You win some....

The Bookmobile being worked on by Fatik mechanics. Photo courtesy of Lauren from Buttercup Farms.

Well, Saturday was a series of unfortunate events, one after another, all day long. When one thing goes wrong, it can be very upsetting, but when tons of things go wrong, at a certain point you just have to throw up your hands and laugh at the absurdity of it all. Here is the abbreviated story:
After two days of rushing around town, making sure everything was ready - paperwork, checks in the hands of the right people, new battery, spare tire, and lights for the truck, driver and sept-place hired, books secured with rope and nails, posters made, donation cards and box prepared - everyone went to bed as early as they could. We woke at five the next morning to start off. The truck, with its two drivers, had gone off before us, because the sept-place drives much faster. At first it all went fine. We had music playing to keep us awake as we drove into the murky dawn. But then, just inside the town of Fatik, we spotted the Bookmobile on the side of the road with it's hood open. Stopping to see what was up, the drivers told us it was dangerously overheating, and they didn't want to risk continuing on in that situation. There was mild mayhem for awhile as people cursed the mechanic who hadn't fixed the truck the way he'd said, and we debated what to do, waking poor Mm. Viola up at seven to tell her what had happened. Eventually Kate asked if a mechanic in Fatik could be found to take a look at it, and a motorcycle was sent to bring one. He ended up being a very nice guy, but we waited for nearly three hours there while he removed the radiator, had it cleaned at the gas station, and put the whole thing back together. Meanwhile, it was nearly ten, and the event was due to start at eleven. We'd left so early to avoid Dakar's heinous traffic. But it was not looking good. Still, around ten we had the mechanic paid and crossed our fingers that the Bookmobile would be okay. On the road again!
But the moment we started back on the main road there was a clunk, a dragging sound, and our sept-place driver exclaimed that HIS car had just broken down too! Our bad luck was starting to seem comical at this point. Meanwhile, the truck was not 100%, but we decided to keep trying. So the others stood there waiting for a new sept-place, which had been called in from Kaolack, and I got into the cab of the truck, hoping to get to Dakar before they did. It was just not meant to be. The truck overheated every two kilometers, and finally the drivers said there was nothing else to do besides go back. The new sept-place still hadn't reached Fatik, so we waited for awhile, and when it finally came I hopped in. By this time it was nearly noon; we were an hour late, still hours from Dakar, and with no Bookmobile either. Since we'd lost so much time, we pulled into Dakar in the middle of lunchtime traffic, which is practically stand-still. This gave us the opportunity to buy some cashews for breakfast from vendors who stroll up and down the lanes between the vehicles, but in the end it caused us to roll into the event at nearly 3pm. Most people had already gone home, and though the ladies who had organized the Bookmobile station with us were sympathetic, there was not much anyone could do. We set up our story-reading corner, which had been our planned kids' activity. But since most of the kids had gone home, and there was no beautiful big red truck to intrigue them, we had few customers. The donations table was vacant; only a few people were left to come listen to us talk about the program. In the end we got a little money that had been collected on behalf of the Bookmobile some time ago by a member of the Dakar Womens' Group, and a couple handfuls of spare change from people on their way home.
In short, the event was a total failure. But, I suppose we learned some useful things. For one, the Bookmobile is NOT ready to go around to rural villages until its engine is properly fixed up. This was our test drive.