Patch

When's the last time you patched a car tire? I'm willing to bet you've never patched a car tire. Neither have I. A couple of weeks ago I brought my car in to AUTOBACS and paid the guys there to install a couple of new tires on the front end of my Mitsubishi, and there was no discussion of patches or retreads. [I know, I know, and I never thought I'd be driving a Mitsubishi either, but when the truck division had that our-tires-fall-off-and-kill-primary-school-students-but-we'd-rather-cover-it-up-than-issue-a-recall scandal, I got a good deal. A very good deal. And of course, the car division is not the truck division.]

Things are a bit different in the Congo. In the above photographs you can see one of the drivers or mechanics (I'm not sure which category this guy falls into, but I suspect there's quite a lot of overlap) patching a tire (if you've ever patched a bicycle tire, you know how to do it). In the other photo, you can see a load of tires ready to be loaded onto an MSF plane headed for Kisangani and Goma.

If you need it, bring it with you. If it breaks fix it. And fix it again, and again, and again, until it can't be fixed no more (at which point, if it's a tire, it can be turned into sandals, or some other useful item).