Now that we have shared the information with the owner of the truck, who also happens to be our boss, we can tell you about our shield of protection and excitement on Saturday afternoon.
Many of you have been here - so for you, no description of the driving conditions is necessary. For the rest of you, the quickest way
to help you visualize driving in Haiti is just to ask that you go to your nearest amusement park, get into a bumper car. Dig thirty or forty holes in the cement, double the number of cars, put only aggressive, unafraid to die people behind the wheels of all other bumper cars, then all try to get somewhere.Bumper cars don't have signals, signs, lanes or rules and neither do drivers in Haiti.
When you think of auto accidents, think of the one vehicle you would not want to go up against.
Did you think 'Semi' ? Yeah. Me too. How can that possibly turn out good?
We were merrily driving along National Route 1, in the Titanyen vicinity. We were munching on our newly acquired beef jerky. (THANK YOU VERY MUCH TDS TELECOM FRIENDS!) We were reflecting on Erik and Nik and how happy the whole adoption thing was/is. All of a sudden Troy is saying "hold on guys, hold on guys, hold on guys." I looked up from my beef jerky happy place to see a semi careening slowly towards us. I responded with "pray pray pray pray." Paige sat wide-eyed and silent and Hope and Isaac remained asleep, until we made contact that is.
Other than a flock of angels surrounding the truck, I have no idea how we got out of it with only this much damage and zero injuries to report. Had Troy made any of other choice than the one he made, Isaac would have been crushed or people standing on the side of the road would have been run over.
Q. Is the biggest miracle that we-
a.) drove the truck home, with cosmetic damage only after colliding with a semi truck
b.) found a way to steer the vehicle into the "best" part of the semi and avoided hitting the pedestrians along the road side
c.) lived here nine months before having an accident
d.) hopped out, looked at the truck, shrugged our shoulders and went on without filing a police report or exchanging insurance information
e.) did not bother to tear the head off of the guy who totally hosed us with his bad driving
A. all of the above
(Maybe this is the country I should have been driving in all along????? Take that State Farm insurance. I don't need you and your silly 'high risk' label anymore. No one cares here.)
All kidding aside, it was one of those moments where you are accutely aware of God' protection. Any little deviation from what happened and the entire story would look a lot different. Thank you LORD!