Week 56 in Paraguay Change 9 Week 7 Car Crash

So it is pretty ironic that you said that this hasn’t been too exciting of a week, because I could probably write you a novel about all the things that happened this last week. It is by far probably one of the most eventful weeks of my time in the office, and maybe my mission, and I have been by far more tired this week than any other week in my mission. That I can easily say. All of it started Friday night.

So if you remember from my last letter we didn’t get much of a P-day last week and so I didn’t really get to write very much. It was kind of funny because you wrote me about how Scott had got into a car wreck and I had planned in my mind what I was going to write about how crazy Paraguayan driving is but how there are never wrecks because everyone is always paying attention and they know what is going on around them. Now don’t get upset or worried about this, but justo Saturday night I got in a car wreck. It really wasn’t that bad. It was 9:15 at night and I was going down a back road trying to get to the super market so we could have food for the week (and by the way, I still haven’t got to go to the super market) so as I'm driving the road turns into pavement, but it’s still a back road no one usually uses. I look over to the left to this other paved road that leads out to the main road thinking about if it would be smarter to go that way to be able to park better in the super market, then I decide against it and look over to the right to see if anyone was coming, not really thinking anyone would be since we were on this back road. There was a truck crossing the street, so I slammed on the brakes and ended up hitting him right in the very back of his bed behind the back wheels. By the time I hit him I wasn’t going very fast so the damage wasn’t too bad and everyone involved in the wreck were perfectly fine, not even a scratch, which I guess is the most important part. After I hit him the truck just kept going. I stopped, put the caution lights on and got out of the car right away and called my President. He made sure no one was hurt and then asked where the other car was, I told him he had driven off and I didn’t know. He asked me if the car would make it to the church (which was just 2 blocks away) and I told him the motor was fine there weren’t any problems with the car running and he told me to drive there so he could see the car. So we waited there a little longer to see if the other guy would come back; while we were waiting two police officers drove by on a moto and pointed at us and yelled something in Guaraní and then just took off, so we waited a little longer and then went over to the church.

Once we got to the church the police were already there waiting for us, so I parked the car in the parking lot and went over to talk to the officer, the first thing he asked was if I knew why he was there. I told him because we had just crashed the car and asked him where the other car was, he told me the other car went two blocks away from the crash then told the police that we hit him and then ran from the scene, which obviously isn’t what happened, if the truck talked to the cops two blocks away from where the crash happened, so I explained that to the officer and told him that we just wanted to fix everything the right way, so he told us he would call the lady that talked to them and tell her to come to the church. I went back to the car to talk to President and then the police officer calls me back over and tells me that the lady had already left and the best thing I could do was to go to the police station to write a police report before she writes one stating that we hit the car and ran, and maybe we would even be able to find her there. So President loaded my companion and I up into his car and took us straight to the police station. The truck I had hit was already there, so we just went in. It was kind of funny, there was an older women there with a younger guy sitting at the desk writing a police report as we walked up and everyone just seemed really confused, with the kind of expression like we wanted to contact them or something in their work because we were missionaries, when we got up to them I shook their hands and told them I was the one that hit their car and it was like a light bulb turned on. Anyway, the people turned out to be really nice, it was a mom with her son, this is the funny part of the story, the son was the one driving and here in Paraguay you can’t get your driver’s license until you are 18 (a rule very commonly broken, but since these people were wealthy and well educated they actually kept this rule) so this son had just got a brand new car two days ago with his driver’s license on his 18th birthday and I hit him. Anyway, the son went to the American school here so both him and his mom spoke perfect English, and the son actually knew the sons of the old mission president, President Wade, that went to school with him and played on the basketball team. So I hit an 18 year old that had been driving for two days in a brand new car his parents had given him.

The worst part of the story is that this last week was change week. The way the van is built if you hit the front of the car it isn’t going to do anything to the engine because the engine is inside, but the radiator is still in the front of the car, so in the accident I punctured the radiator. So Monday we had to take the car into the shop during the busiest of all office weeks. We still don’t have it back because they started working on it Tuesday to get an estimate, because the church wanted us to get an estimate before we let them start. Then Wednesday was Dec 8, the day of the Virgin of Ca’acupe, the biggest of all Paraguayan holidays, so nothing was open. We got the estimate on Thursday and they started working on the car on Friday, so we won’t get the car back until at least the end of next week, and likely longer because we’re in Paraguay. So we had a problem with not having a car, so we ended up borrowing the south mission’s car, trading them for our President’s car, which ended up giving us a lot more work having to share the car with President and pick him up and go places. I really picked the absolute worst time to get into a wreck. The other thing was, when I got in the wreck, obviously I didn’t really think it was all my fault, I accepted it was partially my fault, but I didn’t run any stop signs or anything and we were both on paved roads, so I kind of just accepted it was more of a lack of traffic signals fault. Then I was telling the story to a few members that asked about it so they asked me where it happened and I told them and then they just started telling me how much of my fault it really was. This member family is about as close to American you can get while still being Paraguayan, they all speak perfect English, they all drive, and they have a really big house. I was trying to explain to them that the road of the other guy had a speed bump about a half a block before the place where I hit him and he should have yielded to me, but they told me that the other road has the right of way, it was actually pretty funny how the conversation turned out. Since then I have gone back to the intersection and seen cars go by and it is pretty obvious now that I did not have the right of way, and I take full blame for the accident, but there still aren’t any signs, people just know from driving there so much, and that was the first time I had ever driven that road.

So anyway, that was probably the biggest thing of the week. I made it five and a half months driving in Paraguay before I got into an accident, and the funny thing is it came at the time when I very least expected to get into an accident, and at the time when I was very least paying attention, which I guess is why the accident happened. But, just by my job description as Secretary in the office, I really have to drive. When I go to Immigrations and things I go by myself with new missionaries or other missionaries that don’t have permission to drive because all the other office Elders have other things to do. It was really awkward this week having to drive sometimes with even President in the car, it was like I lost his trust or something and it was a terrible feeling. I really don’t think anything has changed, but it’s like my own conscience puts it there or something. So anyway, that little incident Saturday night made the whole rest of the week really complicated. But I am still driving just as much, I have decided now though that whenever my replacement comes, which should be in 2 ½ weeks, he will be driving everywhere the second he gets his license and I will stop.

Anyway, I didn’t think I would write so much just about the crash, it was kind of a big deal for this week though. We had so much to do with changes and we didn’t have a car, I feel like everything just piled up and finally fell on this week, and it feels really good now to know it’s all over. I think the thing that ended up giving us the most work was the fact that the change day fell right on the biggest Paraguayan holiday there is, so some people couldn’t travel and nothing was open to buy things or go places, so we had to schedule everything out perfectly to do everything we were going to do on Wednesday, which is the big day, on Tuesday, Thursday, or Friday, knowing that those 3 days already had a lot of necessary things. Then on top of that this change was the change where we started to implement all the changes that Elder Foster presented to President, so we had to plan for all those changes, in the process opening up new areas and white washing a lot of other areas. There was a lot of planning to do, and all last week was really busy too, so most of the planning was done about a day in advance, and now I am so tired. Right now I am going home to sleep and I’m positive next week will be a lot less hectic and I will have a lot of time to get caught up and work tons in the area, which is really all I want to do now because we have barely got anything these last two weeks. Anyway, I need to go now, but I love you all sooooo much, and really don’t worry at all about anything, I’m great and I am happily waiting for the package, love you, Elder Adamson V

P.S. I sent a picture of each car after the wreck and a picture of my zone with Elder Foster so you wouldn't have to just see pictures of the wreck, I love you!