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Unperturbed

October 31, 2008

I was in the office in a meeting with Lize-Marié, our friendly HR Officer, discussing some contracts when she gets a call asking if she could do someone a favour and quickly drive the VW Golf which has just come back from town with some groceries for hospitality catering up to Hands Village.

She says yes and I go with her to give her a hand unloading everything.

We get to the car and she gets in.

“How am I supposed to drive with THAT?!” she exclaims.

“What’s wrong with that?”, I reply.

“THAT! How am I supposed to drive with that?! Where is the pedal?!”

I was slightly confused as to why she was so animated. I didn’t think there was anything particularly out of the ordinary.

“Which part do I press to give it gas?”

I look over to see what she is talking about:

Without batting an eyelid I look back at her, puzzled as to what was so out of the ordinary.

“That part is what you press for the gas”, I said, pointing to the metal stick where the accelerator pedal was supposed to be as opposed to the piece of plastic sticking up from the floor of the car… which is the bottom half of the broken accelerator pedal.

“WHY IS IT LIKE THAT!? WHERE IS THE PEDAL?! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO DRIVE WITH THAT…. LITTLE STICK??”, she shouted.

I looked down again, realising that it was pretty not normal and started laughing.

T.I.A.

I was completely unperturbed that the car was like that. It appeared completely normal to me!

I think I have become conditioned to expect all these little things in a somewhat derelict or worn down state and hardly bat an eyelid. That’s what you get used to here. Dealing with whatever comes your way and taking it in your stride. Making do with whatever you’ve got.

I’m going to get home in January and think what kind of world I’ve come back to – a place where everything seems to be in order and things like a missing accelerator pedal is not a normal thing!

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Welverdien

October 28, 2008

Last week a few of us went to the community at Welverdien to lend a hand with the start-up project there. Welverdien is on the border between Mpumalanga and Limpopo province. It’s an incredibly poor area, very remote, where there are a lot of refugees from Mozambique when there was a civil war there. Because of the civil war and the refugee situation, many of the children and even adults don’t have birth certificates and so it is difficult for them to get ID documents, and therefore access to many simple government services. Can you imagine not having ID?

Welverdien streets:

The project at Welverdien consists of one building on a decent sized plot of land.

The Kombi we drove:

Me lending a hand digging a trench for the massive vegetable garden they are planning.

My blistered (weak!) urban professional hands. I now understand the importance of gloves and tools that aren’t broken or breaking (The pick head flew down – that’s right – down not off and wedged my finger between it and the handle). But T.I.A and people make do with what they have. They are incredibly resourceful.

You can also see how dry it is there – and I can tell you it is absurdly dry. There are only a few water sources (boreholes) in the entire Welverdien community which is approximately the size of Eastwood.

It was incredibly hot – so i took a break in the car and some kids jumped up and sat with me. The one with white shirt’s name is Comfort. I was wondering why the kids around kept shouting “Comfort! Comfort” when I was told that it was his name!