God is my homeboy part 2

So I promised that there would be more to come on our crazy adventures so here it is.....

After we slept the night away on those amazing beds we got up the next morning and started our day off right with one of the most amazing breakfast bars. I am sure however that we looked like we had stumbled in drunk the night before needing a place to sleep and had slept it off. Then got up the next morning, put on the same clothes, pulled back our hair, and walked out of the hotel looking very much like we hadn't had anything with us. Oh and I should mention that we were staying at the Marriott under a missionary discount. I'm sure they were thinking...yea right they sure look like missionaries. After that amazing breakfast we went back down to find Gracie and see if she would maybe start today. We just needed her to get to the mechanics.
So we prayed our way down the elevator and into the car and guess what...that's right she started. We weren't sure how long she would last but she started. So first things first we drove her to the car rental place and got another car. We didn't want to get stranded and figured as bad of shape as she was in the repairs would probably take longer than just a day. So yes we rented a nice truck that Jen has fallen in love with for sure and headed to the mechanics. Did I point out that since Jen was driving the truck that meant Deborah was driving the van. This was only her second Honduran driving experience but she did great! So we get Gracie safely to the mechanic only to find out that they not only couldn't work on her that day but also that we couldn't leave her there for the night. Which meant we had to figure out another place in the city to leave her since there was no way she could make it back up the mountain.
We decided our best option would be to park her at the airport and pay the money so we headed back toward the airport. Jen led the way and we continued to pray that we would just make it to the airport. Well we made it to this big hill between the airport and the mechanics when Gracie decided she needed a break. I mean seriously this car picks some great spots to break down. First the speed bump and now this....she needs to work on that for sure! So there we sat. 3 gringos broken down in the middle of a busy Honduran highway. If you think people never stop to help in America they most certainly don't stop to help in Honduras. I kid you not at one point a car went around us on the RIGHT side. They had 2 tires up on the curb and the other 2 tires on the road. Talk about impatient. They didn't even have an off road vehicle...I mean seriously. So we sat and waited and I was praying like mad that she would cool off a bit and then get her butt up the rest of that hill because the way I looked at it my back side had yet to see that drivers seat and there wasn't much chance they were going to let my first experience be while they both pushed! However, I needn't have worried because after about 10 minutes or so of holding down that piece of road on that ever so busy highway Gracie decided she was cool enough to move on. So we continued on and finally made it to the airport. We had gotten right to the little ticket booth thing at the entry way of the airport when Gracie died yet again. This time she wouldn't click, turn over, or anything. She was dead. So of course we have a huge string of traffic behind us going beep beeep beeeppp BBBBEEEEEEPPPP! Like that was helping anything. I seriously sat there praying that God would disable every stinking horn in this city. People here need to learn to use their horns in moderation.
So back out of the van I went. However, I'm happy to say that this time about 10 men came over to help push. I choose to believe that they would have been just as eager to help had we not been 3 American women in need of some assistance. So we pushed Gracie the rest of the way and then were forced to leave her unlocked with the windows down because we seriously had not power. Nothing...nada...not a thing. OK so you get the point. However, I wasn't so concerned with leaving her unlocked. I was actually hoping that someone would come in the middle of the night and take her apart and sell her piece by piece. Needless to say my prayer wasn't answered and the next morning she was right where we left her. Still as dead as ever.
We had to coast her back out of her parking spot and then push her to the top of a hill with the hopes that by the time she got to the bottom she would have started. Thankfully she did or that busy intersection that we had just pushed Jen into would have gotten real scary real fast. So she was up and running again and with Deborah back in the drivers seat we were headed back to the mechanics. We made it all the way this time with no problems....well except for the time that Deborah and I almost missed our exit and had to cut some people off. Don't worry though because upon Deborah's request I stuck my arm out the window and gave them a perfectly clear signal that we would be turning to the right. Yes of course we had a perfectly good turn signal that we could have used to get that same point across. However, apparently in a panic Deborah's first reaction is to scream "put your arm out the window" and I was only too happy to comply. So yes we made it to the mechanics in one piece and Deborah and I glad handed over the keys and joined Jen in our nice new Toyota.
We went back into town to run some errands and accomplish some things that might actually leave us feeling productive before returning to the place to see if Gracie was fixed. When we arrived they informed us that it would only take an hour more and she would be done so we decided we were perfectly OK with finding other random errands that needed to be run while we waited on her. However, we made it back to the place just in time to watch them pour a bottle of coolant into her and then watch it promptly flow right out the bottom of the car. Apparently they had missed the part where we told them she had a problem that needed fixed and had only cleaned her out or something. Who would know. So after examining this new found problem they came to us and let us know that they needed a new part to replace the old one. Now this is the part that I find amusing. They informed us that we needed a new part and then told us where WE needed to go to get it.
This definitely wasn't like the states where they either have those parts on hand or order them for you. So ok we were fine with having to go get the part until they mentioned that we had to go to the one part of town that we have been warned to never go. However, not really having any other options but to get the part, we decided to take Gina with us for directions and headed out anyways. We made it there and back safely with the necessary part and sat waiting for the car to be done. Once they had the correct part it really didn't take them long at all. However, when they finished they informed us that they had only fixed part of the problem but we would have to take her somewhere else to fix the rest of the problem. Oh yes and again...we couldn't park our car there over night.
So we headed to our other mechanic in hopes that they could fix her and at least let us park her there for the night. However, when we got there the gates were closed and no one was around. That clearly wasn't going to be an option. With few others choices we headed back to the airport to leave her for the night. We made it up the big hill and through the ticket area with no problems and bedded her down for another lonely night in the city. Friday came and we found ourselves back in the city dealing with the car. This was day 4 of dealing with Gracie and making that trip to the city and back. It was getting quite old. So we got Gracie from the airport and headed to Baxter where we were glad to rid ourselves of the problem and hand Gracie over to Timo. Who by the way called today to say that she is fixed. A mere 24 hours after receiving her he has managed to have her fixed. So we will go into town today I am sure and bring her home. Lets just hope that is where the adventure ends. Let me explain for a second just why I ended up with the title of "God is my homeboy." I kept saying that the past few days as God would work yet another thing out for us. He seriously watched over us and got us to every place we needed to go. We were never stranded and things could have gone a LOT worse than what they did. It is times like the past 4 days when God's presence is undeniable. So many things just kept happening. We would pray to make it to the Marriott and die in the driveway. We would need to push Gracie up a hill and find 10 men eager to assist. We needed a room to stay in and even though they were all full they some how found us a room. It worked out too well to be anything other than God. He truly did have our backs (and our fronts as Deborah would say) the past few days.