Miracle On Baden Powell Drive

I have to testify to the goodness of God and his traveling mercies yesterday.

I was on my second trip collecting the peanut paste sachets and pootling along with a loaded trailer at 75kph (a little under 50mph) when the trailer started snaking. I think it was a combination of the wind, the weight, and a poorly serviced trailer that caused the snaking. 

 Anyway, in a split second, despite knowing what to do, I responded poorly and hit the brakes - bad move - which only exacerbated the problem and resulted in the trailer jack-knifing on me with the car & trailer ending up in the opposite lane though thankfully facing the direction of travel. 

Amazingly the driver of the car approaching in the opposite lane was paying attention and managed to brake and swerve to avoid me without colliding with the vehicle behind me. In short I avoided a catastrophic collision thanks to actions of this driver.

Once I had calmed down and regained some semblance of rationality, I got out of my car to survey the damage which was limited to a shredded tire & wheel. Quite how I avoided a collision with the other car or the crash barrier separating the traffic from the sea is miraculous. Had the other vehicle been an HGV or a motorbike things could have been very different.

But the true miracle is what happened next...

On Wednesday I had one of my bleakest days in 17 years in South Africa and was left feeling deflated and angry by the unyielding bureaucracy that we regularly butt our heads against. But yesterday this amazing country redeemed itself in my eyes. 

As I surveyed the damage to the trailer (see pic above) I was panicking a bit about how to sort the mess out and get out of this predicament, when I became aware of two men standing next to me. One was Zanzi (I'm sure I've spelt his name incorrectly), he was the driver of the car which managed to avoid me. The other guy was Clinton who had seen what was happening and chose to stop to check I was OK. These two guys then helped me unload 72 boxes from the trailer, jack it up and change the tire. Zanzi even brought a toolkit from his car to help undo the nuts of the spare wheel which were too small for the wheel wrench. Once they had helped me change the tire, they helped reload the 72 boxes on the trailer, and with barely a word of thanks they bid me a safe journey and went on their way.

So having experienced SA at its worst on Wednesday, yesterday I experienced SA at its magnificent best.

A black man and a coloured man both stopped to help a white man in need.

There was no hint of expecting reward, and both men were incredibly gracious towards an idiot who had almost caused a catastrophic road traffic incident that could easily have resulted in fatalities.

The chances of these two amazing guys reading this is slim, but they were incredible in their care and concern for me and their desire to keep the rest of the traffic flowing and I will forever be thankful for these two South African angels of the road.

Thank you LORD!