LEX

and the adventure continues...

so makarios ownes this thing we sometimes call a jeep (and sometimes we call it a pathfinder, and sometimes we just call it a piece of crap). said jeep was having power steering problems. since finding a good mechanic in this country is nearly impossible, we decided to take it to what seemed like a reliable shop in Santiago. we had to go to santiago on tuesday to pick up the mail from the airport, so we left it there and took the bus back to puerto plata. the plan was to take the bus back to santiago the following saturday and drive it back to puerto plata on sunday after church at the HUB.

we arrived in santiago around 5:00 and had a successful pickup at the car shop. we drove from there to a friends apt. and the car drover beautifully, with power steering enabling us to make a very smooth u-turn.

a few hours later we decided to stop by the HUB to visit with some friends. as soon as we took off we heard a very strange fluttering noise and realized that the a/c wasn't working. we decided we'd check it out the next day after church when we actually had some light. unfortunately, we didn't get that far. a few minutes later, we heard even stranger noises and the jeep suddenly died in the middle of Juan Pablo Duarte at 9pm in saturday evening traffic.

after having a handful of dominican men help us push the jeep to the side of the road, tinker around for a while, and ask for 100 pesos and our number, the engine was finally running. we get in, ready to get to the HUB. about 30 seconds later, the engine dies once again and we are unable to restart it. one of the men was still around and more than ready to get all of them together again, but we decided to just leave it on the side of the road rather than taking chances on it stalling in the MIDDLE of the road again. a few men helped us push the car out of the hospital's 24 hour emergency parking, we grabbed our bags and were of again, on foot.

since the car shop is not open on sundays, we had a new delimma: leave the car and have to make another trip to try, once again, to take it back to PP, OR stay sunday evening and have them fix it first thing monday morning so we can go back WITH the jeep. we were pretty sure it was something that could be fixed in a very short time (a loose something or other is my professional opinion), so we opted for staying sunday evening. though this meant we had to cancel classes, it seemed the best option for actually being able to transport food for the kids AND all of our teaching resources to the villages for the rest of the week. and we weren't too disappointed about getting to see the colts beat the bears.

we call the shop first thing monday morning and they are apparently on their way. after we wait for longer than we wanted, we get a call saying they're coming at 11:00. so it's not quite the quality of service we had hoped for, but when you're in the DR, what can you do?

and then sometime around 10:15ish, jennie calls to say that the group is on their way. the group that is supposed to arrive TUESDAY morning, is on their way on MONDAY morning. we have a very messy house and NO FOOD. the crises worsens as we realize jennie can't go shopping because we took the MAK money and debit card with us to do some of that in santiago (which has not happened because of the lack of a functioning vehicle). so this is about the time we all start to panick. jennie has yet to be married a week, it's her first day back to work, she suddenly has a whole house to prepare for a group of 14, and camille, royce and i are in santiago with all the money and a dead car. ay yai yai!

the earliest we could leave was on the 12:15 caribe bus back to PP, leaving royce behind to talk to the car people when they finally decide to show up. so camille and i rush back to help angelina finish preparing the house while jennie and miguel shop for food. after making 14 beds (and transfering half of them to the other side of the duplex), putting away food, and making dinner for 14 people, we finally came to the end of the insanity.

it's amazing how a quick trip to santiago can turn into a full weekend of insanity. on the bright side: 1) we got to watch the superbowl with english speakers who understand an american's love of football, 2) we made it back alive, 3) we have a good story to tell.

(pictures should be coming soon)

posted by Alexia & Jeffrey @ 8:34 PM