Monday, February 28, 2011

Coincidence or Providence that rocks lie where there at?


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.