Sparkplug Saga

It would be silly if someone thought I knew much about sparkplugs, but I know a bit more about the J9 type than I did a few weeks ago. Sometime back it came to my attention that the spark plugs for our mowing machine (lawn mower) had “finished.” In fact, the spare sparkplugs had also finished. And, no one put “new spark plugs” on the shopping list (not to write an item on the shopping list or give one of our parents a recap of an item’s diminished quantity was a cardinal offence growing up).

Oh well.

On my next trip to town, I took an old sparkplug so I would know which plug to purchase. As you may have guessed, there were no such sparkplugs in Choma.

Anywhere.

I wasn’t too surprised when I was unable to purchase the spark plugs locally, which is why I was annoyed to learn the spares were finished and the item had not been added to a Lusaka shopping list.

It just so happened our neighbors were headed to Lusaka (the capitol, five hours away) for the weekend, so I sent along my sparkplug and a request for 8 more if they were able to find said sparkplug type. They didn’t have time to check for the sparkplug, and so left it in Lusaka with a friend from Macha who was remaining an additional day in Lusaka.

Lisa of Macha was able to find the sparkplug. Unfortunately, Auto World only had two in stock. She bought them both, 20 Kwacha each.

A couple weeks back, Sara and I traveled to Lusaka with friends for the weekend. Our friend needed some auto parts, so we wound up in Lusaka’s auto spares section (no joke, every-other shop was an auto spare shop—some were the same shop just multiple locations).

Chris and I went to D’s Auto Shop where the sales fellow eventually found Chris’s sought after Prado parts. D’s even gave us bottles of cold water—what divine customer service! Unfortunately, though, D’s didn’t have my sparkplugs.

We walked across the street and checked at another shop. To no avail.

However, the fellow on the stool near the shop’s doorway rounded up a friend and ran off down the street carrying my sparkplug. Chris and I waited as the guys went who-knows-where looking for the exact plug I wanted.

Eventually, Chris walked up the street to work on additional business and I sat down on the fellow’s stool waiting for the sparkplug return. Finally the guys reappeared. They had the wrong plug. I was going to take my original plug and leave, but they insisted on a second chance to find what I wanted.

Some twenty or more minutes later, the guys returned again. This time with a plug that was too small instead of too big. They assured me this plug would definitely meet my needs, though.

Like I said, I don’t know much about sparkplugs, so… I don’t know. Maybe that plug would have worked. However, I knew Lisa had bought the exact plug I was looking for at Auto World some weeks prior.

Out of curiosity, I asked the price of the tiny, lone sparkplug the guys had scrounged up for me. They did a quick survey and sensed I didn’t know much about sparkplugs. “One-hundred and twenty Kwacha,” they said! Hah.

When I seemed shocked, they lowered the price to K100 (~$20) and asked me how much I could pay. I told them I was sorry but I wouldn’t pay that much, because I had just bought the plugs I needed for K20 (~$4) each a couple weeks back.

Down the way, I stopped in at another auto spare shop once again with no success.

Next, Marlys and I walked to an Auto World shop we spotted up the street.

I showed the fellow what I wanted. He pulled a box from the back of the store…

I purchased the six plugs I wanted for K20 each. My sparkplug shopping for the year was done.

So Easy.