Our worker D tells her story:
I settled into the seat in the taxi and looked at my fellow passengers. Whew. They were all women. I had just gone through some intense haggling for a taxi where I thought that the taxi drivers were going to begin fighting. But now I could breathe and relax for the next part of the trip.
Ten days earlier, I arrived in this neighbouring country to renew my visa. But after nine days of waiting, I found out that all the countries in the region had closed their borders, so I could not return. Throughout those nine days, I asked God for His felt resence in the midst of loneliness, for someone who could speak English or T, and for patience. I could not speak the local language so it was almost impossible to communicate with anyone. God was faithful to provide a hotel guest who spoke T when I needed to ask the hotel staff some questions and another hotel guest to drive me to an ATM. When I needed food, I found a woman in a shop who spoke T; when I needed comfort, compassionate hotel staff communicated with me through Google Translate; when I didn’t know what to do next, my coworkers from afar made arrangements for me.
I ultimately decided to travel to the capital city to stay with friends and then return to Canada. That morning, I went to the wrong taxi station, but as all the times before, God sent along a young man who spoke T to give me proper directions, and when he was uncertain whether I understood the directions, he came running down the street after me. I was well taken care of!
Slowly, the taxi wound through the hills and villages on potholed roads until reaching a much smoother main road. The driver asked me many questions. I found out quickly that he wanted me to become his wife. The drive went on uneventfully for five hours. Then suddenly, the driver stopped the car on the side of the road and motioned for me to get out and go into another car. So I did. Five hours later, we made it to my friends’ house.
It was such a relief to see familiar faces and be in a home! For several days in a row, I could not get tickets. Then on the seventh day, I heard of a flight leaving in four days, booked a ticket, and prayed that it would not be canceled. And it wasn’t. My flying time ended up being the most relaxed travel time I have ever experienced because planes and airports were so empty.