Living Life in First Gear

December 14, 2010


We’ve started Pathfinders here; it’s called Conquistadores in Peru. I feel like Pathfinders and Conquistadors don’t quite have the same meaning. “Come kids, come be Conquistadors. You know, the guys who came over from Spain to conquer your land and slaughter your people, and tear down your beautiful Incan temples to replace them with their catholic cathedrals? Yeah, let’s emulate them!” Ok, so yeah, we’re Conquistadors for Jesus, but I just feel like they could have come up with a better name.

Moving on. So this Sunday, the last Sunday of Pathfinders before Christmas break, Caleb, Rebecca, and I went out to pick up the kids. This particular morning we had to take the combi because the Doctor was using the truck.

Now, let me just say that the combi is not the ideal vehicle. First of all, the door doesn’t close correctly, it closes, but it takes some super human strength to shut it. We had break issues; as in you better start slowing down about ½ a Km before you actually want to stop (thankfully that is fixed now). When you drive down a dirt road, the dirt flies in through every crack and crevice. And the cover for some sort of battery is broken, so every so often it sparks. Also, it’s almost impossible to find the gear and you really have to crank the steering wheel to turn. You have to be a pro to drive this thing; thankfully Doctor Mathews has perfected the art of driving the combi. Despite all of its issues, the combi does provide us with extra transportation and cargo space. So I really shouldn’t complain.

Needless to say, Caleb was not too thrilled to be driving the combi. But it was all we had. So we hopped in the van and made our way to Campo Verde to pick up our first group of kids. The trip to Campo Verde was pretty uneventful, just a lot of driving up and down streets in search of Conquistadores. After successfully finding them we made or way to the second pit stop: Yerbas Buenas.

The road to Yerbas (sounds like a good movie or book title) is supering bumpy because of the rain washouts. We bumped along, swerving to avoid the big potholes, all the way to pick up…………one kid. Just one. No one else showed up. But hey, one is better than none. On our way back down the road we saw an old lady and a kid from one of my classes walking down the road, so we stopped to pick them up. Then kept going (I know, riveting writing). We were almost to the end of the dirt road when we saw two of my kids from Los Pinos school. We stopped and yelled out the window, “Quieres ir?” They happily agreed and Caleb went to shift the gear. Then it happened.

“Oh no,” Caleb yelled.

“What?” I asked with a little panic.

I turned my head to see Caleb holding up the gear shifter in his right hand, detached from the ground. We both screamed. Then started laughing from the ridiculousness of the situation.

“What are we going to do?”

“Well, we’re in first gear still, so I should be able to make it.”

And so we did. We still had one more stop to make in Santa Elvita which was about 2 Km from where we were at the moment. The drive was painfully slow. We laughed the whole way. I think we all could have jogged faster.

Finally, we got all the kids to 38. The rest of the morning was spent teaching the kids how to set up and take down a tent. They raced to see who could do it the fastest. We also taught them how to tie four different kinds of knots. The kids had fun, I had fun, it was a good morning. Luckily, when it was time to go we had the truck to take the kids back.