yep, that's right, momentarily carless. Fuel injector pump...hmmm...deja vous - all over again! :) Luckily the fuel TANK is still intact, let's just say that to start! I've been chatting via telephone all week with my buddy Trey, the mechanic at the shop where I take my little blue VW. I seem to have mechanic buddies all over the world...Trey is way less intimidating than "Dr" Sessanga the king of Land Rover's in Kampala, but both men know cars, and both take time to explain to me what exactly is going on inside the vehicle I've brought to them for their care - very much like a good doctor does for a person they've been entrusted with the care of. I know a bit about the way the insides of people work, I know NOTHING about the way the insides of cars work - so for this I am very thankful.
Anyways, Trey and I have been chatting at least once a day and it's going on a week now, don't worry, just car talk, lest I give you the idea we had other things to talk about ;) But everyday there's more to find out, the process gets dragged out, and it's okay! I don't live 8 hours away, and have my food for the next 3 months packed into a freezer in a local guesthouse...I haven't been stashed in the middle of the shop space in a chair to avoid the evening mosquitos while the boss's minions buzz around the yard in end of the day craziness while texting with a teammate who is supposed to be buying dinner but has found himself inadvertently in what seems to be a brothel - still trying to buy dinner mind you...I don't have to walk around town hugging my Timbuktu bag/suitcase :) (or try not to have to carry it anywhere at all) because it's filled with stacks and stacks and stacks of bills in order to pay my $1,000 balance in cash...
When Trey told me it was the fuel pump injector and asked me about previous work done on the car, I found myself mentally reviewing the last 3 years of vehicle service not on a VW Golf, but on a Nisaan Patrol...confusing for sure...within the last 6 months of my time in Uganda I had to replace the fuel pump injector on the Patrol (or the Zoolander as we affectionately called it)...and now I'm looking at the possibility of having to replace it here on my Golf...
It's nice to be able to hitch rides with gracious friends and family and not have a huge pressure to get the work done NOW NOW in order to drive the 8 hours home to the work awaiting there...(one of the few times in which life in the US has the potential to be slower than in Uganda)...but otherwise, I miss the Zoolander and Ssessanga adventures with a variety of teammates I miss very much...they did get a bit old at times, and I'm sure Scott Myhre is glad to not have to be diagnosing THIS fuel pump malfunction as he did with the Zoolander, which he was less than enamored with ;)...but I miss the Ssessanga lot, I miss having to conjure up the courage to call him on the phone about the vehicle and how it often took other people to help me do that :)...I have been reminded that I, just in general, miss the adventures of life in Uganda...
And oh how I miss the sunshine! (even when "they were many"!)