the car....

On the down side of the story, the trip was a head ache for me. On almost every trip that I take to the Rukwa Valley, I have car problems. Somehow this time I had some bad deisel which was full of water. God helped us a lot. We stalled in the middle of the horrible mountain pass but were able to get the car going again. We stalled again in the village next door to Kapenta and then Ted Rabenold, my co-worker, came and towed me to his house. While we were at the wedding the following day, some guys there got the filter drained and car running for more than 1/2 hour. So we were hopeful when we started our trip home.
About 45 minutes down the road it stalled. The pastors with me helped me drain water out of the fuel filter again and we started our drive. Less than 10 minutes later it stalled again. This time the battery didn't have enough juice to start it up. So we called Ted for help again. We were thankful that we were still in the valley and not on the dangerous mountain roads. We had to stand on the roof rack of the car to get phone reception. We pushed the car back 30 yds and waited under a big tree in the shade for nearly 3 hours. Finally Mike Benton, my co-worker, came with some other Tanzanian guys to help us out. The final decision was made to let me take another car up and they would work on mine and bring it to me later this week. I was much happier to do this than to be towed up a narrow mountain road with hair pin turns when you have no power steering!
They worked on the car for a while and got it to Mike's house where they continued working on it. My theft alarm gave them problems and the car kept turning off on them! I thank God for co-workers that are like family and help out when I need them.
   They were able to bring the car up the next week, but it stalled several times on them.  Now it is at the garage. The mechanic thinks everything is in order, but we will see when it takes another long trip :)  I pray that God will help me raise funds this year for a more reliable car.