Bumper Bus?

Yesterday, we (Jason, Beth, and Sawyer) had lunch with some friends, then got in a taxi headed home. We asked him to stop by the daycare to pick up Lee Anna. On the way, our taxi had a flat tire, so the driver got out and changed it. He was a nice, older guy, and we weren’t in a hurry, so we waited for him. He only took 5 minutes to change it, and we were on our way again.

We started down the street, but when we got to the corner, he didn’t seem to be slowing down quite as much as most drivers here would (and not nearly as much as any American driver approaching a busy intersection with cars stopped in front of him would). Instead of slowing down, he just sort of aimed at a small gap between the car in front of us and the steel barricade to the right of that car—a gap that was not big enough for our car to fit through. Beth gasped from the backseat while I pulled my elbow in from its perch in the passenger window. With some divine intervention we passed the car and barricade without hitting either.

Then it got even scarier. Approaching the intersection on the cross street was a BIG city bus full of people. The bus driver honked his horn and yelled at our driver. About then I realized our brakes weren’t functioning properly—in fact, they weren’t functioning AT ALL. We turned right to go parallel with the bus, but there wasn’t really room for us there, either, so the bus folded in the driver’s side mirror on our taxi and scraped the car a little bit while our tires were pressed against the curb on our right side. We were literally sandwiched on both sides, but we never stopped moving. The bus slowed down and we quickly pulled ahead of it.

No one was hurt, but I suggested we might pull over and stop since the brakes weren’t working! He showed me then that the brakes were starting to work again as he pumped them up, and kept going. Since we were very close to the daycare, I agreed. Usually, when we get to Lee Anna’s daycare, I ask the drivers to wait while I go in and get her—just so I don’t have to flag down another taxi while carrying a two-year-old. This time, however, we thanked him, paid him, and sent him on his way.

Thanks for praying for us.