radiator

So today I am sitting in the airport at Cap Haitian again. There is some strange French cartoon playing on the television. It amazes me how many cartoons are out there when you think of the work it takes to create them. I spent last night at a pastors house in Port de Paix. Living in the city is one thing that I don't think I could do here. It is very noisy, dirty, and smells like burning garbage. The place I stayed at was pretty nice though. It was not far from the ocean and the evening storm blew in rain and fresh air. This picture was taken from the balcony at the pastors house. The photo is lit only by lightning which is why it looks a little strange. The river was a bit higher than usual yesterday and I was unsure as to weather I should cross it or not. It was not really a question of weather we would make it across or not but just wanting to avoid wear and tear on the vehicle. I ended up crossing...
The past week I have been working on Bruce's team house doing some electrical and network stuff. Leah and I are in Cap Haitian to pick up here sister who is here to spend two weeks painting murals with the kids. After that they will be leaving together.
It is starting to get hot here. The sun shines so brightly that 5 minutes outside leaves your skin feeling sunburned. I took some visiting engineering students to the market the other day. Bought some sweet potatoes, bananas, tomato paste and sandals. Most grocery stores have a parking lot, here at the market we have a donkey/mule/horse if your lucky lot.

(the next day)

oops... Well let me begin at the begining... As you know the other day I was on my way to Cap Haitian with Leah to go pick up her sister from the airport. Rob let us borrow his Toyota Land cruiser to go pick her up. So Leah and I left around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. On the way we ran into another missionary who had been down at the river doing some other work. He told us that the river was high and that we would probably be better off leaving the vehicle on this side of the river. We went our separate ways and finally arrived at the river. The river was higher than usual (a little higher than the bottom of a donkeys belly. I parked where I had a good view of the river crossing and watched a few tap taps venture across. Everyone seemed to be making it across OK, so after a very sincere prayer we crossed the river. Fortunately we were crossing in such a manner that we were going downstream as we crossed. This not only helps propel you across it keeps water from building up in front of the vehicle. We made it across without incident. We spent the night at a pastors house in Port de Paix and flew out early the next morning to Cap Haitian. ok so we picked her sister up with about 350 lbs of luggage and made it successfully back to Port de Paix. (Many thanks to Karen :] ) and now the rest of the story.... yesterday I coming back from Port de Paix the river was still high. I sat and watched the river for about an hour trying to decide weather I should cross it or not. It was still a little higher than a donkeys belly... same as the day before, however this time we would be fording it going upstream. Meaning the water would be pushing against us. tap taps (bush taxis) were crossing it driving backwards to keep the water from pushing its way up into the ignitions system and air intake of their vehicles. One vehicle stalled in the river from taking on two much water. As they pushed the truck across the river someone inside began to bale out water through the passenger window. They eventually got the vehicle out of the river. After seeing about 8 vehicles cross successfully, all of which were less equipped for river crossings than the Toyota Land Cruiser I was driving, I decided to go ahead and cross. The toyota we where driving had been outfitted for river crossing complete with bash plates and a snorkel. I entered the water and all went pretty well, the water came to about the top of the tires but we had a good amount of weight in the back kept good traction all the way across. We were relieved to make it across the river without getting stuck. We had just about made it home when I happened to look at the engine temp and saw that it was really hot. I went ahead and stopped then shut off the engine. (For those of you who don't know if the engine gets too hot it can fuse together and become pretty much a nice solid boat anchor) Fortunately I saw the temp gauge before that happened. I got out and checked the radiator fluid reservoir. Empty of course. I eased the radiator cap (don't try this at home) halfway so that it could vent steam if there was any. There was not. I looked down at the radiator and saw that it had been scraped heavily next to the fan.
So I am not sure what happened but either the fan hit the water in the river and propelled itself into the radiator... or there was some foreign object floating in the river that got jammed between the radiator and the fan. We are going to try and fix it with stop leak but I would like to buy a new radiator for it, since it is the ambulance for this area and usually operates on bad roads in far out places. So I was not looking forward to telling Rob what I had done to his very nice vehicle... but he took it very well and had a great attitude about it. I felt bad because I thought that perhaps I should not have crossed the river while it was so high. Rob said that he had crossed it when it was high enough that it came over the hood... so that was comforting. We put some water in the radiator and got it home. We are going to try and use stop-leak to fix it on monday... I really would like to replace the radiator for him though... He is going to talk to the people that sponsored the vehicle and outfitted it to see how much one would cost and have it shipped in a container. Well that is my sad story for yesterday.... Today Leah's sister Caitlan began painting with the kids here at PCB. The kids are having a blast.