Part of our life here in Swazi is driving to and from “care points” and driving into town for errands. In my past experiences in Africa, I’ve walked, used public transport, or been driven by a contact; but now, Erica, Sydney, and I are the drivers. I absolutely love driving anyways, so it’s been fun to have to drive on the left side of the road. We have a very old, but “faithful” van.
Every time we get into the van we have to flip the entire passenger seat and consul to get to the engine to check the water and oil. During our first experience with the car, it took an hour and a half to get it started due to a faulty battery. We had wonderful people around us running to and from a ‘garage’ getting new batteries and trying everything they could. The car worked, and I started my re-entry in understanding the phrase “T.I.A. (this is Africa)”.
Our second venture with the van was when Sydney and I were going to drive a small group of our girls into town for a communication day while the rest of the team piled into another van we had rented. The rental van started with no problems and left to get the day started. We, on the other hand, ran into a longer ordeal. We checked the water and oil and attempted to start the car…nothing. We tried again, and again, and again. We had our amazing mechanic return and work his magic with the battery, and still nothing. I even went to a neighbor’s house who gave it a try while I watched two guinea fowl chase and peck at a goat; and still nothing. First, we were told it was the battery, then the alternator, and finally the fuse. After almost 2 hours we got the van started and we’re on our way to Manzini (about an hour drive), with the instructions to tell our contacts there about the battery, alternator, and fuse.
When I had finally made it onto the road, I noticed check engine light and all the ones surrounding it would randomly flicker on and off. I tried to ignore it, hoping it was nothing. Then, about 10 minutes into our drive, I felt the car jolt forward, followed by the speedometer plummeting to zero; but I didn’t want to stop out of fear that it wouldn’t start again. But then it started to slow down, and I told the people in the car we had to pull over. I pulled over to the side of the road and turned the car off. We called our contact, Pastor Gift, who started to give us instructions on how to fix it. Now Sydney and I both know close to nothing about cars, but we gave it a try. We flipped over one of the back seats to get to the battery. Gift talked us through finding the fuse and trying to connect these two metal pieces with another piece of metal. So, here we are, on the side of the road in Africa, with 5 of our girls, trying to “MacGyver” the vans fuse. It was definitely entertaining trying to find a small enough piece of metal to use. Sydney was incredible and worked so hard, but it was beyond repair. After 15 minutes of failed attempts, we had to call for another ride. Luckily, we weren’t too far away from our home base, and Gift showed up with a neighbor. They switched batteries and Gift drove our van home while we piled into the neighbors covered bed truck. He drove us to a closer town where the girls could do some quick internet.
To get home, we had to use public transportation. Now, this was something I was used to, but it is always an experience. We found the correct 15 passenger van that was heading towards our home and jumped in. The problem was, we were the only ones in the van, and the vans don’t leave until they are full (and by full, I mean at least 20 people). So, there we sat, in a hot sweaty van, for an entire hour, waiting for it to fill up. We were offered every type of fruit, snack chip, and bagged drink being sold in that parking lot by a wide range of people. We finally made it home after stopping only a few times with our driver’s brilliant notion that there is always room for one more.
The day was an adventure (and actually, one I really enjoyed), and the girls with us were amazing. They were patient and understanding, and made it so much easier to have everything go wrong. Our van has made it back to us this week, hopefully in full repair, and we are excited to give it another try. T.I.A.
