We had great plans for Sunday. However, great plans don’t always come off the way that we hope for. We wanted to go into Guayaquil to visit a couple of the churches in the city and spend the day there. We knew that the church in Bloque 10 of Bastion Popular was having a sports day starting at 9am. Also, we had contacted our old friend David Edgecombe from La Iglesia Evangelica Alborada to let him know that we would be there at some point during their service, which starts at 10am. This is the church where we had fellowshipped between the years ‘95 and ’97 and we were looking forward to meeting old friends. Everything was set. We had all our ducks in a row. Our day was lining up perfectly but nobody had told our nifty new car.
As we went to start it there was nothing. No response. Not a sound. My first thought was that I had left the lights on and that the battery was flat. It wouldn’t be the first time that I had done something that foolish. Fearing the worst, I checked to see if we had power. Yes, the lights were working. Now my mind was racing through all the possibilities, which didn’t take long because I know nothing about cars. I thought, “If I open the hood and take a look underneath, it may simply be that there is a loose connection somewhere and I could probably fix something that simple.” It seemed like a good idea. Except try as we did, we could not find the hood release. We looked in all the usual places that a hood release might be found: under the dash, by the driver’s seat, further under the dash, in the glove box, and even further under the dash. No sign of it. We got out of the car and had a look all around the hood area to see if there might be one hidden somewhere outside. As desperate as it seems we even opened all the other doors including the hatch wondering if some crazy car designer with a wild imagination and a wicked sense of humour had placed it in some unbelievably obscure spot in the vehicle. But nowhere could we find it.
Finally, we even prayed about it which is not something I would do in this case because it seems to me that common sense should tell you where a hood release is but, not surprisingly we had no sudden, illuminating, lightning bolts of wisdom. Now I know that to all you wannabe mechanics out there this sounds ridiculous but we spent about an hour trying to find that hood release before decided to give it a rest.
By this time we had given up all hope of getting into Guayaquil on time so we called Dale Horst to see if he had any suggestions. “Try Santiago’s brother,” he suggested. “I’ve seen him rip apart an entire motor and put it back together again.” “He just lives a couple of doors down.” That seemed like a good idea except for a couple of minor details. First, it was still only 8am and there was no sign of any activity in the sleepy little village of El Arenal. After all, we had heard some of our neighbours partying until 5:00am. Second, there was no way that I was going to bring someone around to look at this car until I had found the hood release. My pride simply would not allow it. I would not be that “crazy gringo!” Over and above all of this I needed to regain some credibility with Kelly. After all, if a man cannot open the hood of a car what is he good for?
So we went back into the house with me brooding over my ineffectiveness as a male. “There has to be a way to get into that thing,” I said. Kelly agreed patiently but still obviously skeptical as to my ability to solve this problem. So I decided to change into clothes that would be more appropriate for looking under a car. Maybe if I got more aggressive with my clothing I could be more aggressive with my searching. After all, I had been reluctant to crawl under the dash or worse yet, under the car in my new white golf shirt which I had saved for three months in order to wear for the first time in Ecuador. I have a bad track record with white shirts to which my two quick-witted daughters can attest. Before I headed back out though, I needed to take care of a couple of other things. I simply had to have another coffee in an attempt to stimulate my notoriously slow early morning brain cells and I needed to text a couple of people to let them know that we would not be making it to Guayaquil.
Having enjoyed a cup of Nescafe and dealt with the texting I set myself back to the problem. Kelly, ever my faithful life-partner decided to help me take another run at the problem. Back we went over the same battlegrounds as before and still we had the same result. No sign of the hood release. Things were looking really bad. I was even beginning to think of selling the car and sticking to buses and taxis. Finally, not hoping for anything much I opened the glove compartment one more time, but this time with a difference. I lowered my head down to seat level and looked up into the cavity above the open glove compartment and there, well hidden but with the standard hood release marking was the long-looked for, ill-spoken release. “Found it!” I cried, delighted that I had been the discoverer and hopefully regained at least a semblance of respect. From there it was a simple case of naming off numerous non-descript car engine parts to impress my admiring wife. “I think it might be a bad connection at the starter motor,” I said, pointing at what I hoped might in actual fact be the starter motor. After a few pokes, prods, and cable wiggles I tried to start the vehicle again and to my delight and absolute astonishment, it started!
It was now 11am and only a little more than three hours had passed since we had left the house with such eager anticipation. Not bad for my first try at car repair in Ecuador and yes, for those of you who are wondering, I will be getting a professional to take a look at it, but for now it’s running and that’s good enough for me. I love my 1997 Chevy Vitara and it looks like it is going to fit in well with our renowned back-catalogue of quirky vehicles!
Verse for the day: Galatians 1:3-5
“Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
It struck me as I read this passage that it wouldn’t matter at what point during the post-resurrection era that you read this verse you would believe that you lived in “the present evil age.” The age we live in today certainly fits that description. I glanced over a fruit vendor’s shoulder today at the newspaper he was reading and saw that it was full of pictures of supposed Ecuadorian criminals who had obviously met violent ends. In a country and world that is full of fear it is comforting to know that Christ came to rescue us from that kind of evil and violence.
Our Chevy Vitara looking like a lean mean desert runnin´machine
A bug´s eye view of our car .... no hood release here!
Where to find the hood release on a 1997 Chevy Vitara
Finally! Underneath the hood! I fixed something here but don´t ask me what.
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