Another Wild Drive

Since our car was not ready for us to drive it home, and since Carlos had to fly out to El Salvador to a COMIBAM conference, it was decided that we would drive to the airport Monday morning, drop Carlos off, and the we would drive in Carlos' car to our little town. There was one catch: we had to get up at 3:30 am because he had to be at the airport at 5:00 am. We left his house at 4:30. It was still raining very heavily. One street was just a river. Carlos zig-zaged down the dark streets in the heavy rain. There is no way that we could find our way out of his neighborhood on our own. The advantage of leaving so early was that there was no traffic. We made it to the airport at 5:00 sharp. Carlos told us how to get out of the airport and catch the road out of town. There are no street names or house numbers in this country. It is all done by landmarks.

John started driving Carlos '92 Nissan Stanza with only one windshield wiper, in the middle of a downpour, in the dark! Why do we do these things??? I couldn't see out to help navigate. He found the on ramp only because he remembered where he was. Carlos told us to keep on the left, and we just kept driving blindly, hoping that we were on the right road. We couldn't even see the markings on the road. I think we were driving in the middle of two lanes because some drivers were honking at us. This went on for about an hour until the sun came up. We finally saw some signs that told us that we were on the right road, going the right way. The next thing for us was to look for a Shell gas station with a statue of a bull across the street. We were supposed to take a left there. I am not kidding. That's how they give directions around here. We had been driving for a little over two hours, and no bull (sorry). We were beginning to think that we had somehow passed it in the rain, but we saw one sign that said "Liberia 87 km," so we figure we could get home from that city because that's where we land when we come from the States. It would be the long way around, but we could make it. Then, all of the sudden, there was a sign with a left arrow that said "Hacienda Pinilla." That's where we live! As we were turning left, we notice the bull and the Shell station. :) We drove two more hours and got home safely. We almost kissed the ground.

We have been catching up with our friends here all week, some locals, some Americans. Today we were supposed to drive some friends to a restaurant for lunch, but our car (actually, Carlos') would not start. Dead as a doornail. We walked to our friends condo, and they drove. We are still in the middle of a downpour. It has rained 17 inches in three days! After lunch, our friends drove us to the transportation office here in the hacienda, and they sent somebody to give us a jump start. We then drove the car 40 minutes to the nearest service station, but they said that there was nothing wrong with the battery. It must be the starter. We drove back home, back to transportation. These guys are not mechanics, but they know a little more about cars than we do. They kept the car over night to take it to a mechanic tomorrow morning. If it is something minor, we will fix it, but if it is major, we are going to park car #2 an go rent car #3. The result of all of this is that we were supposed to go to church tonight, but can't.

Please pray for all these car problems. The Lord is trying to teach us something, maybe patience.
Until next time...from a very wet beach...