make do and mend

This afternoon Joyce had to go into Ndola so Alison and I went with her. We'd only got a few hundred yards down the road when her car indicators stared flashing and wouldn't turn off. It obviously wasn't very safe to drive so she said she'd visit the mechanic. I recently had a similar problem (although my indicators had trouble switching on rather than off) and it required me to book an appointment at the garage and leave the car for the whole day while they ordered and fitted a new switch, at the cost of over £100. Today, while we sat in the car, the mechanic fetched a screwdriver, exposed all the electrics and repaired the fault in about 15 minutes, for about £3.

It was very hot in the car so I decided to get out and have a walk around while all this was going on. I'd spotted a sign saying "Coffin Shop" and wanted a closer look. On the way I met a man who introduced himself as Ernest and told me that he fixed car radios. He was using a screwdriver as well. I'm sure that back home it would be a case of just getting a new one. What skills have we lost by using this wasteful approach? 

I told him where I was from and that I was going to look at the coffin shop so we went together and he introduced me (and Alison, who I'd fetched out of the car) to the proprietor (see extras). This man said that he had just inherited the coffin shop from his father and was hoping to succeed in keeping it going. The coffins are made from hardboard. The very basic, plain model on the left costs ZMK300 (about £20) the more fancy ones were ZMK500-900. 

I would have liked to stay longer and explore more of the nearby shops but the car was fixed and off we went to town.