Driving

 

Finally, after all this time of living in Haiti, I drove to town!  I’ve been practicing with David, off and on over the months, and so finally when Jami and I went to Cayes for groceries, I made it the whole way J 

When I was about 15, I decided I wanted to learn to drive stick shift.  Mom had an old red Nova, and I remember trying to back it up for my first lesson.  After killing it three times, I decided I wasn’t ever going to need to know how to drive a stick shift anyway.  I mean, just buy a car without one, right??? 

I guess I never anticipated living on a mountain in southern Haiti, and feeling like I wouldn’t be able to drive even in an emergency.  David, on the other hand has been driving to Port and in the crazy Port traffic for a long time.  So, after lots of lessons with David (pretty sure he had to tell me the same thing about 100 times) some of it must have sunk in. 

As we were driving down the mountain, the speedometer read 25mph.  I was poking along.  Am I really the same person who used to consistently drive over the speed limit in an ambulance, communicating with dispatch on the radio, blaring the siren and air horn, and talking to the other medic?  Now I had to learn how to pass a tap-tap while driving uphill, honking the horn, shifting to another gear, and watching out for motorcycles.  Boy, this stick shift business is rough.

Thanks to Jami (telling me things like, “I think you should be in 3^rd gear right now”) we made it to town and down the busy streets of Cayes.  “Which lane am I supposed to be in??”  I guess you just make your own J  We pulled up to our first stop of the day, to pick up David and my Haitian Driver’s Licenses.  “Good thing my driver is getting her license,” Jami said. J