Untipping the Tipper

As Fr. Sylvester noted afterwards, being in Sudan gives you the opportunity to do things you would probably never be able to do anywhere else. In this case it was answering a distress call from the construction crew building the new parish church in town. Their dump truck (known here as a “tipper”) attempted to empty it’s load while situated on uneven terrain that left one of its wheels off the ground. When the bed of the truck was raised, that was enough to throw the whole vehicle off balance, causing it to turn over on its right side.

We were asked if it might be possible to use the electric winch on our Land Cruiser to help lift the truck upright again. I figured Our Lady (it’s her vehicle, the “Mary Mobile”) would want us to help the people who were building the new church named in her honor (“Our Lady of the Assumption”). One of the trickiest parts had to do with how to connect the cable so as to allow for maximum leverage for the winch and minimum damage to the tipper. In the end we decided to wrap the cable around the elevated bed kind of lasso style.

There were a few moments of suspense, but in the winch triumphed in the end as the truck began to rise and fell into its upright position with a loud crash. It provided some lunch hour entertainment for the construction crew, school boys and passers by. Thanks again, Toyota, for a really helpful and powerful African option.

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