t too bad but his luck had taken a pretty tough hit.
The last couple of days, Ronald would pull up to several stops, and no one would hop on. All throughout the town, many people would hop into the cabs in front of him, and when he would pull away, many people would show up behind him. He had already been driving for two hours this morning, and only had about 20 pesos to show for it. While feeling a little awkward, and still ignoring God’s voice, I tried to change the subject to his family. He lit up as he went through the lineup. I’m pretty sure I lost count of the kids and/or nephews and nieces, but it was fun to watch him sit and talk. I just tried to take it all in.
We came up to my road and I gave him the signal. He offered to drive me all the way in, but the walk into camp is always peaceful, so I declined. Plus I didn’t want to pay any extra. I can be a little stingy at times. I dug in my pocket, hoping I would find something I missed last time, but still no luck. I wadded up the bill and handed it to Ronald. Before he could unfold it, I had to take off. He tried to honk the horn at me to come back and yelled something about not having change, but I couldn’t let myself listen. I knew I would go back and just take the bill. After all, it’s only 10 pesos. Just one step up from a free ride.
When I thought about Ronald’s story, I can’t believe how hard it was to walk away without change. God gives us so abundantly and yet we can be so stingy with “our” stuff. I’m no where near rich (I do do volunteer work for a living), but that money would do nothing for me. Sometimes we just need a change in perspective. I chose Ronald’s today.
