Road Destruction

Kenyan roads are REALLY hard on cars.  Between gigantic potholes, corrugated dirt roads,  stop-and-go traffic in Nairobi, and questionable mechanics, this is a dangerous environment for a car.  I saw this firsthand last week...

On Wednesday, I was in the process of pulling out of one of the busiest shopping centers in Westlands when the Prado ground to an abrupt halt.  I tried to get it started in every gear I could, but there was no moving it.  The guards were yelling at me, cars behind me were honking and backing up, and there was absolutely nothing I could do!  Eventually I was able to finagle it out of the way and get towed to a garage, where I found out that the clutch and flywheel needed to be replaced.  Ouch.  I guess after 220,000km it was about time, but it was still an expensive and poorly-timed development. 

I collected the car on Saturday, but quickly realized that I couldn't drive over about 60 km/h without a strong vibration making its way from the engine up through my seat.  Remember those questionable mechanics?  That's why I've been out of a car again for the last two days while they try to figure out what they did wrong...

The REAL excitement took place between stays at the mechanic while I was driving back from Karen on Saturday.  Going about 60 km/h (thankfully, the vibrations kept me from driving too fast), I felt the back of the car rocking around and then heard a big THUD while the back-left side dropped a good foot lower than it should have been.  As the back end fishtailed wildly on the road, I looked out the window and saw my back-left tire and wheel passing me in the left lane, only to smash into a brick wall and fly up in the air...YIKES!  I was able to get the sliding car under control and finally came to a stop partially in the median and partially blocking a lane of traffic.

This is one of those situations when you just have to take a deep breath and say, "well, here we go God!"  I jumped out of the car and locked the doors as several Kenyans ran over to help (and to hopefully get a tip out of the deal).  Thankfully, an awesome Kenyan guy who works for a USAID affiliate pulled over and offered to coordinate the recovery efforts.  With his help, we sent one guy to buy lug nuts and another to collect the tire, while we got a couple more started jacking up the car and replacing the tire.  About 30 minutes and a few bucks later, I was back on the road!  I followed my new friend Mike to a service station to get the brake drum hammered back away from the wheel, and then everything was ready to go. 

One thing about living in Africa - you never know when a little extra excitement is coming your way! 

ps - while I joke about this kind of stuff, let's seriously thank God that there were no other cars right beside me, that my car stayed upright, and that none of these breakdowns happened in the middle of the Mara last week!