Our mothership...

The term' mother-ship' dates back to the nineteenth century when smaller, faster ships would kill whales for meat and oil ; the term has also achieved prominence in the realm of science fiction where it is applied to spaceships serving as the heart of the fleet , at least according to Wikipedia. Through out history it has adopted various meanings, but when ever I hear the word, the one which always rings true is our 1996 Red Isuzu Trooper.

Growing up in Haiti has had it share of excitement but to candidly gloss over the great tumultuous adventures we experienced in our 'mother ship' would be to- put it simply- ridiculous. This vehicle was like no other. From what I can recall, our father purchased it used, or more so was given the car as a compensation of sorts from one of the people who were indebted to him. She grew old with us and just as a loving mother is to her child she constantly shared her wisdom, even when they aren't to keen on receiving it  . 

The first time I laid eyes on our 'beauty' was in front of my grandparent's home. The evening we met her, she looked marvelous and sparkly . The windows had been sealed shut and cleaned to perfection, the shiny new paint job she had just incurred made her look just like new- if she had gone down the runway that night she would have definitely stolen the show. My siblings and I were super excited. 

So our adventures began.  Quickly after we were acquainted  with our beautiful 'new' vehicle, we heard news of her past.  She was recently involved a catastrophic accident,( yep, just like the movies) where she almost lost her life. But gratefully the doctors/mechanics had fixed her up and she was just like new or so we thought. First lesson I learned from our mother-ship: looks can be deceiving.

Shortly after our relationship had begun with our Isuzu trooper, we realized that the AC only blew out warm smoke-filled dust. Well given the J-L family weren't what  most  would describe as particularly fussy individuals we opted for the next best thing. We decided, why not just put the windows down. But they were sealed shut. The second lesson I learned from our mother-ship: The world will never cease to surprise you.

Well,we eventually got the windows down after lots of twisting, pulling and straight-up man power and the breeze that flowed through was oh soo sweet. Just as the that feeling you get right after you've taken your first bite of  heaven baked deliciousness.We were once again super proud of our mother ship. Well at least for about  5 minutes until we tried to roll them back up again realizing  that this was not an option. So yes of course that same evening as we traveled back home it poured. By the time we got home our uniforms were drenched.The third lesson I learned from our mother ship: Always be prepared 

So the following weeks we had developed a habit of keeping a couple of umbrellas in the car in case it rained and traveling with a number of towels. The umbrella served us well and protected us from the rain while in the car, while the towels kept our uniforms dry from all the rain water which had now found a home and seeped in our recently new plush seats.Yes, in years the interior sealing would also give way until we were literally left with her shell.But we thoroughly appreciated her none the less, she did transport us from one location to another for many many years- all filled with great memories that I will one day hopefully share with you-  

While our mothership's was always quick to share to a new life lesson. The final lesson I learned from her: was to know when to say goodbye...