Out of Africa

I am here again. It is Easter Holiday. And though we work, I have a few moments of relaxing. Before a next meeting. Nobody is at the office at this moment. I was thinking a bit and all of a sudden some rememberings and souvenirs came to my mind. Good ones, bad ones and funny ones. Let me tell you a funny one.

All told, I have spent more than 25 years of my life in Africa. A fascinating continent. And everybody tells me that I know the continent well by now. Well, I start to know it. Because a lifetime is not sufficient to know Africa. It is a very complex continent, a beautiful one. Even if there are troubles here and there. Which might not necessarely only the African's fault. But that is another story (history).

I lived great moments in Africa. For example 7 years in Niger were I worked mainly in the desert region and got to know the fabulous tribe of the Tuareg. The nomads, the blue men. They did teach me how to become patient. They showed me that the best thing in man's life every morning was the rising sun. And I tell you, the sun coming up in the desert is something exceptional.

When our teams went to the desert with our Toyota Landcruiser Pickups, the drivers came back from time to time (and then more and more) with a broken tyre. And those tyres, special sand tyres, were very expensive. Really expensive. When I asked why the tyre had broken, the drivers said that they had hit a stone tree and the tyre bust. So they had to use the spare wheel.

They brought the busted tyre back. As evidence. I accepted the fact. But what is a stone tree? Well, thousands of years when there were trees and when the climate changed the trees petrified. And so you have pieces of trees hidden in the sand. And, indeed, it could be that you hit one of those pieces. But our area of intervention was 320'000 square kilometers and petrified tree chunks are rather rare. One from time to time. I don't know, perhaps every 50 kilometers.

I was thinking about that and one day, when another stone tree was apparently "hit", I looked at the busted tyre. And somehow I had the feeling that this tyre looked old, anyhow, much older that it could have been from our car. Did the drivers sell our tyres? Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I did not want to make a fuss. And if they did sell them, this meant that they were in need. Because their families are big and not everybody had work. So, many people did depend from a money earner. Who had also to follow traditional rules of support.

I told the drivers that they should not take me for a fool and think that I did not know what was going on. And we settled the case like this. I was though still hoping that one day I will "get" one of them.

The "one day" came. I went on an inspection tour on some outpost. We had been driving for hours and it was hot. I saw that the driver was tired and I told him to stop, that he should go to the back and rest and that I will drive. He was happy, we stopped for a few moments, ate a bite and drank a lot of water. Then we resumed our journey and I was crossing dunes, up and down, drove through dry wadies and had a great time.

All of a sudden, the car made a jump, I had to hold the steer very tight, the car swayed a bit and stopped. I got out, the driver too. We looked at the front. We looked at each other. And we started to laugh.

I had hit a bloody stone tree. And a busted tyre.