Getting the Oil Changed

The oil in our truck needed to be changed, so we asked our tailor…I’ll call him Sam…where we should go to get this done. Sam speaks some English and he makes all of our clothes for us. He has been very helpful to the girls and he takes good care of us. He said that he would call a mechanic and take us there on Saturday morning at 10. So this morning, Abby and I drove up to the market to meet Sam at his shop. He jumped in the truck with us and took us to the mechanic. Now, the mechanic shop looked like an American junkyard. There were cars and trucks all over the place in no apparent order. Men were standing everywhere. Old parts, bottles of oil, trash, lots and lots of grease, and various other articles were strewn all across the yard. I really wish you could’ve seen it. It was awesome and I loved it.

We all got out and I greeted them, which is the only thing I can do in the language. They started trying to say more to me and I just shook my head, made the universal “I don’t know shoulder shrug” and we all had a good laugh. They just appreciate the attempt. Sam started talking to one of the dozen or so guys/mechanics standing there who said I needed to move the truck around. So I jumped back behind the wheel and he jumped in the backseat and we figured out a system of various hand motions and noises to communicate where I needed to drive while Sam and Abby waited for us to pull back around. We got to the right spot and got out of the truck while 5 guys began the process of changing our oil. They set a bench out for Sam, Abby, and I to sit on while we waited. We ended up not having enough oil so another man who owns a shop sold us some of his. Then we paid 5,000 francs for the oil and the oil change (about $10 USD). I asked for a receipt and the man who sold us the oil said he would give us a receipt for all of it, but it was at his shop on another street. So Sam, Abby, the oil man, and I piled in the truck, drove to his shop, and got a receipt.

I just really love Africans. They are so helpful and so nice and so hospitable. My favorite thing is that when you’re driving they help you park without hitting the stacked piles of oil cans and then they help you back out while dodging donkeys, sheep, and motos. And they make mundane things like getting your oil changed an adventure. Sometimes these adventures can be extremely frustrating, but today it was just kind of entertaining and fun.