Only in Africa??

We had a bit of an accident in the car yesterday.

I was driving along with the 3 children, on our way to a swimming outing at a conference centre on the main road to Dar es Salaam. Not far from home, on a quiet side street before reaching the busy main road, the car gave a huge "bang!". It lurched forward heavily into the ground as if I had hit a huge pot-hole, whilst the engine gave up its powerful roar and switched to a feeble moaning sound. The car shuddered to an unexpected halt.

 Thinking that I must have had hit a pot-hole that I hadn't spotted in the road (a high possibility, as this road is badly riddled with pot-holes even by Dodoma standards!!) , I had a final attempt at my usual getting-out-of-Tanzanian-potholes trick. I switched off the engine, then restarted it, ready to try a bit of action with the acceleration in 1st gear. But the engine barely came alive. The gears and steering were not responding.

"What's happening, Mummy?" shouted the children, impatient to get to their friends for our fun swimming outing.

Not sure what was going on myself, I climbed out and walked around the car- and was rather shocked at what I saw! From the front..:

...from the left-hand side:

And on closer inspection:

The car looked pretty sorry for itself, stranded in the middle of the road:

 There was no pot-hole under the car when I bent down to inspect the road, so I realised that what had happened was not because of recklessly careering over one of the muddy craters in the road. I climbed back into the car as the heavens opened and torrential rain started hammering on the roof. Taken aback and unsure what to do next, I told the children what had happened. They wanted to see for themselves, so we all climbed down into the rain and had a good look, then climbed back inside. Fortunately, we were already clad in our swimming costumes under our clothes, so getting a good soaking didn't matter!
Stranded in a broken car with 3 small children, with several onlookers stopping around us and exclaiming in surprise, it took me a few moments to decide what to do next! I attempted to call the MAF garage, but realised that I did not have the mechanic's number on my mobile phone! (An oversight that I have since rectified!). Andrew is away until Friday evening, so I was not sure who to call next... As I was wondering what to do, a very good idea came to me- and I called a very capable MAF friend who I was confident would have all the answers, as well as all the phone numbers that I would need! Sure enough, our friend Patricia came to our rescue, asking all the right questions, ready with all the practical suggestions I needed in my slighty numbed state and able to call the garage on my behalf.
It was a very welcome sight when Patricia came into view in her car, closely followed by the MAF garage vehicle! In the meantime, I had made quite a lot of new friends with local interested bystanders! A grandfather on his bike, offering condoleances. A tribesman dressed in a blue "shuka" (a type of sheet worn around the body) from out of town,  who seemed absolutely stunned by what he was looking at. A group of very sympathetic grannies and mums, who loved Esther, Ben and Joel and were quite concerned for them,  ushering them into the shade of a road-side tree as the sun came out again. Some not-so-helpful young men, who kept telling me that my car wheel had fallen off- a fact that I was painfully aware of!!

However, help had now arrived. The rescue was underway! Both mechanics were reassuring. No, the accident was not my fault (phew!!). Yes, it looked like the car could eventually be towed back to MAF, although they would need to work hard first to lift it and would need to find a stronger tow truck. Apparently, the bearing that holds the wheel in the correct place and directs the steering had worn away, so the whole wheel mechanism had collapsed. This is the offending bearing:

And this is the consequence of it breaking:

In true Tanzanian style, one of the MAF mechanics had taken down some branches off a nearby tree to place them in the road as a warning to oncoming vehicles. I just had to get a photo of that- it is so typically Tanzanian!

A mechanic also showed me the marks in the road where the mechanism had fallen and started to drag through the tar, before the actual wheel fell and got lodged under the car itself.

This particular road is so full of holes and in such bad condition that I hadn't distinguished the bumping and grinding noises of the collapsing wheel from the general banging and bumping that I associate with driving in Tanzania!!

I was told that the bearing could have given way at any time. If I had been going fast, driving down the main road a few minutes later and hemmed in by buses, trucks and speeding cars, the consequences could have been far, far worse. Apparently, I would have lost all control of the vehicle if I had been going at speed. So I was flooded with a sense of thankfulness that all 3 children and I had been kept safe and that the collapse happened when and where it did. The "what ifs?" of it all happening just a few roads later do not bear thinking about. We were definitely being looked after yesterday. For those of you who pray for our safety on the roads out here, I think we can say that your prayers were being answered! :-)

I am also incredibly grateful for the friends we are blessed with here in Dodoma. Patricia took great care of us, putting her own plans on hold while she helped us out. First, she took me home to collect my camera for the shots above (as much for Andrew's benefit as well as for this blog!!), then took us 4 wet waifs in her car to MAF Compound B , to new friend Jenny's house. The children were happily distracted by biscuits, muffins, drinks and a chance to play with their friends. I was thankful for the lovely cup of nice, hot tea- mmm, there's nothing like a cuppa for a true English-woman, to calm her nerves in a drama, even in far-off Africa!!- and also a bar of much-treasured chocolate!! (thanks, Jenny, I know what sharing  a precious bar of chocolate means to us all out here in Dodoma!! :-) )

When we got back to Compound A, I took the children for a quick swim in the MAF pool, since we were already damp and were still wearing our costumes! After the swim, we were relieved to see that the MAF mechanics had done a great job in successfully towing our car back to the MAF car-park:

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The children posed for some shots, with their "dramatic" expressions in front of the empty wheel cab:

If the correct parts can be located, the problem is "fix-able". So we should not be stuck for too long without our much-used car. 

I can't help noting that this is the 3rd machine that has broken since we got back to Tanzania this year!! Hopefully this means that there are no more breakages to come, as breakages often seem to happen in threes...??!! Perhaps I am just being silly and superstitious! BUT I know I am not being silly when I repeat how grateful we are that we were kept safe yesterday and that we are all here today! We may be in Africa, where road safety and vehicle maintenance is not always up to the standard that it should be, but Psalm 91 verse 11 tells me that "He orders his angels to protect you wherever you go". I feel that this was proved true for us yesterday, here in Africa as much as it would be anywhere else.