Car Woes

Cars in Kenya for the most part are nothing like in the US. Our car is considered nice by most Kenyans but in all honesty I would never have let my daughters drive it to school let alone use it as their main mode of transportation. Most days it does get Cindy to school and back safely. But that does not mean we don’t have our moments.

Before we got this car in May it had only been driven once a week, basically to church and back by another lay missioner. My older brothers had said it wasn’t

good for a vehicle to just set. They need to be driven regularly. I was afraid that we might see some problems now that we were driving it almost daily.

A couple of weeks ago I thought I could smell something in the car. I checked the motor and saw the radiator needed water. I put in a couple of buckets of water and still could not feel water. I looked under the car and saw water. NOT GOOD NEWS! I called our mechanic who came and got the car. The water pump had blown (you have to understand, here they keep fixing things until they are absolutely worn out). He also put in a new tail light bulb, changed the oil, worked on the shocks (with the roads we have it is a wonder that they even last a month) and fixed a fuse. Within two days all the repairs were complete and we had the car back.

Last Friday we went shopping at the market and then to some of the shops downtown. At our first stop I noticed a whistling sound when I opened my door but it stopped when I closed the door. I thought I would need to call our mechanic, John, when I got home. After we stopped downtown and finished shopping the car would not start. I called John and luckily he was in the area. He checked various things and then called one of his workers to bring a battery so we could jump-start the car. Ten minutes later one of his workers came on a motorcycle with a battery tied on behind. We tried to jump-start the car but it still would not turn over.

Now it was time for plan B. You have to remember we are parked on the main street of Kitale. So three of us pushed the car out into the street (think what it must have looked like for an older white man helping to push the car while a Kenyan is driving). Thank goodness once we got the car into the street we were pushing downhill. John popped the clutch and the car started. Cindy and I jumped in so John could take us home before he took the car into the shop. Talk about service. There was corrosion in the starter and we had the car back the next morning.

Sunday afternoon our askari (guard) told me we had a tire losing air. I took the car to a petro (gas) station to have it checked out. They couldn’t find a leak. But on Tuesday the tire was almost flat. I took it back and had them fix the puncture. The next morning I went out before Cindy went to school and saw it was flat again. I changed the tire so she dropped it off to be repaired again. Later in the afternoon I got the tire and they put it on the car for me. The cost--- $1.10 each time.

We have gone almost six months without a punctured tire. I guess it was time to have one, but we are thankful we have a car to get us around. I think we average driving about 175 miles a month. It’s a good thing we don’t drive more as petro costs about $6 a gallon.