Monday, September 3, 2012

Driving Miss Crazy

I bought a HILUX.  When I buy a used car I (which is only two times :) I send it to the mechanics for them to check everything.  He was to check the filters,  cables, brakes, belts, battery, in general everything.  The mechanic called and said it was ready.  Ben had come with our group because all of us had errands in La Esperanza.   So I sent Ben to the mechanic to pick up the truck and drive it home.  I took NISSAN Patrol and went by and paid him.   The Patrol's window was busted completely.  It got off track and nobody mentioned it to me.  So when a huge torrential downpour started the day before, I noticed that someone did not close the window.  So I ran outside to close it up.  I turned the key while I was half-way hanging out the door of the car and the rain was like ice water squirting out of a fire hose saturating all my clothes.  I hit the electric button and the window  shattered all down inside the door of the car.  I ran and got a black plastic trash bag and put it over the window and closed the door. 

 So when we went to town to pick up the truck that was in the shop, Ben was driving us into town in the rain in the car with the busted window.  He was holding on to one end of the plastic bag while one of the team members in the back seat, was holding on to the other end.   It was a little loud with it flapping everywhere, but we got there. WE did our errands and Ben took the repaired truck filled with groceries to the house.   I was hoping to put a piece of plexi-glass in the Patrol but we couldn't find anything.   Before I left town,  I ran by and paid the mechanic  I found out that I needed to go the next day to Tegucigalpa the capital, to get Rosey's 2nd enrollment form at college. 

 I had to appointments in town the next morning before I could get Rosey and I was in the truck that supposedly was fixed.  While I was in town, I noticed  that while at the mechanics, somebody cut the cable that holds the spare tire.  I went by and asked them where was my tire and they said it probably fell off in the road while driving.  I called Ben, because he had driven it home the day before, and he said he felt nothing.  The tire wouldn't have just dropped off like a chicken depositing an egg on the ground. I told them I had to get to the capital and the mechanic said, 'You don't need to go without a spare.  What if something happened?"  I told him I was going to call him for road side assistance.  He thought I was kidding but in my heart I was not.   I had asked him to fix the emergency and I told him that it wasn't working.  He said "You are not pulling it hard enough.  You need to be stronger." " Ummhmmm". I said.  The thought jetted though my mind, "I'll show you strong, and move his nose to another position on his face"but Jesus is in my heart and I have self control. :) I didn't act on it.  But I just said, Ummhmmm.  I guess "ummmhmmm" can be a spiritual word that brings peace to the one who speaks it and it carries with it some punch .  I think God says it all the time when we are offering up our lame excuses.  It works it any language like, "Hallelujah".   He didn't fix that or the lights on the dash board, the emergency and he lost my tire.  He had my money and I had a long drive to work on forgiveness.  

I looked for a rim all over town to get a spare before I left and nobody had anything.  They told me I would have to go to Tegucigalpa to get one.  I was without a window in one car and without a spare in the other.  I really didn't know if he really fixed anything on the truck with no spare.  I thought about taking the bus with Rosey, but at this point it would be late and we would get into the city at night, so I decided against public transport. I thought about taking the Patrol which is reliable, but had no window.  I pictured myself, driving down the road in my hot pink polka dotted raincoat that a team member left last year with my arm out the broken window.  If it rained on me no problem, but in the end I decided against that too, even though the thoughts of it made me laugh out loud.  I finally made a decision for the truck with no spare, and prayer.   Angela, one of our alumni from PTC, will get her visa in October to join her husband in the States.  She knew I needed help and offered to come help with the girls while I was away later on this month for my daughter's wedding. She was going to come early so everybody would have their position they were supposed to do.  So I was going to take the truck and pick up some of her larger stuff.  
So okay, I had to get moving.  I got home early to the farm to get everybody established about where they were to be.  I went to get in the truck and realized the groceries from the day before hadn't been unloaded.  So we unloaded the mountain of groceries.  I was running late at this point but not bad.  Then I jumped back in the truck it wouldn't crank.  The mechanic didn't change the cables or check the terminals to the battery. Everything was so loose I could moves it with my hands. I was thankful it happened at the farm and not on the road.  Some of the men on the team came down, in the rain, and got it going again.  One guy went to clean the terminals with a very nice lime green box blade knife, but he cut himself.  At this point, I am re-evaluating to see if God is trying to tell me something.  Then it starts raining like crazy.  So after looking for cables, which were in the bus at the mission house, we got it cranked.  The team members said to go get a new battery.  I went by the mechanics to check the battery and the meter read that it was fine, and I just put it in gear and left.  It rained the whole way to Comayagua.  I stopped there because it is about half way, and  Brenda our other alumni works at a Enlaces Ministry there and I could visit with her and my good friend Sandy Burgess.  

