Flat Tires and Kind Strangers

17 Nov 2013      

During Ashura we were restricted to our houses and the Embassy.  This was after violence had erupted in Rawalpindi the twin city to Islamabad.  After being cooped up for a time I made it out the door at 06:30 on the bike.  I rode in to work to check e-mail… that only took a half hour or so.  Then I rode across town to F9 park.  It is a huge park, it takes up an entire sector here in the city.  Since we are not allowed to ride in the Margalla hills at the moment this is my substitute.  Lame but it’s about all I have.  So I was having a nice ride.  I was in the heart of the park on a dirt path riding downhill on a rocky and heavily rutted section when I had a blow out.  OK, no big deal, but it is a pain in the ass.  I had a spare tube, but no patch kit.  I changed the tube and wouldn’t you know it, within a half mile I had another flat.  Damn!  Oh, it’s important to know that we are only supposed to go into F9 park if we call into the operations center at work first.  I had attempted to but cell phone service was out all over town.  So I figured oh well, I’ll just walk back to the limits of where I am supposed to be, 9^th Avenue, and then use my radio to call for motor pool to come pick me up.  We are not allowed to use public transport here, but the embassy’s motor pool works pretty well.  So along I am walking when a local Punjabi rides up on his bike.  I explain in English what has happened, he tells me in Punjabi where I can get my flat repaired.  Now mind you I don’t speak Punjabi… and he doesn’t speak English.  This gentleman stayed with me and took me by 4 places that were all closed before finding one that was open.  Not that a shop was open.  It was just a guy on the side of the road who has a shop elsewhere but was fixing bike tires on this particular dirt corner.  So the guy repairs my tire for 30 rupees (30 cents).  I gave him 100.  Still my Punjabi friend waited.  Once all was well we rode toward my residence.  My friend split off at the adjacent city sector.  We had covered about 3 miles on foot (me) and bike (him).  All I could think through all of this was WOW.  Here is some local guy, in the country’s capitol, who took it upon himself to be my guardian.  He was such a wonderfully nice guy.   In the US I can’t imagine a “Christian” doing this for a foreigner.  Here I am in a land that most American’s think is populated with Islamic extremists and some random Muslim takes care of me.  I was very happy.  I like these people.  I am likely to become very angry the next time I hear someone tell me how violent a religion Islam is. 

 

BTW, my friend kept telling me how bike riding was such great exercise (in Punjabi).  I agreed (in English).  At one point as we moved through a neighborhood, looking for a repair shop, two men better off than my friend, Pashtuns I think, asked what was wrong.  I pointed to my very flat rear tire and told them it had blown out twice today.  They said something and I smiled back as we moved along.  Then it came to me.  In his heavy accent the gentleman had said: Ah, you have put on weight lately.  Too funny!  When my tube was being patched the mechanic asked my age (he spoke a wee little bit of English).  I told him 52 and both he and my friend were impressed.  I think I just reinforced their view of cycling being great exercise. 

 

If I am going to continue riding I need to order some decent tubes.  These Chinese once are crap.  That said I am very happy I had 2 blowouts today.  I would not have had such a wonderful experience.