So the car saga continues. Nearly two weeks have passed and we are still without our dearly beloved. So here is an update on the story. But before reading it, to help you empathise with the frustrations we have been feeling, you must know that we have had to sort out everything over the mobile phone. In an area of the country with almost no reception. Using a phone with a very limited battery life. Meaning almost every call has broken up several times. And with regular confusion caused by very different English accents. Anyway, here we go.
So, in a previous posting we mentioned that our car had to be towed to Jozini (about 70 kms from us). Unfortunately, the mechanic there was unable to fix the problem with the computer. Instead, he decided to send the computer box to Johannesburg to a specialist. This took several days to happen. On arrival in Jo’burg, the specialist took little time to pronounce it permanently broken or more precisely f….. (a word that many English speaking Zulus believe translates literally as unfixable). Worse still, a new computer for the car would cost us approximately £550.
Given that we are in the land of the unnew, I set about trying to find a second hand version. Today, I had a triumph. I have found one for the bargain price of £285. Unfortunately, the garage is in Durban. The garage itself cannot fit the computer. And it doesn’t offer any courier service. But by great good fortune, one of our friends is going down to Durban this weekend. So she will purchase the item (a Bosch 1S6D12a650AV) and bring it up to the mechanic at Jozini. The car and computer will then be driven down to Ricards Bay (about 200 kms from Jozini) for a fitting. Assuming all goes well, it will then be driven back to Jozini. And I will then fetch it.
In the meantime I have (very generously) been lent the use of one of the doctor’s cars. Indeed it is Baba Heese’s car. Baba Heese and his wife are true Ingwavuma legends. He has worked at Ingwavuma hospital for several decades. In that time, she has set up a secondary school, a craft/stitching cooperative and Ingwavuma’s only restaurant. Anyway, his car is an early 1980s Mercedes. Painted a classy olive colour. And while its engine may be past its prime, its character lives on. However, there is one draw back to the interior design. Its leather seats. Today the temperature was 45 degrees and I was unable to park the car in the shade at school. As a result, I had to peel bits of flaky leather from my back when I got home.
School life continues to delight and depress – in equal measures. In the first camp, we have been practising for an inter school athletics event. We have three ‘track’ events. One hundred metres – or once across our field. Four hundred metres – or once round the field. Eight hundred and 1500 metres – two and four times round the field. Practice takes place during the middle of the day. Yet nobody grumbles about setting off for four laps round the field. Our jojos are almost empty so there is a shortage of water for the runners.
Staying on the positives, we have recently planted about 20 saplings around the school to try to create more shady places. There are currently almost none.
And now to the downbeat stuff. Lessons for lots of the children have been very disrupted recently. We only have sufficient teachers when all are present. At the moment teachers keep having to attend workshops – cleverly scheduled during the school day. These seem to be absolutely pointless. The only thing my colleagues take away from them are big handouts containing masses of indigestible information about how and what they should be teaching. This makes no difference to their performance in the classroom. But it means days without classes for some of our children. Complete madness!
More depressingly, our local NGO visited last week to bring new uniform to the orphans at the school. I’m not sure how many we have in total. But the Principal’s room was full of children trying on clothes. Many of the parentless seemed to be in the bottom grades. If I were able to post pictures of them (especially dressed in their new attire) you’d get a good idea of how moving I found the spectacle. But I didn’t have my camera with me.
This weekend is likely to involve a trip to the city and a visit to a game park. Once again, I’ll let you know if we see a leopard.
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