Murphy's Law

Murphy must have developed this law after living in Africa during the rainy season.

Let me explain: Many of you may know that our project has a "fleet" of cars - 7 in total. And you may have also heard me say that the fleet is hardly ever all in working order. Why don't I give you an example?

First the cast of characters:

The Pajero (age: 1,398 years)
The Hilux (age: 100 years)
The Diesel Nissan (age: 98 years)
The Red Truck (age: 999 years)
The Drifter (age: unknown, old)
The Column Shift (age: 97.5)
Liyaka's Colt (age: 98)

The setting - 2 hours south of Blantyre, at Chikwawa then 3 hours north of Blantyre, "the villages")

The schpiel:

Given that my project is growing faster and faster as the rainy season goes on, and after the disaster of last Thursday, I hired 4 more staff nurses. As an orientation, I invited them to our Wednesday site at Makwila health center in Chikwawa District. Since there were so many of us, we took two cars on the 2 hour drive down the escarpment. For those who can't picture this, imagine the hills and curvy roads of San Francisco, and then elongate those roads for 40 km (26ish miles). I was driving the Hilux, and Ramsay in the Pajero. We made it down the escarpment without a problem. As soon as we reached the bottom, we were approaching a police stop and - my brakes failed. I couldn't stop! Of course, we stopped after rolling a lot longer than we should have, and I made Ramsay switch cars. I got into the Pajero, and Ramsay started off ahead of me in the no-brake Hilux. With every bump and hole, it felt as though the sides of the Pajero would just fall off like a cardboard box that gets too wet in a cartoon. But, instead, we just got stuck in knee deep mud instead. My poor nurses, in their white uniforms, had to get out and push the car without their shoes on and then wash their feet in a nearby river. Okay, that was part one.

The next leg of the trip is the 2 hour drive back to Blantyre, plus a 2.5-3 hour drive up to the villages. Of course, the Hilux had to go to the mechanic to figure out what was wrong with the brakes. The plan was to pick up the Diesel Nissan and use that as the second vehicle for the day. But that car needed wheel alignment. So I took it to the wheel alignment place, and found a line of 4 cars waiting - an estimated 3 hour wait. Not possible since we had such a long drive to get to the villages. Luckily, I passed Liyaka driving along the road to my house. Thinking quickly, I asked if we could switch cars and I could take his Colt and he could get the wheels aligned in the Nissan - no problem.

Ha, no problem until I got almost to the village and the Colt decided that it no longer wanted to pull the car in any gear. First gear - 4,000 - 5,000 RPM. And the sky decided to spice up the night with some rain in the pitch black. Greatttt. We manage to get to the village, only to find in the morning that the car won't go at all. So, I had to tow the Colt ALL the way back to Blantyre - it took more than 3 hours, especially since the rope I bought kept braking so the cars kept getting separated.

So, that's not EVERYTHING that could go wrong right? Add the fact that the HSAs at one of the two new centers we were opening got the dates mixed up and all the mom's had shown up last week for the first enrollment day, the flying ants that were falling from the sky all night like snow, and the fact that my guests are living in the new house but that none of the plumbing seems to be working and voila! you have Murphy's Law.

Yet, this is Malawi, the land of devout Christians. So what do they say? We are thankful for still enrolling 55 new children in one day today, we are thankful that the brakes held out all the way down the escarpment, we are thankful that we were able to get the car towed all the way back this afternoon, despite all the challenges.

Let me end on a happy note - this past Monday I saw the President of Malawi! Woooo! It was so cool, a story of it's own. Needless to say, he drives a damn fancy car.

To all you kids at home bitching that you don't have the nicest, newest car - be thankful you don't need a fleet just to get by...

-dkm