Repairs.

  So on March 3 I sent my car to town with a driver to help an expectant mother get to the hospital.  When the local clinic comes upon cases that they cannot help because they do not have the capability to do C sections, they often ask us to help transport the patient to town.   We have a certain system with the clinic to help out.  If they ask for a ride from me in the night, I usually send my car with a driver and a pastor.  This was just another normal hospital run.  They dropped the woman off safely and were returning around 1:00 am when another car headed straight for them.  Although he pulled completely over to the edge of the road and stopped, the car still hit them. It wasn’t going fast, but it was a fender bender that needed repairs.  Unfortunately the car left the accident scene and they never got the full plate number. 

  When I was awaken in the middle of the night to talk to the driver about the accident, I was really worried.  It was a relief to know that no one was injured and the car wasn’t too bad.  The next day we went back to town and filed a complete police report and started to inform the insurance company.  The driver was really upset and has no desire to head back to town in the middle of the night again.  Because court cases are more of a headache than they are worth, especially for minor repairs like this, we didn’t try to find the car that hit mine. We only filed the police report for the insurance purposes.  It took us several tries to get all the paper work we needed. It seemed that there was always someone who wasn’t at work on one day or another who had to deal with one form or another.

      After discussing it with my coworkers, it was decided that I should take my car to Mbeya to have it worked on by a decent garage.  The people that can do good body work in Sumbawanga are lacking these days.  The picture doesn’t quite show the extent of the damage.

   So I headed to Mbeya just over a week later.  How thankful I am for the newly paved roads that keep the trip around 5 hours or less and much less stressful.  It took another few days to get the insurance to agree with the repair costs that the garage laid out.  But finally they approved the work and after spending 2 weeks in Mbeya, I had my car back and looking great.  I am thankful for a great mechanic who is honest and good at his work

  I’m thankful for the hospitality of the Hodgsons, who put me up for 2 weeks.  I’m thankful for the opportunities I had to meet with many other missionaries in the community who work with many other organizations.  It was also nice to have decent internet access there as I was researching various things for camp.

   Praise the Lord for safety and being able to get my car repaired.