Loved The Datsun 160-J - E-book - ePub

Dr. Musa, a young doctor working for the program on Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD) for the Ministry of Health in Uganda fell in love with his first car-a thirteen-year-old dilapidated green Datsun 160-J two-door sports car. The more he loved it and invested in it the more it gave back to him in performance and faithfulness. For example, the car was faithful when he used it to travel with a consultant from the World Health Organization (WHO) to conduct a study on STDs among the military and sex workers in two distant locations from Kampala, the capital of Uganda.
However, sometimes the 160-J would fail him. One time he had to drive it in one gear, because the clutch was dead, at night for 78 kilometers with his wife and kids in the car. Another time he had to keep turning the engine on and off while driving on a long distance because it was over heating. The 160-J also made Dr. Musa vulnerable to unwanted approaches from single women when he was also single after separation from his wife.
The car in its sports model driven with an empty passenger seat gave the impression that the driver was looking for a woman to occupy that seat. Further, the driving tricks he learnt from the old 160-J, such as jump-starting a car while it was being pushed, made him a hero but caused undue expectations from women, when he helped with jump starting their cars. In the end Dr. Musa lamented that as the auto industry was migrating towards more automated cars and towards electric cars, the tricks he had learnt from his old 160-J were becoming obsolete.
Please join Dr. Musa as he narrates the story of his love for his first car.