THE "DEATH" OF ZAFIRA

Originally posted on our ministry Facebook group's wall on November 15, 2022


Here’s some bad news 2.0 And I warn you, this post is not for the faint hearted.

The registration plates used to belong to me, or should I say to my car - Opel Zafira 1.9 cdti - the same car that I lost in July. And the story how it all happened sounds as it was borrowed from “believe or not” section. So, the story goes like this…

I had to go to Bosnia for some urgent family business together with my mother and my son. The journey was going well, we crossed the border and got relatively close to our destination. Suddenly, I heard a sound coming from under the hub, the car stopped and couldn’t get started again. The “verdict” was - the timing belt snapped! I had no choice but to tow it to my mechanic in Podgorica. 

A few days later, the mechanic called me to tell me the reason why the car broke down. A kitten climbed up the engine, rode with us for a few hundred kilometers, got caught by a timing belt and sucked into the engine! The engine/belt crushed its fragile body, yet the same body caused timing belt to snap. A tiny kitten, weighting a pound, destroyed 1538 kg (when empty) 7-seats car! Realizing that it would cost too much to repair it, I sold the car to a scrap yard. 

The day I did it, I literary cried. This car has been with me for 11 years. I drove almost 300,000 km with it. It’s taken me, my family, our church to Bosnia, Serbia, Kosovo, Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia. It has served me and our ministry well, despite needing quite a few repairs. Everyone in Konik knew me and this car I had. People used to say that ”it has a hundred souls”, referring to all the trips and all kinds of roads it’s been on. One of the registration plates still had marks/damage caused by an axe attack I experienced in Kosovo in 2011, during one of our ”documentation trips”. 

Right now I am driving my brother’s car, taking advantage of the fact he is out of country for work. However, this is not a lasting solution and I will have to figure out the way to get a new car, hopefully as reliable and enduring as this one was. 

P. S. Zafira, R. I. P. 😢🥹😔




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