Jairo was at the hospital today. He has to get his gall bladder out soon so he has been going through various tests over the past few weeks and today he was to meet with the surgeon. He was still 25th in line at 3 p.m., so it was nice to have the freedom to go home on our own. If he gets surgery next week, he and Lourdes will stay home and I will have my car to get me to the Breakfast Program every day.
There is one corner on the way up to El Hatillo that I have been dreading since I first thought of driving here. It is steep and I had to come to a stop (with motorcycles swerving on both sides of me). I told Lourdes I have been dreading that corner if I bought a stick shift. That was the one place where I got a little nervous today. I had to gun it so the car didn't stall on the steep curve. I hope some day I will get used to that corner, but I expect it will take a little while. Good thing I have a lot of experience with stick shift. (Thank you Dad!).
It felt great when Don Juan told me that was the best car I have looked at so far. He helped me fix up some little things, take off some stickers and clean the stickiness off. Then he helped me read the manual in Spanish to learn that I can't change the temperature gauge from Celsius to Fahrenheit. The mileage is in kilometers.
I am extremely grateful to Samuel Matute and his wife, Axa. They have helped me out a lot. Samuel went with me pick up the car and has helped me to finalize everything over the past few days. Many people have helped me find this car. Basically it took a village. It feels amazing to know I have so much support. Samuel knows how to get things done!
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| My new car! |
I faced a new quandary when I got to the church with my new car. I went and got Eunice to show her, but I wanted to be careful about how I approached the ladies in the kitchen. None of them will probably ever own a car. I thought they would be happy for me and they were. So nice of them! They have grand ideas of the places we will go and the things we will do together now that I have a car. Sounds fun to me!
The kids have been praying for God to bring me a car so they were thrilled. They said, "You got your car!!!" and I told them, "Gracias a Dios" (Thanks to God). They said God sent you this car? and I said Yes, I believe He did. I really do believe it. I was patient and this car kept coming to me through different people in different ways.
I am excited. It already felt almost normal driving around. I bet within a week I will be driving like a Tegucigalpan (Lourdes said I do already!).
It is still sinking in. I think tomorrow when wake up I will be surprised all over again to realize that my car is finally in the driveway.
