Cherished Memories of Africa — Page 261
243 Necessity is the Mother of Invention The markaz arranged, through Japan mission,three second hand cars for the Gambia jama’at for the first time in early 1988. In the Gambia it is right-hand drive but the cars that we received were all left-hand drive which, under the laws of the country, we could not drive. On the other hand, Hadhrat Khalifatul Masih IV (ra) was due to arrive soon for an historic tour of the Gambia. The cars were badly needed to prepare for that, rush around and contact the jama’ats. Necessity is the mother of invention. We consulted a local mechanic. He, very skilfully, cut front parts of the cars and transferred the steering to the other side. The cars served the jama’at for many years. A few days before the arrival of Huzur, the Ameer Sahib gave me one car with Usman Bah Sahib as its driver and directed me to tour the jama’ats of the Gambia and Senegal. I did not know driving those days. I used a motor cycle. According to the programme we set out from Banjul in the afternoon. We had a builder with us and a lady who was related to Usman Bah Sahib. We hoped to reach Saba jama’at by evening. From Banjul to Bara we were to go by ferry. When we reached the riverside we learnt that the ferry had already left. We waited for a long time but the ferry did not return. Usman Bah said that he would go across by a boat and request the ferry staff to return and hoped that they would come back to ferry us across. So he left by a boat. We waited anxiously for him on this side but he did not return for a long time. It was getting dark and all the