Fixing a Flat Tire

I learned a little something a couple of weeks ago about fixing tires. One of the mission vehicles is a Toyota Prado. It is sort of like a SUV. The car had a flat tire. The tire was taken to Livingstone to get repaired. But by the time they got back to Zimba the tire was flat again. The next day we needed to use that vehicle so the tire needed to be fixed. I tried to pump it up and found a large bead leak. I thought how am I going to be able to break the bead of the tire and then clean it up and then try to pump it up again. One of the guys here at the mission said that in the market here in Zimba there is a shop that fixes tires. So we were going to bring it there. As we were rolling the tire through the market we ran into one of the drivers for the mission. We stopped to talk to him and he asked what was wrong. We told him a bead leak. He told us to just hammer the tire right where it is leaking and that will seal the leak. No breaking the bead no cleaning just a little hammering. I was skeptical, but we brought it back to the mission and as I pumped it up the other guy hit the tire where it was leaking. It worked! No more leak. By the way the spare is still holding air. I was very surprised; I learned something.