WE got to the university the next morning on time.   There was a long line but not like the first time.  We carried all the paperwork from last time and the new receipts this time.  Rosey was standing in line and a volunteer came and looked at her paperwork and said that she couldn't register today because she didn't have her original birth certificate.  Rosey came over and was almost in tears and told me the news.   I asked the young man if I could speak to the supervisor.  She was a lawyer for the school and very professional and very adamant about following the rules that were posted on the website.  Our internet has been down and we didn't know the rules changed. She said we could register tomorrow in Copan which is about the same distance from  the farm toTegucigalpa.  I explained we came a long way and she said she was sorry about that but that we needed to follow the rules.  I told her that I was sorry I didn't check on the new rules myself,  and that I wasn't trying to make her job harder, but if she could please make an exception.  She said "No" and then said, "okay, just this once".  She brought us into the building where the others were waiting outside and Rosey got her photo and identity that she needed to register for the second test.  WE were second in line instead of at the back of the line.  I just sat and tears came rolling down my face thinking about how faithful God is and how He moves people on behalf of our girls.   The lady was so nice, so I thanked her for her kindness.  Angela's brother went with me to pick up a window in the center of Tegucigalpa auto parts district, and he told me he would plan to buy a rim for me and drop the rim and Angela the next day. So we ate and left and celebrated the goodness of God all the way home.   

The next morning we needed lumber to finish the job and stuff from the hardware store,a but there was a semi truck on our dirt road that had jackknifed his trailer across the road and no one could pass. The huge tractor trailer get stuck on our road this week.  The roads are in pretty good shape but the novice driver decided to go up one of the hills and misjudged what gear he should have used.  So he backed down the hill.  He did this so many times that he burned out his clutch, radiator, and transmission and his tires. The last time he backed down the hill the trailer jack knifed across the road with the cab in the ditch.   I got ready to go to town and discover that the only driver that can get through was a small motorcycle. 
 Usually they get one of the large road scrapers that have been in our area and move it out of the way.  It just didn't happen  So I got the wood, and dropped it off and then went to the off road to get to the hardware store.  I took 3 women and a guy team member, just in case I had any problems.  I still didn't have my spare.  So we took the Yampanpooqui road.  They said with your Toyota Hilux you can get in and out.  So I put it in four wheel drive in the middle of the trip and start hearing this "click click click" noise.  The mechanic didn't fix that either.  So we drove on an extremely washed out road with mudholes and ravines.  
We looked like we were on a mission from National Geographic, or a commercial for Toyota.  WE got through and so I bought our tile and fill up the back with groceries and other things.  I just knew the truck that blocked the road would be removed.  It was not. I was concerned about all our tile.  On those horrible roads I did want to show up with chips of tiles. So we prayed that not one tile would break.   So we went the only other way left to us, and it was as rough as the road we took out but it was straight up.  When we got almost to the top of the road which would tee into the Yampanpooqui road, a small panel truck filled with tomatoes had flipped over on it's side.  The road was so rough that it was thrown over in the middle of the road and another panel truck was behind the wrecked truck.  They told me to come around, and I couldn't see that we had any room to come around. I went ahead and came around, drove up a side of a slick area, and got back on the road.  

WE got home from that rough road and Angela calls. She has arrived from Tegucigalpa and has gotten to the semi truck in the road.  It is dark by now and starting to mist.  I took the Toyota and back it down the hill, really close to the semi. Then Mireya and Kevin started helping the folks in Angela's truck to move the furniture passed the broken down semi and load it on my truck.  I had to keep my foot on the brake because it was so slick and I still didn't have an emergency brake. My foot started cramping but then it started to rain.  Angela put her full length mirror in the back seat.  It started pouring down rain, so she jumped in the front and Mireya jumped in the back breaking the mirror all in the back seat.  WE are laughing at this point about how the mirror made it all the way until the very end of the trip, and we are driving through the rain and the pot holes and I cannot see anything about what is behind me.  We got to the clinic where she is going to be her home for a few weeks when she realized she had dropped several things.  WE jumped back in the car to retrieve them.  Even in the pouring rain people we walking towards her packing tubs with thoughts of possession is 9/10 of the law.  We scooped them up and got home.  The plastic had kept things from falling off but wasn't tied on, so her mattress took on a lot of water , and all of us who helping were saturated.    She found out later that she had lost many of her clothes, my birthday present, and her husbands tuxedo from their wedding.  I think we were all sadder about the tuxedo than the rest of the stuff.  Her husband was really sweet to her about the whole thing.  

I want to thank everybody who came this month and who have been praying for us.  I am amazed at how many people read our facebook page and this blog.  I know they are praying for us or we couldn't do days like we have had this last week.  

So this week, as I have been dealing with teams, trucks, turkey mechanics, and tons of driving.  Please continue to pray for us.  God is giving us favor and God is for us.  Thanks again for standing in the gap for us.  Blessings, the Road Weary Honduran MOM                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

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