All in a day at the market

Yup, it was market day again, and quite the adventurous one too.

First of all I can always tell when we're nearing the market 'cause I can smell it. - Its god-awful, and today it was worse than normal. Yuck! A. and I went to the "Subastas" (which is the open air veggie section) which also has all the muck and...yeah, all the really, really stinky parts. Poor A. didn't notice the cop signaling us about this big pot hole in the road (probably thought he was waving at me or something - ha!) and our back tire went right into it. At least it wasn't me at the wheel, I would have heard about it for months to come. Thankfully though 5 guys picked up the van and dragged it out (with me at the wheel - fun).

I thought that might be the most adventurous part of the day until I decide to go get our pickup truck to load her up, only to end up not finding the truck. I knew where I had left it, I was certain of it, but it just wasn't there. I think I started fritzing, well, not in a panicking way (surprizingly I was very, very calm - go figure) but yeah, this situation was NOT something you want to happen on market day. Yikes! I started heading back to our meeting place to tell the other guy I was with that I couldn't find the truck when I get down to the isles and realize that I'm in the wrong parking lot. - Man, did I breathe a sigh of relief. One of the contacts was there, said "hi" and asked me what was wrong (I think I was clutching my chest with relief), and I asked him if there were 4 different parking lots, he said 'yes', and then had a good laugh when I told him I was all worried that someone had taken my car, when I was actually in the wrong parking lot. - Oh dear! (These are the times when I'm SO thankful I have some blonde streaks in my hair!)

So yes, truck is found, we're all loaded up, and on our merry way. I take the wrong turn, but thankfully we manage to get back on the right road, only to end up being stopped about 5 minutes later by some cops. We shoot up a word of prayer for wisdom in talking to them, figuring they were going to get on our case for carrying cargo (the market provisioning), but no! - They tell us we're circulating with the wrong license plates!!!!! DUH! They want to confiscate the truck, and fine us 1300 Pesos (about $120). - And we didn't even have any money on us for a bribe. Yikes!

Man, did I feel stupid though, we had a check earlier that morning when driving to the market, hoping/praying that if anyone changed the license plates they'd changed them back, but we weren't sure what number was not allowed to circulate today, so we couldn't get out and check to see, and now...well, and now we were stuck!

E. tries to witness to the cop and explains our work, as well as our stupid mistake telling him we know, we just forgot to change the license plates (ahem - that took a step of faith to admit to actually, as though everyone does it here, its not quite right - though our license plates both are registered on this vehicle), but I took all the blame for being so stupid and dumb and forgetful. I honestly felt very stupid. Sniff... :(

The cop comes back over to my side (the driver's side) saying he wants to talk to me, asking me what we're going to do about it (heh - that's the cue for when you bribe them), but E. and I are both explaining that we just went to the market to pick up produce that was donated and we honestly have nothing. He offers to get a truck to move our stuff over to, so they can take the truck (at least they're not going to take all the provisioning) and then tomorrow I can go in and pay the fine and get the truck back. We told him we really couldn't afford that either...we're missionaries, etc. He asks if I was just visiting, I tell him that actually I've been here 2 years. He asks if my husband & kids are here (heh), and E. pipes up with "oh no, she's single". LOL! Oh well, at least it put me in a different light. :D

Miracle of all miracles happen and after checking out my license, nodding his head at my pitiful embarrassed face, etc. he tells V. to get out of the car and swap the license plates. - And even lends us the screwdriver!!! How awesome is that? Turns out we couldn't get one screw working so we just bent the license plate over so it wasn't visible, but the Lord's miracles are endless, and its almost unheard of for the cops to let you off when you're circulating on the wrong day.

I gave the cop the "New Year - New Personality" Reflection and he looks at me saying "your new year brings with it new mistakes - expensive ones too". HA! Oh well, PTL, good humiliation training (especially when it really isn't your fault). Sigh...

All is well that ends well though and I'm just sorry we didn't have a chance to pray with him. LHUs! They were in a hurry to go find someone else to fine (alas, that's true) so drove off before we could talk more. But the Lord did it again and I'm so thankful we didn't have to pay a huge fine. Whew!

Three adventures in one day - not that common an occurrence, but at least I have something to blog about.

Moral of the story, trust the Lord to work things out. ;)