What Is Normal?

On Saturday I tried to sleep in a little since lately I've been feeling more unrested than normal. I made it until just after 7:00am....not to bad considering I went to bed around 10:00pm. I started the day off by reading for a couple hours and finishing off the book Adam and Reneé had brought me. Later in the day I took the dirt bike to Canaan and then walked to the ocean with some friends to go swimming. By the time we got back the sun was setting and I had to ride home without my sunglasses on...which isn't a great idea because of all the dust and other foreign objects that try to make their way into your eyes. It took a little longer than normal, but I made it home. When I got back we had two visitors from CAWST (Centre for Affordable Water and Sanitation Technology) that were going to be staying with us overnight. CAWST does work not only in Haiti, but also all over the world and we try to communicate with each other to share information and ideas.

On Sunday I went to church at Canaan like normal and then stuck around to hang out with Bobi, Elsie, and Elsie's parents who are visiting from Costa Rice. Elsie wanted to show her parents the Artibonite valley that is north of Saint-marc, so we all hopped in one of Canaan's vehicles and headed out. To get to the valley we had to pass Clean Water for Haiti and as we were approaching it we noticed a large amount of people and vehicles close to the mission's driveway. A bus had somehow gone off the national highway and was stuck on the side of the road. A truck mounted crane was parked across the highway, trying to lift the bus back onto the road. After a while, people started to get restless and were driving up into a field off the highway to get around the incident. We followed suit and got past everything without too much trouble.

On our way back to Canaan we passed this location again and the bus had been removed. However, the mobile crane was still hard at work because another bus had managed to get itself stuck in the field where people were trying to get past. I just laughed to myself and thought that the crane owner must have been pretty happy about all the business he was getting. We then went to Montrouis and walked across the bad bridge and through the market that is on the other side.

I had driven the VW to church in the morning because we were having trouble getting the blue truck started. It was dark by the time I was ready to head back home from Canaan and as I started the vehicle I quickly noticed that the headlights didn't work. I tried fidgeting with a few things and after I couldn't make them work, I gave Chris a call. He gave a few suggestions, but nothing helped so I said I would just drive really slowly and try to make it home without them. After we hung up I remembered the flashlight I carried in my backpack...just for emergency situations like this when you have to drive a vehicle using a flashlight for headlights. So I took off and had to learn quickly that when another vehicle was passing, I couldn't see anything. And you can't just assume that if you continue in a straight line on the roads you will be fine. Here, you never know when you'll come across a large rock, pole, machine swallowing pothole, goat, or something else. When a car would pass I would stick my head out the window to get a better view and then pump the brakes to start the slowing process (the brakes are still a bit fidgety and slow to respond). I made it about half way home before the next adventure started. As I was going through one of the bigger water-filled gulleys in the highway, the VW stalled. I tried to get it started again, but to no avail. Cars were starting to line up behind and in front of me...and patients ran thin fast. With all the people standing around looking at me, I was able to have them help push the vehicle out of the water and out of the way so traffic could pass.  I gave Chris a call and he brought the red truck with a rope so we could tow it back. Before long we were back home and eating dinner. I later thought to myself....if something like this had happened when I first got to Haiti, I would have thought it was a crazy day. But, now that I've been here a while, it honestly didn't hit me that this was an interesting story until later that night. It is funny what becomes normal after time.

Alright, that's all I have for now. Since I didn't have any pictures with this story, I will leave you with one of the many beautiful sunsets we get to enjoy this time of the year.