Truck v.s Motto

Turns out if you are in an auto accident in Haiti, everyone just assumes the white guy was at fault. And, since there are no road rules at all, it can be difficult to access.

A motto hit us. We were making a turn in the road and he was flying along as mottos do, and didn’t have time to stop. In addition, it had been raining so he slid a decent way too. I heard a loud crunch by my door and saw someone lurch forward and into the ditch. Brandon jumped out to check on him, and before he even reached the guy a mob of about twenty yelling Haitians descended upon the car. So, Brandon immediately helped him into our truck and we drove away. Not before his “cousin” jumped in with him (who the entire way coached him on how to get the most money out of us-little did he know we spoke enough Creole to understand him!)

We looked him over, and thank the Lord, he was okay. He was freaked out, and a bit dazed, but only had a scratched knee. Right then and there we thanked the Lord it wasn’t worse, cause of course he wasn’t wearing a helmet and he could have easily died. We drove to the Milot hospital, and even though there was another hospital closer, we wanted to go to this one because we know some of the staff there. We called our good friends on the way, and they talked us through everything. What to do, not do, all that jazz. They then offered to meet us at the hospital just to make sure we were okay. In addition, we called the Haitian doctor we know who runs the hospital, and he ‘happened’ to pick up his phone. He met us outside, and took us to where we needed to go. Usually if you show up at the hospital with a white person, the bill instantly triples-so it helped that we knew the main Dr. and he made sure we didn’t have to wait too long or pay anything outrageous. Brandon went inside while I stayed in the truck with Rosco. Yes, the poor dog was in the car when it happened, and he already hates the car. We were taking him to our friends house to introduce him to their dogs cause they are going to watch him while we are out of town.

So, they guy got checked out, and he was okay. We paid for some medicine for him, and then drove him back to his motto, and then dropped him off close to his house. We paid him some money-to fix his bike and for him personally. He was certainly expecting money, but thankfully,what we gave him seemed to be more than what he had in mind-which wasn’t too much. We just hope we don’t hear from him everyday after this, asking for more! Not a great day or experience, but we are so thankful it wasn’t worse. It really could have been so much worse, and we really felt like the Lord had his angles around our car, protecting that guy, and in the whole situation. Glad that day is over! Oh, and wouldn’t you guess we were just telling our Mississippi team how shocked we are that we hadn’t been in an accident yet!