All's Well That Ends Well

Today was my first time out as the official Chiri Health Center Public Health Director, and more importantly as the only driver. Since no one here has cars, literally I think our organization and the other NGO in town are the two cars in all of Chiri, it is very rare for someone to know how to drive. As many of you know, I really dislike driving and have very little faith in my driving ability. Now throw in the facts that the car here is stick and that the roads are unpaved and super mountainous and you can imagine how excited I was to begin my day.


We had to cancel Outreach because there are no vaccines right now (just part of life when working in the developing world I guess) but luckily there was also a scheduled meeting in another village. This last year Erin began a community leaders committee made up of four representatives (two men & two women) from each village to be our public health liaisons. So at nine this morning the public health nurse and I set out to the village of Gessa with my fingers crossed that it would be a good day. We successfully made it to the village of Shedda (only once did I think we were about to go off a cliff) and picked up our field liaison Endarege, whose job it is to work in-depth with four communities we serve, as well as eight of the community reps. It was not soon after I introduced myself to the community members that as I was going up a hill, I tried going from second to first gear and then boom I stalled. Keeping my cool, I started the car and tried to get it going again. Unfortunately, while I did have several stick lessons none included how to start when you are on a hill--- probably a bad oversite considering we live in the middle of the mountains. Each time I tried the truck just kept slipping and slipping backwards. I should have known it was a bad sign when all of the staff members got out of the car. It seemed hopeless, but eventually I slid far enough down that the truck was on flat land. Phew!!! I got it going and went up the hill, motioning for the staff members to meet me at the top. I felt the rush of victory, like I was an Indy 500 driver and just avoided crashing.

It was not 30 seconds after they all got back in that I realized I had underestimated where the hill flattened out. Yup, you guessed it-- I was back in no mans land of not being able to get up the car going! I can only imagine what the community leaders were thinking of this crazy farangee (foreigner) who couldn’t get the car up the road. Everyone was giving their two cents, which luckily I couldn’t really understand much of, but basically they all thought I was trying to go backwards. Again and again I started the car, removed the brake and tried to get it going....only to slide backwards. Eventually I found myself perpendicular to the road and half in a ditch. Lovely....

The men tied a rope to the car and tried pulling it out, but after about five tries the rope broke. I thought the situation was completely hopeless.....there was no one else who knew how to drive, I wasn’t getting any cell service (to try and call the clinic in hopes that someone could talk me through starting on a hill) and I was literally in ditch. WTF came to mind at this point. What would I do???? We were at least a four hour walk from Chiri and there is barely any other mode of transportation. Then, the men found another rope and several other people to help and began to pull once more. HALLELUJAH!!!! I have absolutely no idea how it happened, but it did.....we were off! I think I literally cried out in joy with my arms in the air-- we made it!!!

Very late, we got to Gessa and began the half hour trek to the office where the meeting was to take place. I won’t go into all the details here now about the meeting (I’ll do that another day) but it was great. Really wonderful and inspiring, it made me feel very content about my work here. I know that a year is a short amount of time, and that change is slow, but that my being here has the possibility of being part of something much bigger then myself.

On the drive back a man was asking for a ride on the side of the road which is very common. I knew the car was full but noticed out of the corner of my eye that he held up a baby to show us. After learning some about our malnutrition work at the clinic I could tell that the baby had kwashikor-- a type of malnutrition that is caused by protein deficiency causing the limbs to swell. We stopped to let him in-- at which point I realized we were on a hill!!! Yup, can you believe it, I did it again---- argh!!! This time I thought better and just reversed to a flat part and began again.

As the title of this post began....all’s well that ends well. I am looking out the window on a beautiful sunset while my challah rises, glad to be put for a while with no driving in my future (until Monday