Would you like a shower with that van?

A few weeks back in Pohnpei, the Yaingeluo family (Bro. Yaingeluo was the prior Kolonia Branch President) generously offered to let me use one of their three vans for a few days. Since we sold our little Pajero Jr. before our California trip, I have been scrounging rides with co-workers, friends, anyone who can take me where I need to go, which is usually just to work and back and the occasional trip to the Ridings. (I can walk to church). So, I borrowed the Yaingeluo's van. I had been reading with the air conditioner on in the back bedroom and went out to the kitchen and saw that the van had just been left there for me. Great! I thought. I checked it out. Diesel fuel. Power steering broken, which is not a big deal I guess. But it ran. The next morning, I took it to the gas station and put a couple of gallons in, then began what would become a lovely, time-consuming journey to Palikir for work.

Palikir is separated from Kolonia by a relatively steep, winding hill, which I estimate is probably 400 feet up. Who knows. Anyway, on the way up the hill, the car suddenly simply stopped running. No warning. No apparent reason. So, since I was faced uphill, I tried my best to let the car coast backward several feet so I could pull off the road. Unsuccessful. The back tire got stuck against the side of the road, a little ditch about a foot deep and mud. At least the car was only taking up about 1/2 the lane at that point. It was about 8:15 a.m. Keep in mind that the concept of urgency is a mere fiction on this island.

I sat waiting while car after car passed me by until a member of our Branch, Louie Ioanis, who also works in Palikir, passed by and offered me a ride to Palikir. After I got there, I called the owner of the van, Pres. Yaingeluo, who said that he'd send his boys "right away" to get the car and trade for a different van that I could use. Then, I got a ride with Jon at work using a court truck back to the site. Jon is Pohnpeian, he spoke with some police officers who were stopped there and assured them that we'd get the car out of there right away. Jon seemed enthusiastic and actually kind of excited about helping me out. After he spoke with the cops, he turned to me and said, "OK, I'll go get help!" He then promptly jumped back into the truck, turned the ignition key and....nothing. The truck battery was dead.

Several minutes later, a friend of Jon's who works in Palikir gave him a ride back to work. I sat there in the truck, which was next to the van, laughing by myself at the situation. At this point, it had been about 90 minutes since the van decided to take a break.

Jon eventually came back with yet another court car, which I suggested should be left with the engine running and we used jumper cables I had in the van to jump the court truck. Then, I took the second court car to the Yaingeluo's house in Kolonia to update them on what was going. Van still on road. No boys have arrived. Sister Y was home. I convinced her that the best plan was to send someone as soon as they could to get the van off the road and that I was going back to work until then. They could just come get me or call whenever they were ready. Then, she mentioned --- "Oh, James (Pres. Y) said this morning that I hope that car does not get stuck on the hill." She then explained that when it goes up hill, that van stops working. HELLO! How about letting me know that beforehand. They knew I was using the van to go to work in Palikir. Classic. Anyway, back to work I went. Arrived about 11:00ish.

At almost 1:00 p.m., Sister Y and one of her sons whom I've never met and who I could barely understand because his mouth was FULL of betel nut (it looked like he had a third cheek) arrived to take me back to the van. We attached a heavy-duty nylon rope that the big fishing vessels use here to the van and towed it up the rest of the hill. Then, since they believed the car was out of gas, we went back to Kolonia to my house to get my gas canister, then to the gas station for gas, then to the van. Put in 1 gallon and it started. At that point I took Yaingeluo van number 2. I returned to work after that little event at about 2:45ish, the culmination of my morning's call to James when he said his boys would be there "right away."

Yaingeluo van #2 has some interesting features, the most noticeable of which was the unsealed 4 foot sunroof, which, when it rains, acts simultaneously as a free flowing shower. This I discovered on the way home from work that day, as it was POURING down rain. Each turn on the windy hill between Kolonia and Palikir, I could hear a loud swooshing of water run along the ceiling of the van as the car's weight shifted in the turn. Then, at the end of the turn, there would be a downpour of water onto the seats from the ceiling. Each turn. Over and over. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention that when I opened the driver's seat door, dozens of everyone's favorite bug -- the cockroach -- scattered every which way: under the seat, under the pedals, into the door, wherever cockroaches who live in a van that has a built-in shower go when the driver is getting in the car.

The Yaingeluo family is very generous and loving and I appreciate their willingness to help me out very much. The van is now back in their possession, and I am happily driving a nice American car again!