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).

Tiring ...

Distance is relative.

Riding my bike in to Tokyo on six lane highways, 80 kilometers takes less than an hour. Here in the Congo, on unpaved and heavily rutted roads, I have rarely seen drivers exceed 40 kph, and 25 kph is far more usual.

The other problem, of course, is tires. The roads are brutal on tire rubber, and flat tires are an everyday occurrence for most drivers. The MSF vehicles I have traveled in are much better maintained than the average local truck, and none of the vehicles I was in suffered a flat tire, but we passed many trucks having tires changed, and once had to wait on a one lane mountain road while a truck driver (pictured) and his assistant (standing on the wrench, tightening the lugs) finished their repair.

The last photo shows a tire on a truck delivering goods to an MSF compound in Goma. You can see an enormous crack running all the way around the sidewall, near the wheel. That will blow out tomorrow, I said to the driver. He replied, "Nah, not 'til next week."