Last week we moved a 1000 bags of cement off a
semi-truck with 8 other men - ohhh - my muscles still hurt. If you've never had the opportunity to
do this then I highly suggest - YOU DON'T. Smile - my body will never be
the same. The Mule (our grey Toyota Hilux pictured above) which has been in
four accidents since beginning relief operations and transported us out of
several hairy situations, may never be the same either. At the border with heavy traffic we were
forced into the lake and were just a few inches from heading to the happy
hunting grounds for good except for a huge rock that caught the undergird of
the truck and miraculously kept us from heading deeper into the lake. Thank the Lord our engine kept running
for 2 hours while hooking up equipment to pull her to safety.
We had water up to the bottom of the seats in
the cab, all kinds of things got wet including passports, documents ect. but the
engine never stopped (amazing). During the operation - “Rescue Mule” - over 40
gathered to watch us work. When we
finally got the mule out we celebrated and thought our problems were over. We quickly learned that we had another
problem after paying two Haitian men who had helped us pull the truck out of
the water. At this precise moment
the 40 plus spectators demanded payment and the situation grew rather intense. Finally, I smiled to everyone, held up
my hands, backed up slowly to the mule, jumped in and found out our mule was
actually a race horse as it transported us out of another hairy situation. The truck (err - I mean race horse) is currently
in the shop and as soon as we get the O.K - we will be heading back in again on
approximately our 45th trip since the earthquake.
