Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
the leak. To my relief, I soon realized that it wasn't from the valve but instead was from a
new pin-sized hole.
After the repair, I loaded the bike and continued until I crossed over the Lubilash
River. A section of this river acted as the provincial boundary between Kasai Oriental and
Shaba. At either side of the bridge, I was expecting a heavy military presence or at least a
policecheckpointwitharmedguards,buttherewasnoone.Theroadwaspeacefulandwas
in excellent condition with no ruts or potholes. However, the weather began to cloud over
again with storm activity started to develop off to my left. As I progressed further south,
the quality of the road surface worsened with many areas of protruding rocks. I was afraid
of getting a 'snakebite' (pinching the tube against the rim when striking a hard object) so
myattentionwasmostlyontheroadandnotonthesceneryorthestorm. Thereweremany
local cyclists whizzing by me on their one-gear bikes, but they didn't faze me. With the
weight I was carrying and the poor condition of my tires, I was in no position to keep pace
with them.
According to my Michelin map, when the road crossed the railway line I would be
very close to Kaniama (my Bartholomew map begged to differ). When I arrived at the rail
crossing in a small village called Mwadi Kayembe, I was told that I still had 15 kilometres
left. Disheartened, I found a place to rest and took time out to eat my remaining two bana-
nas.
At 12 kilometres to go, I had another flat so I stopped at the steps of an empty
churchandrepairedit.ThethreatofanotherdownpourseemedmomentsawaysoIquickly
fixed the flat and pushed off. The distance that I needed to cover seemed like an eternity.
To prevent myself from fixating myself over the distance and stressing myself out over
my slow pace, I decided to say the Rosary to keep my mind off of it. When I finished the
Rosary, I literally arrived at the front door of the sisters.
I knocked at the door and a sister came out to tell me that they were expecting me
for the sisters in Mwene Ditu contacted them by radio. What an utter joy it was to be ex-
pected. I was given sweet tea, cookies and 3 muffins. I then chatted with Sister Louise, a
Canadian sister and one of the kindest people I had ever met.
I was given a room, quickly took a shower and was called to dinner. We had a
simple meal as we discussed our lives. I talked about my little sister and what a joy and
inspiration she had been to me. Ithen retired to my room and wrote in my journal. Before I
slept, I lay in bed brainstorming possible solutions on how to mitigate my high number of
flat tires. Needless to say, that put me to sleep immediately.
After a good night's rest, I headed to mass in the morning. The solution for my flat
tireproblemcameataninappropriatetime:itwasduringmasswhenIwasinlinetoreceive
communion. The solution was simple. I decided to utilize all my tires at once (those on the
wheelsandthetwospares.)Individually,allfourtireswereinpoorcondition.However,in-
steadofonlydoublingthebackwheel,Iwoulddoublethefrontaswell.Thiswouldprovide
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