I arrived in Cyprus early with some classmates to spend a few days in Nicosia. Shortly after arriving, I realized one of my wheelchair tires was completely flat, damaged by the airline. My travel buddies and I were exhausted and decided this was a tomorrow problem. When we awoke the next day around 2pm, we began the challenging task of repairing a wheelchair tire in Cyprus. As my wheelchair tire is essentially a skinny bike tire, my classmates began by taking it to a bike shop. The first bike shop did not have a thin enough tube. The bike shop worker filled the tire, reporting that it did not have an obvious hole, and sold us some tube sealant. When they arrived back, we decided to take the tire to a gas station and attempt to seal the tube. My travel buddies and I walked to the gas station and began an attempt at fixing the tire. The gas station attendants were very helpful as we fought with the tube to get it filled with sealant.

Unfortunately, as they began sealing the tire, the sealant was leaking out of the walls in many places and the air was streaming out of 5 gashes in the wall of the tire. As we were trying to patch the wall (with a patch kit containing dried glue), the gas station attendants informed us they were off and leaving, but they did make sure we knew how to use the pump first. Cypriots are very protective of their breaks, much unlike Americans. We realized we wouldn’t be able to solve this problem today and decided to wait until Dr. Stephens picked us up the next day.

~ Apollo Blue