Heritage Day and Taxi Accident

Wednesday was Heritage in South Africa, a day we celebrate the heritage of the country and get the day off work. I was sent by my NGO to a meeting in my village. The invitation said the meeting would start at 9:30am, so I arrived promptly at 9:30. I knew the event wouldn’t start right away so I brought a book. However, when I arrived, the tent was set up, about 25 kids were milling around and the stereo system was up and blaring music, not a good environment to catch up on a good book. I waited around until 10, then asked one the ladies around what time she thought the meeting would really start, she said maybe 10:30. I decided to go home for awhile and wait there instead. I went back at 11:30 and things were just getting under way. The little girls of the village were doing a dance to welcome all the guests to the meeting. Of course, I was made to sit up front with all the VIPs, even though I really had nothing to contribute to the meeting. It finally started about noon, only a mere 2 and half hours late, so just on time in Africa. The meeting was two and half hours of talking in Zulu. The little girls did two dances and the staff of the organization holding the meeting did a song as well. The performances were great, but the rest, while I am sure was extremely interesting and informative, was over my head in terms of my Zulu language skills. They served a meal at the end of the meeting, which was really the prize for all those who could sit through the whole meeting (not that I had a choice seeing how I was sitting right in front of everyone). Although I do not eat meat, the main food at any South Africa gathering, I was happy to eat some beans and give the rest of my share of the meat to some of the kids who stuck around after their dance. I suppose the hosts felt badly about giving me meat and they gave me another entirely full plate of vegetarian stuff. I ate some more beans but then when most people were gone, I gave the food again to some children. I find it difficult to eat at a big gathering where the children are sitting around waiting for the leftovers. However, since this organizations main function is to take care of and feed orphans, I saw they were giving out bowls of food to the kids before the adults ate, which made me extremely happy. The rest of the week, I have noticed people around town all dressed up in traditional clothing, so far, this is my favorite South African holiday.

Yesterday I was taking a taxi to work, only the taxi didn’t quite make it all the way to Mtubatuba. Just outside the town, the wheel fell off the taxi while we were going about 80kph, sending everyone inside up in the air, then back down very quickly. Everyone was screaming and scared, there was smoke and burning rubber, but no one was seriously injured, we all hit our head on the top of the taxi when the tire first fell off though. We were very lucky not to fall over, some quick thinking by the driver who apparently wasn’t quick thinking enough to make sure the tires were fastened securely to the vehicle before taking off that morning. Everyone rushed off the taxi when it stopped, not knowing what had happened, just that there was a bunch of smoke and burning. While normally I wouldn’t appreciate being squeezed into a taxi with the maximum number of people possible, all piled in on top of each other, I think this is the only reason no one was hurt, none of us could actually go anywhere but up. I was close enough to town to walk to my NGO, since there was really no way I was getting back on that taxi (although other people did). Everyone was very supportive of my freaking out, despite it not being a serious accident. I believe the scariest thing was being in the back of the taxi, thinking you are about to crash and not being able to do anything about it. I calmed down considerably as the day went on and was able to take a taxi home that evening.