A Delayed Departure

Today was another ‘Cape Town Adventure’…this time while heading back home from the preschool in Khayelitsha. This morning I drove myself, the two Warehouse interns and two young visitors from Australia all squished into my newly borrowed VW Citi (my previous car was only on loan for just 3 months...so now the Lord provided this car which belongs to a friend’s brother who is living overseas). After a typical morning of serving at the Preschool...playing with kids, copying worksheets, serving lunch, singing etc., we were tired and ready for lunch.

As we drove away, probably a mile from the school...my accelerator pedal broke! I put my foot to the ground and there was no more pedal?? The car just drifted to the side of the road. It was the strangest thing I have ever felt and couldn’t understand what had gone wrong. We were now stuck on the road…a car full of white faces, in a black township and a confused driver who was trying not to panic. We called the Warehouse but there was no one available to help…then thankfully I remembered that I had Linda’s (the principal of the preschool) number on my phone. Linda is never at the school on a Wednesday, but for some reason she had been there today…it was my first time seeing her in 3 months. She immediately answered her phone and said she would get help. None of the teachers drive and there are only a few cars in the whole neighborhood so I was expecting to have her walk to us. I now began to wait, in a car full of hungry teenagers, with many curious faces peering in on us as they walked by.

About 20 min later Linda pulled up in a car with her cousin, and the cousin’s son who was driving (they just so happened to show up at the school for a visit right after we left…coincidence, I think not!). The young guy came and looked at the pedal and started to fiddle around…I still have no idea what he did but he fixed it?! It was so the Lord! I quickly asked him to show me what he did so I could fix it if I got stuck again…he said there was an old piece that kept two parts together that crumbled off due to old age...he then went to the side of the road and began looking through a heap of garbage...I had no idea what he was doing, but he came back with a piece of Styrofoam that he used to make a new part?? What ever he did it worked and we were soon to be on our way! Then, the scariest part of the afternoon was when I asked my new mechanic friend to do a test drive with me to make sure the car was running fine…so I gave him the keys and I slid in the passenger’s side. Let’s just say I was anxious to get back at the wheel! This young man admitted to me that he had recently learned how to drive in just two days (!)…we drove to the stop sign at the end of the street and then he did a u-turn in the middle of a 4 way stop!

Well, sooner or later we were back on our way…heading away from the Cape Flats and towards the majestic Table Mountain. Oh, and the ride home went smoothly, except for the goat I nearly ran over…thankfully that adventure was saved for someone else!