I want to be vulnerable on this blog. That includes admitting when I've been stupid.
Today I met Nickolai and Ofelia. I saw them pulled over with a broken down, smoking van. I stopped to see if I could help. That's where I went wrong; assuming I could fix their vehicle. The van's fan belt had broken, so I took them to get a new one. We then tried for two hours to replace the belt with no luck. At this point we realized that we had been given the wrong belt. We got the right belt and replaced it in 5 minutes. HOORAY! Wait, wait. Let's make sure the van starts. It does! HOORAY! Wait, why is it smoking? What's that crazy squeaking noise? We shut the van off just before the new fan belt snapped. As it turns out, there was more wrong with the engine than the belt. Much more. So, I stopped to "help" these people, ate up 2+ hours of their day, all so they could buy a useless belt and still have to be towed to a garage. If I hadn't stopped and tried to be Action Man they'd have just called for a tow and maybe gotten their van fixed today. As it happens, they'll probably be stuck here until at least tomorrow. Brilliant. Good work. I really am at my best when I'm making assumptions.
Nickolai and Ofelia were very nice. They were from Central America. Their English wasn't great, which made our attempts at replacing the belt hilarious at best. Up, down, around, and under are remarkably difficult concepts for cross-lingual communication. All in all, I'm glad I met them. I'm just unconvinced that the feeling will be mutual.
Jesse,
ReplyDeleteI came over to your blog from Trevin's. I like what you're doing and am interested to see how it goes for you.
I have been in the Nickolai and Ofelia's position and so I can say that your efforts couldn't have been unappreciated, even if they weren't immediately successful. Those beautiful distractions can speak powerfully into our lives.
Bless you today. I hope you get the rest your body needs and start to feel better.
Tony