A Boy and His Bike
This morning on my way to work, all was peachy keen, fine and dandy, when suddenly… one of the back wheels started making funny sounds. My dad and I instantly knew that the tire had gone kaput.
In a small fit of panic, he was like, “What do we do?” And I told him calmly that we should change it. LOL.
So we get out of the car to see the damage. It was the back wheel on the driver’s side that had gone out. It wasn’t entirely flat, and it wasn’t as bad as this one. But it still needed to be changed - the tire looked like a semi-peeled coconut, with part of its outer “skin” peeled back.
Anyway, to make a long story short, we got some help from a few random strangers. Some of them offered advice (like how to use the jack properly), while a couple of them actually changed our tire for us.
You may or may not be aware that more than half of the Philippine population live in poverty - those that helped us out this morning included. Heck, some of them just came back from buying NFA rice! (NFA rice is the cheapest kind of rice here, reserved only for the poorest families.)
Though they may not have much money, I wouldn’t call them poor at all. Wealth is not just about finances. In my eyes, with their generosity and kindness, those helpful strangers are richer than anyone with a big fat bank account.
P.S. This is our third tire incident for this year. What gives? Haha.
I’ve experienced this kind of incident twice or thrice already yet, surprisingly, there’s always at least one stranger who lent me a helping hand. I know strangers can be scary (those muggers!) but kindness still does exist in some of them.
Ah, good thing that you guys got help!! Once I got a flat tire, and I literally had to try and call someone to come and help me that I know, because I knew I couldn’t use a jack.
Just how exactly did those tires (referring to the other post) blow up?! Good thing this time it was not as bad as that one.
@Nelson: Most probably the combination of old tires and lumpy roads.