Not our most glorious moment.... :(
...but we're thankful nothing worse happened. Yesterday, Thanksgiving....we ate humble pie, then pumpkin pie--even though the punishment didn't fit the crime, we are guilty.
We were our way out at about 12:30, with Mimi Potatoes, Pumpkin Pie, Salad and bread in the cooler. We let Ricky (age 15 1/2 :)) practice driving on a road—he doesn’t have a permit yet. We sometimes let him turn the car around and drive out on the unpaved roads of our neighborhood and then switch drivers before we get to the "main" road (not much better, but there is a little traffic on it.) This time we let him go a little ways on the "real" road. Some Haitian policemen stopped us to check our papers and they asked for Ricky's license. To make things worse, we didn’t have the current paperwork for our insurance in the glove compartment—it was at home. (Richard was going to make a copy on our copier/printer first. Normally the police should have written us a ticket (or ticketS) and let us go. But they asked for the keys to the car, kept them and are papers and just went back and stood were they had been standing. Richard tried to show them that we had the insurance sticker on the car and asked to go home to get the up-to-date paperwork since we were so close to home. But they wouldn't let us. When we asked what was going on, they said that someone from the traffic office had to come and we had to wait. We called the missionaries we were supposed to have dinner with and told them to go ahead. Every time we asked the police what was going on, they said that the man was on his way and would be there soon. It didn'teven seem like they were asking for a bribe. Sometimes we hear "don't you have something for me?" But not this time. We called people and asked what they thought about it. They thought it wasn't normal but couldn't really figure it out. The officers all looked under age 20, I think they liked the power of keeping us "blancs" there. But what can we say? We were in the wrong.
When we had been there about an hour and 15 minutes, a Haitian friend who works in the area came along and he and his friends talked to the police. After another 15 minutes or so, they got the police to agree to Richard going in Eddy's car with him to our house to get the proper paperwork. Ricky & I stayed with the car with 2 Haitian friends who were riding with us. Meanwhile I called the Haitian consulate emergency number. The representative listened and asked to speak with the the police officers, but they refused to talk to him. He said that if they still kept us after Richard got the papers, to call him back and that if we needed it we could possibly call the Marine Guard.
Aside - The mysterious Marine Guard. We've been told that anywhere you are, anytime night or day, no matter what you've done, if you think you are in danger, you can call the Marine Guard and they'll come and rescue you. I've heard of a story of a wayward teenager who found himself lost late at night in a bad part of town and the Marines came and got him. Kind of a cool picture of God, isn't it?
When Richard and Eddy got back, they talked to the policemen for about 10 minutes and they let us go without giving us any tickets. They said at that point that if Richard had told them that the paperwork was at our house, they would have let us go, but hmmmmm. So, several lessons learned, one of them is not to give in to kids when you know you’re right even though they say “C’mon just let me…..”
It wasn't my favorite Thanksgiving, but we're thankful for Eddy and his friend who helped us, for David Schmid who was just about leave home and come out to try to help us, and that we did make it to the Schmid's house and ate turkey with all the fixings.
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