Story of the week: Wheelbarrow

It was a hot Saturday summer afternoon in Tsumkwe.  There I was (Jeremy) visiting my friend and former neighbor Daqm.  We were chillin under the shade tree.  Then Daqm called to one of the kids to bring “the wheelbarrow” over.  I was familiar with this wheelbarrow. In America this hole ridden rusty wheelbarrow would have been taken to the scrapyard 5 years ago, but here it was a precious item to Daqm.  We had fixed it and kept it going 3 years ago when we were neighbors and I was shocked to see it still going.  It was time for another repair.  This one was a major undertaking consider all we had was some sunflower oil to loosen concrete caked bolts and one wrench. After two hours we managed to punch holes in some scrap metal laying around loosen those rusty bolts and nuts and reuse them as there are no hardware stores around.  This is life here in Tsumwke, nothing gets wasted but the most important thing wasn’t the task it was the relationship.  Daqm and I love fixing things together and although it’s been 3 years since we’ve been able to do that, we picked up right where we left off,.  With His trusty, rusty old wheelbarrow.