Today I went with the other Becky to take her Doberman puppy to the vet. He’s a real cutie – still has puppy breath! Unfortunately, he’s pretty sick right now, and they’ve been taking him to get IV fluids. It’s about a 40-minute drive to the vet.
The vet was giving Becky information regarding what is wrong with the puppy, but Becky isn’t medical, so some of what he was saying wasn’t clear. He thought she didn’t understand French so he starts talking to me. Now that’s a hoot! She’s been here since 1995 and I’ve been here 3 months.
As we left the office and were approaching the truck, we both heard a loud crack, as if someone hit the car with a rock. There wasn’t anyone around, but when we walked to the driver side of the car to put the puppy in the back seat we both heard the hissing of the rear tire. As I inspected the tire to figure out where the puncture was, I found that the valve stem was dry rotted and had ruptured – the air was hissing like a cat! I’ve never changed a tire on a 4x4, so I asked for the manual to see if there were any special instructions. When I started laughing, Becky told me not to laugh – asked me what I thought was so funny. I said it struck me funny that two English speaking women are standing in French speaking West African trying to fix a truck with a manual that’s written in German! Anyhow, I stuck my finger on the valve stem and compressed it against the rim while Becky looked for some duct tape, which thankfully she found. After a few pieces of duct tape the leak stopped, we got in the truck, prayed for safety and drove home without any trouble. Now that’s another first for me! Incidentally, I am posting this 3 weeks after the event (yes, I’m still having internet issues!), but the same thing happened to Bob the following week. Different tire, and he had to change the tire out, but thankfully he had just pulled up to the house when it happened. The Lord sure looks out for us ladies!
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