Getting home (June 21, 2010)

In trying to make my life less difficult I often end up making things more complicated and stressful. Let me tell you about getting home this past Monday.

On Monday morning I made it to O’Leary around 8:30am. The weather was threatening rain, but when I asked about my busses I was told both the 10:30am and 1:00pm busses were running. My 1pm bus was not in its usual position up on the side road in all its decrepit glory, but I decided to try to make the early bus since it would pass directly in front of my house.
After buying Saraki’s rabies vaccine (they packed it on ice--nothing beats do-it-yourself vet work), I climbed the hill to Nathan’s house. It’s hard to see volunteers leave and Nathan is heading out, although not home. Since he’s not having a follow-up he gave his things to all of us current volunteers. Kristen (a new early education volunteer) helped me carry all my things down to the terminal at 10:30am. Sure enough that bus wasn’t running after all. Rather than carry everything back up to Nathan’s we put it on the back of the 1:00pm bus which by now had resumed its position. I talked to the kid to verify the leave time and gave him some money.

The weather was looking more and more threatening and I was nervous they might leave early. I ran a few more errands and would have been on the bus much earlier, but waited to walk back with Nathan and Kristen around 12:30 pm. My heart stopped as I saw that the bus was neither in its place on the hill nor across the street at the terminal. After asking the guys at the terminal we learned the bus had left about 5 minutes ago. Taxi! The taxi driver dumped a 2 liter Niko soda bottle of gas into the engine in the trunk and after a few false starts was able to get the engine going. It chugged and shuddered and I didn’t think we were going to make it across the Ruta much less all the way down Tape Monday fast enough to catch the bus. “Ipya’eve, IPYA’EVE”. Go Faster! “I have to CATCH the bus! All my things are on it,” I explain to the taxi driver again. I made a call to Kai Javier (my community contact and closest neighbor) and explained the situation so he could stop the bus if I didn’t catch it in time. By now the road is just a mud hole, but after fifteen agonizing minutes we see the rusty back of the bus. The taxi driver flashed his headlights. We argued about the price. I threw the money at him, thanked him, and jumped out. All eyes were on me as I found my seat and placed a crate of things beside me. I glanced towards the back and all my other belongings were just where I had left them. I prayed the rain would stop and that Kai Javier’s kids would be at the cruce because I had more than I could possibly carry. We almost got stuck at one point because a sliding moto caused us to lose our momentum while going uphill. It was still raining when we got to my stop. The bus could not go any farther because two large trucks were stuck in the mud at the turn in the road. The man from the sugar cane truck in front of the bus helped me carry all my things to the other side of the road. I just stood in the rain and tried to call Javier. My phone had connection problem. I was trying to figure out what to do when all of a sudden I saw a head emerge from the house at the corner. Soon she and her sister Rocio helped me drag everything up to the porch and out of the rain. They offered me a seat in from of the t.v. and I offered them bananas.

While they watched the soap opera I tried to reach Javier again. Rocio was finally successful and after the show we stood on the porch and waited. Through the mist 3 powder pink ponchos appeared and together Noe, Carmen, Rorro and I slipped and slid through the muddy street with all the things back home—at last!