July 11th - Saga of the bike

In Cyprus every missionary pays 100 euro to use a bike. I did this and was given a blue and silver bike. It was in probably the worst shape I have ever seen. It hardly changed gears and the brakes were bad. But I am no one to complain. And I am fairly mechanically inclined so I tinkered with it and got it use-able. It has been all down hill from there. This week the part of my bike that changes gears in the front was given the ok to be repaired. So I took it in. They told me my bike wasn't worth repairing but they did anyway. On the way home, my back gear changer lodged itself in my tire and broke off. So I took it home and took the part from a parts bike we had and fixed it up. This patch held but I told our president on Cyprus that it was going to die soon and what the repair guy said. On Saturday, we were riding to look for a bike shop and my rear gear changer again lodged itself in my tire and this time, (just showing how good of a handy man I am) it actually bent the tire. I sure got it on good. But my bike was walked home where I threw on a spare tire that had a flat. I then spent the next hour fixing the flat. I finally got one tire to hold air so we set off. We were on our way home and plop. There went my tire. I was out of parts so I gave up and called back the president and told him I would need a new bike. They were not happy with this as many people are asking for new bikes but reluctantly agreed. Today they came to go shopping with me. They loaded the 2 of us elders, the 2 broken bikes and the pres and his wife in the car and drove to the bike shop. Thankfully we found a decent bike and a lady that spoke enough English for president to agree to buy the bike. I rode home a happy missionary. Then we rode to the internet cafe. Sadly, on the way, a very un-cautious woman threw open her car door and hit me. Catching my pedal and smashing it to pieces. Brand new bike. 1st ride. Broken. I stopped and just looked at her. Then she had the audacity to tell me that "I can go" like I was the one at fault and she wasn't going to press charges. I wasn't in missionary attire but believe me it took everything I had not to tell her just what I thought of her. But such is life. Its in the past now.