After a long day of Tesito, I walked back to the tree where I rested my bike. I was exhausted, it was the heat of the afternoon, and the only things on my mind were taking a bucket bath and wondering what mystery sauce would be on my rice for lunch. As I was about to take off, I saw Janga, the village beekeeper, and Amadou, one of the fishermen. They were also helping at tesito.
Janga had a flat tire. Frustrating. I decided to stop go over and help him and Amadou fix it. Amadou is really good at fixing things, I had a bike patch kit, and Janga had a pump. Between the three of us, we fixed the flat tire fairly quickly. Without each of us, Janga would have had to walk his bike home. I had to chuckle; things always just seem to work out perfectly, don't they?
We all begin down the path from the rice fields to the village. Maybe a kilometer into the trek, Amadou's chain breaks. Again, the three of us stop and are able to fix it together. We laugh again, and back on the path.
About half way through the 8 km bike ride, I was ahead of Amadou and Janga (mostly because my bicycle has breaks and pedals, unlike most of the men's bikes in my village) and must have hit one too many rocks, and POW...flat tire... Are you kidding me?! I'm hungry, thirsty, dirty, and tired...thankfully, I knew Amadou and Janga were shortly behind me. Amadou makes some sort of comment how the three of us together is just bad luck. I felt very differently. They were able to help me, and we all made it back to village for lunch- 1 hour, a chain link, and 2 bike patches later.
Yeah, I suppose it looks like bad luck- all 3 of us with bike problems; what are the chances of that? But really, I think we had the best luck of all. We were all able to help each other. Without myself, Amadou, and Janga, we would have all been stuck and had to walk home.
You never know when you're going to be in a bind and chances are, there will be someone to help you out. Let's keep this thing going...There are so many things we can do in the states which might inconvenience us SLIGHTLY, but can make someones day- stop and help someone fix their flat tire, help your neighbors carry in their groceries, invite an elderly neighbor over for dinner. The possibilities are endless!
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1 comment:
That's a very interesting story! I'm still debating about whether or not to join the Peace Corps, but after reading some of your posts I'm feeling more and more confident that it's the right thing for me to do.
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