By JEFFREY WALLACE Aiken Standard editor
Sometimes it takes a totally different perspective to understand that what we are used to is not always the norm. Take car repairs, for example.
My wife returned this week from a 12-day trip to Kenya, an equatorial country on the eastern edge of Africa. She went with three other members of our church on a mission trip to work with orphans. While that by itself had nothing to do with car repairs, it does set the stage for what she was doing there.
Upon completion of their work with the orphans, they were driven to a wildlife preserve on the border with Tanzania to view the animals we typically equate with Africa – elephants, giraffes, hippos, lions, cheetahs, zebras and wildebeest.
It was on their ride to Masai Mara, the national park, that they encountered vehicle difficulty. They were riding along one of Kenya’s rough roads, complete with speed bumps in areas where people lived. Passing through the village of Soymet, they heard a noise that sounded like something falling from the car. With nothing apparently wrong, they proceeded down the hill until it was time to brake. When the driver hit the pedal, his foot went all the way to the floorboard. Not a good feeling.
Rapidly downshifting, the driver did all he could to slow the vehicle, tossing the passengers into the ceiling as they hit a speed bump. Without damaging the vehicle or hurting anyone, the driver managed to stop the van.
There were no calls to AAA available, no roadside service stations and no Highway Patrol officers to radio for assistance. Just a guy on a motorbike who was washing it with water from a nearby river.
With the five passengers out and milling around, the driver went over to the fellow on the bike and began talking with him. Moments later, the bike driver jumped on his vehicle and headed back in the direction from which our band of folks had come.
Minutes later, the bike reappeared with a second person sitting behind the driver. It was a mechanic who held in his hands several tools. There was no tool box, just the tools in his hands.
He checked out the brakes and discovered that the noise that had been heard in the car was brake calipers falling off. Thus the reason for the brakes failing.
The mechanic got the bike driver to give him a lift back, and a few minutes later they reappeared. This time the mechanic had calipers with him. They were installed within minutes. There was a little dickering over the price. Then the money exchanged hands, and everyone seemed pleased with the results.
My wife tells me the entire operation from coming to a halt until they were back on their way took 40 minutes. That told me a lot about the ingenuity of the people in a country that might be viewed as behind the times in the eyes of many 21st century Americans.
With no garage to go to, no auto parts store to rely on and only the helpfulness of people along the road, the job got completed and the people got on their way. The brake job must also have been at least respectable, as they had no more stopping issues the remainder of the trip.
To Mary Lou, Charlotte, Holly, John and Frances Osteen – welcome home. I’m glad a little something like failing brakes did not bring the trip to a screeching halt.
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