Zambia World Wide

It was about this time that we found the car petrol tank had a leak. Keith came round as I was removing the tank, after some discussion we decided to drain the tank, fill it with water and let it stand for a week. After a week had passed we checked the tank and couldn’t smell any fumes, so we decided to weld the leak. All seemed well so we put the tank back in the car, we poured a gallon of petrol into the tank and once again checked for leaks. We found that our repair was good but another leak had appeared in a different place. We took the tank back out, drained the fuel and cleaned the bottom of the tank and found it had previously been repaired with soft solder which had melted when we welded the tank. We thought that since we had only put a gallon of fuel in the tank and then poured it out in less than 10 minutes the fumes would not have reached a dangerous level. We were a little wary but decided if we refilled the tank with water there should be no problem in repairing the second leak. I went to the house to get the water, while I was getting it Keith decided to melt the solder and clean the tank ready to weld. As I walked back down the drive there was an almighty bang. I can vaguely remember being hit by something flying through the air at speed. I was thrown back about 10 metres and quite dazed, I think I must have passed out for a short time because the next thing I remember was Jan screaming, but as I couldn’t see did not know why. As my mind cleared Keith explained that the tank had exploded and hurtled through the air as I was walking towards it. It was apparent that I had suffered an injury to my face as I still couldn’t see, we went into the house and cleaned the blood away and I could then see which was a relief. Apart from some minor cuts and bruises there was one bad gash under my left eye. We went to the hospital and the nurse decided it needed stitches, she called the standby doctor as she felt that since it was so close to the eye it would be safer to have a surgeon do the stitches. After about 30 minutes the doctor arrived and checked the cut, he reeked of whisky and I remember thinking is this guy capable of stitching the cut. It was needless worrying, he was so good that the only sign today is a slight scar. The tank had now to be replaced so we toured the scrap yards to find another. We eventually found a second hand tank and bought it for 40 Kwacha. The currency of Zambia is the Kwacha and Ngwee, there are one hundred Ngwee to one Kwacha. We fitted the tank and there were no leaks.