A day in the life

Our care center staff has a GUAGUA (glorified van) that we take from Montellano (the town where I live) to Caraballo, where our Care Center is. It’s a bumpy, rocky road through the sugar cane fields and even when the guagua is at its best, the ride feels a little bit like a carnival ride.

 

The last few days we have been hearing an interesting new noise. Yesterday the noise was getting  louder and all of a sudden, THUD. The guagua comes to a halt and everyone gets out to see what the problem is. Turns out, some kind of big important metal piece underneath fell right off (they told me what it was called but unfortunately my auto mechanical Spanish vocab is almost non existent). So there we are, hanging out in the sugar cane, waiting for a rescue.

                                    

 

 

Then from around the bend comes Alberto in his trusty blue truck to save the day. I am wondering how this is going to be fixed, how to get a tow truck, how to get us all back to town, etc. But the men decide to just attach the guagua to the truck with a rope and everybody piles back in for the treck to town. I’m sure we looked like quite a sight! A blue pick up hauling a van full of people using only a simple rope! Thankfully we made it back to town and now our beloved guagua is getting worked on.

                                    

A phrase I learned that I have been using a lot here goes like this, “Pero eso es normal”. It means, “But this is normal”. I find myself saying it because even though things like this seem a little crazy, this is the new normal J