and the adventure began...

The road to the cottages is dirt and sand so there is no stopping along the way or the truck would get stuck. So we barrel along and as the roads are not marked we think we are lost for a while but don’t feel like stopping to turn around and try again. No worries we made it to the main road just at a different point from where we turned off that morning. Stopped in the market to get fish from the lake and on we went. There are many police blocks on the Salima road (and Malawi roads in general) that you slow down and go through, sometimes you are waved through, sometimes you are asked for your driver’s license or they check your car insurance. About 5:30 (dusk) we are driving along and see a sign for a police block. Start to slow down (take foot of gas) and suddenly there is the police block. Step on brakes and nothing happens and so we barrel right through. Oh my goodness. (so glad I wasn’t driving) just like the movies when someone drives on the sidewalk and scatters the fruit news stand. The truck in front of us slows down and pulls across in front of us (not good if our brakes still weren’t working, but the jolt seemed to have gotten them working again). We stop and it is a police truck—they file out of the back with their machine guns. Why didn’t you stop? Didn’t you see the police barrier? Where are you going? Where did you come from? You have a flat tire. Can we check your brakes? We tried to stop—no brakes, yes we saw the barrier (as we went through it), home to nkhoma, senga bay, the brakes are working now (as we stopped before hitting you), sorry, sorry, sorry. I can’t believe this. Of course we have gathered a huge crowd and then the woman officer begins to arm her gun and scare off the people hanging around. She then explained that there has been lots of crime there. Getting the spare tire off proves to be difficult as the jack pieces don’t all fit together correctly, but we (they) finally succeed. Change the tire and the police say ‘you know what these things happen and everyone is ok. You can go. And we are leaving.’ We can go?! Ok! Thank you thank you thank you. And sorry sorry sorry. The police leave and we let the car down off the jack. As the tire hits the pavement all we heard was hsssss. It was flat. Supposedly not too far to a gas station (where there would be lights) so we pile in and on and go—very slowly. 20 minutes and there is no way. We shredded the spare. So we pull over and wait. In the meantime we had been calling anyone we knew in Lilongwe to see if they had a spare that would fit. Two of Reinette’s friends come out but none of the spares they could get their hands on would fit. So we call Reinette’s husband to drive from Nkhoma (+1hour) with a spare. Success! And so we continue on our way back to Nkhoma arriving about 11:15pm…giving thanks that it was not jail we were sleeping in.