Thursday, February 15, 2007

The good, the bad, and the ugly

We spent the afternoon doing the British colonial thing - sitting on the veranda, playing cards (cinch is fun!), and drinking gin and tonics.
By 9 pm, we were ready for news, of any kind, from the mechanics. They spent the day running around town, looking for spare parts and trying to devise a solution. Here's what they brought back:
The good news is that the mechanics are fairly confident that they've found parts that can be modified to fit Thomas.
The bad news is that it's going to cost an arm and a leg to get done, and it's going to take at least three days of around the clock work. Based on our conversations last night, it sounds like most of the cost is going to the parts, and the labors pretty cheap. Based on this morning, "around the clock" work translates differently in Arabic. We took the bikes off the bus and all the perishable supplies into our rooms by 10 this morning, as requested. It's now past noon and we're still waiting for the mechanics to show up and tow the bus to the shop.

We had the longest team decision making session we've ever had last night, trying to come to an agreement on what to do. That's saying something, too, given how much we all love to talk. We've decided to go ahead with the repairs and continue our efforts to get Thomas to the Gambia. We all feel that we've come to far to stop now.

If all goes well, we'll be up and running, and loaded back up, by Sunday morning. This will put us well behind the rest of the PDCers, but we're hoping we can push ahead and that we might make it in time to join some of the teams lounging poolside in Banjul.

Keep your fingers crossed, and we'll keep you all posted on developments. A huge thank you goes out to everyone who has been doing so much to give us a long distance helping hand. Your efforts, your prayers, and your words of encouragement are all greatly appreciated.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Best of luck!