Help! Au secours!

Yes, this is the same picture as last week. No, the car is not usually heaped with baggage like this.

Cars are fun, aren't they? We left Kadiolo, 2 days after the evangelism outing. We were driving with two other missionary ladies, giving them a ride to Bamako. Car broke down, past the small town of Loloni where there is some cell phone coverage, but not yet close enough to Sikasso, probably 22 k or so to Sikasso. What do you do? I hopped on the first motorbike that stopped, and rode with him to Sikasso. Or so I thought. He broke down, too. Not a good day. Got on a third motorbike, and made it into Sikasso. By then Lisa had a guy who stopped near the car to help. She sent the two ladies into Sikasso with him, at least they could hop a bus to Bamako.

So she and Ben and Caleb wait for me. I got a mechanic to drive out to tow us into Sikasso, but it took me at least an hour or more to arrive back at our car with the mechanic. I did have cold drinks for everyone when we got there.

Towed the car into the garage. We find out the cam shaft was broken! Have you ever heard of anyone who had a cam shaft break? The mechanic said he could have it fixed by the morning, so we put Lisa and Ben and Caleb on a bus for Bamako. I stayed at a hotel with ac to wait for the car.

Evidently, I got the better deal. The bus Lisa found told her they were leaving in 5 minutes.

Remember what I said in the last blog about being early? Never! So when her 1:30 bus hadn't left yet by 3:15, she got mad at them. (in a very spiritual way of course!) and got her ticket transferred to a bus that was really going to leave. By this time she was concerned about having to ride too much in the dark on the bus. Not so scary in America, but have you seen our roads here? So Lisa did arrive in Bamako, she will be able to meet Hilary at the airport, and they will bus down to Sikasso again on Saturday the 10th.

We've been a bit plagued by car trouble, but hopefully now we can get beyond those issues, and have our car be reliable again.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tom & Lisa Seward