Honk! Honk!

The kids built a car town.  It looks a little like Oaxaca traffic.

You're getting the raw version before I have time to do a lot of processing.  Traffic is beyond crazy in Oaxaca city.  Last night when we were out there was a very busy intersection with a traffic light out, no traffic cop in sight.  Sam had to force his way through the intersection.  Minutes later we saw a motor cycle zip through lines of stopped cars on a busy three lane road only to be hit by a truck pulling into traffic.  He walk away from that one, but his bike was another story.  It didn't look so good.  Several hours later, on the way home, same traffic light, same story. Only more horn honking this time.  I was glad I was not driving.  Have I made my point.  Traffic is crazy.  People routinely run red lights, large buses jump lanes with no signal, taxis cut here and there.



Saturday afternoon is especially crazy and congested, which is where I found myself.  Saturday afternoon, Oaxaca traffic, 7 church ladies and 2 children, my niece whose been in country less than a week in the passengers seat.  Trying to follow the pastor in his van full of ladies through the city so we could go to a ladies meeting in a smaller town outside the city.....and I almost made it too.

Pastor made on last stop to pick up a few more ladies on the far side of the city and I began to pull to the curb behind him.  Then all of the sudden the left side of the van was hit!  I whipped around in complete shock, to see all the ladies assuring me they were just fine.  All smiles!  Thank you Lord!  I had some how collided with the bus also pulled to the curb picking up passages.  I was totally confused, but assumed I had somehow miss calculated.  Mind you I have been driving for almost 20 years.  We moved the vehicles and I went out to talk with the police and bus driver.  (Let me just insert here that having an accident in a foreign country is not an ideal situation, who is at fault can be subjective, and at this point I am assuming it is my fault).  When I stepped back to the vehicle, I told my wide eyed niece, "everything will be OK, just pray".

After some negotiation (about 20 minutes) between our pastor and the police and bus driver.  I paid a nominal fee to the bus drive for the bus damages and a small fee to the police for my "infraction".  Shook hands and took off praising God that no one was hurt, it hadn't cost me much, and I hadn't gotten hauled out to jail or anything.  Surprisingly, after I saw all the ladies were not hurt, I was quite calm and willing to let God work things out, even if I did get hauled off to jail.

Then during a moment of day dreaming while the dear speaker was talking about how to support and help our husbands, I turned to my niece and whispered, "I don't think that accident was my fault!".  She said, "I didn't think it was!"  I did have room, I did calculate correctly.  The bus driver began to pull out without looking carefully and that's what caused the accident.  I think everyone knew this but me and that's why the "fees" were so small.  Pastor told Sam the next day that the police had decided it was going to be my fault, end of story, but he was sure it wasn't.  The sweet ladies took up a collection and paid me back for the fee I had paid the bus driver!  Well, praise God for his protection and provision, because that was a very big bus!