Last week I bought another car. It is an old Toyota Landcruiser. It is a car without too much luxury, but rock solid. If someone has to be in really remote places in Africa, he does so 9 times out of 10 times with such a car. The car was in the capital Lusaka, which is about 150km from here. Early in the morning I went with a friend by bus from Kabwe to Lusaka. I was hoping to be back in Kabwe in time because there was a farewell party that night for good friends of mine. When we arrived at the car it looked good, everything was still in place and there were no major traces of oil leakage. Although I had to get used to the lack of luxury: no electric windows, central locking system, power steering and more. It’s a project car. The previous owner had the car as a second car and did not use it much in recent years. I had my doubts, but the boy who was with me said: this is a really good car, you better buy it. The advantage was also that the purchase would be well within my budget. I had money from my previous car and the church in Beilen held an offering for me for a car. In addition, I had also earned something with my part-time job in the Netherlands. By buying this car, there would be money left for some other things at my house, so I decided to buy this car.

Before the car could drive to Kabwe, the carburetor had to be replaced. Since we were in the capital, close to the area where many car shops are located, we immediately started looking and soon we found a good carburetor. But then we still had to pay for the car and this had to be done in cash. We were already after 14:00 and had to take the money from the bank. According to Google, the bank closed at 16:00 but this turned out to be 14:30. And when we arrived at the bank after a few km of walking we were just too late. The car was a total of 55000 Zambian kwacha and at the ATM you have a daily limit of 25000 kwacha. My spirit sank in a bit and in the meantime I still hoped to be back in Kabwe a little on time. Outside the bank were 4 ATMs, of which it only 1 was working. When it was my turn after some waiting, it turned out that there were only 20 kwacha notes in it and I could withdraw to 800 kwacha at a time. You can calculate for yourself how many times I would have had to pin and how many notes I would have had to get to the 25000. The biggest notes we have in Zambia are 100 kwacha. So we went to another bank where I could withdraw from my Dutch account. This also went up to 24000 kwacha, so I was still far off the 55000 kwacha. I managed to find another ATM from my Zambian bank where I had pinned earlier that day and which I knew was working well at the time. So we went there, there was a bit of a line but soon it was my turn and could withdraw up to the 25000 kwacha (in turns of 4000). And since the carburettor had costed 5000 kwacha, I still had 20000 kwacha left, plus the 24000 kwacha of mine Dutch account was the total amount we had was 44000 kwacha, so not enough. Now there is another way, that you send money from your account to someone else’s phone and they can then withdraw it at the ATM. So I sent 15000 kwacha to my friend who was with me, we figured out how it worked, stood at the back of the line again and could withdraw the 15000 kwacha (also in turns of 4000 kwacha). In the end we had the money together, our pockets bulging with money, 590 bills in total. We paid for the car, did the paperwork and went out, but it was already towards the end of the afternoon.

The battery was worn out and I thought I’d buy another one on the way back. We also had to refuel and were not sure if the fuel gauge was working well. On the road out of Lusaka, the car stopped and we thought we had run out of gas. The boy who was with me quickly went to a gas station to get some gas, but since the battery was also not good, it was difficult to get the car started again. Some people helped push-start the car, but this was difficult. Eventually it worked but it was already after 18:00 and started to get dark. We refuelled even more and moved on, but a bit outside Lusaka the car stopped again. Now it was already completely dark and where not parked completely of the road, not knowing what to do. A Good Samaritan helped us, he drove with my friend to the next place to look for another battery, this did not work because it was already late. Even with local jumper cables we couldn’t get the car to work. The man who helped us called mechanic friends and sent them money to come to us. This was special for me (and also for that boy who was with me). My experience here is that everyone wants to help you, but also wants money for it. Just before that in Lusaka, everyone wanted to help push, but everyone was also complaining that I didn’t give them enough money. And now there was a Zambian who used his own money to get a mechanic. It took a while for the mechanic, but once he was there we soon found out that the fuel filter was completely clogged and there was just no petrol coming to the engine. Earlier in the day, the tank was not empty, it was just stuck. With some Zambian solutions, the filter was removed and we got the car working again, the mechanic also said that the fuel tank had to be cleaned. It was almost midnight and we thought it was better to spend the night in the next lodge.

The next morning we couldn’t get the car working again, but because we were in a town we could get another battery on foot. With the battery replaced and after putting some petrol into the carburettor, the car started. We were able to continue our way, we took it easy, ate some food on the way and when we arrived in Kabwe I could say goodbye to my friends who were leaving the next day. Those friends still had a pile of wood that they had to get rid of and that I had an interest in. This way I could immediately try my roof rack. The next day I wanted to take this pile of wood to another friend so he can make some chairs out of it, because I don’t have really good chairs in the house. Again it was very difficult to start the car, but after putting some petrol into the carburettor it started. The following Monday I wanted to take the car to OM but it didn’t start again and this time throwing petrol in the carburettor didn’t work anymore. I was done with it and called that friend who had been with me. He came to my house and we took the gas tank off with Joseph, who works here, and cleaned it. There is also a choke (to help start the engine) on the car that could not be operated from the inside because the cable was broken. After the tank was clean we got the car working again. We drove to the city, put the pipes in the right place again so that a new filter could be inserted and everything was properly connected airtight. We have also replaced the choke cable so that it can be operated from the inside. The car now starts without any weird antics. We started the process of putting the car on my name, but this is also 1.5 day work because you need to go to 3 different government agencies.