Since my last travel adventure, when the tire literally fell off, my colleagues at the Synod have arranged for a vehicle and a driver from the Synod when we go off on trips for Chigodi. This protects me and my companions from being stranded, if something happens. We put this to the test on Thursday. We, (Mrs. Majamada, the program director, Rev. Catherine Jailos, the assistant administrator and myself), had to go to Thuchila Presbytery, between Mulanje and Phalombe. It isn’t a great distance, nor a particularly remote area, so it was a good test for this new procedure.
At 7:30 a.m., I was at the Synod offices, awaiting the driver. He was late, so the Human Resource Director, the one responsible for drivers and vehicles, assigned another driver, to get us on our way. Mr. Kabalula is usually the General Secretary’s driver, but since the GS is out of the country for a week, he drew the short straw and was selected to drive us. He is a delightful man and an excellent driver, so I knew I could relax. We were assigned the Toyota Camry, an older sedan, but since we weren’t going on rough terrain, it seemed practical, so we set off for Chigodi to collect the others and head to Thuchila
The first church we were to visit was on a dirt road that had a few deep dips and bumps, but Mr. Kabalula handled them well. He maneuvered us through a small, crowded market areas with great skill. I would have been a bit stressed, if I had been driving. We arrived in good time and held our meeting with about 70 mvano from 10 different churches and prayer houses. At the end of the meeting, they presented us with gifts, a Malawian tradition. This group was extremely generous in their expressions of thanks for our coming. They danced in with bags of sweet potatoes and casaba, packages of beans, a pole of bananas, and sticks of sugarcane. It was overwhelming. All I could think of was how it would all fit in the trunk of the car. If we had had my CRV, there would have been no problem but this was more than100 kgs of “kindness” that had to be transported. Mr. Kabalula ably handled the packing while we had lunch, then he joined us.
He decided that since the car was sitting low in the back, he would use a different route to the next church, one with fewer ruts. We were traveling about 20 kilometers an hour to avoid big bumps. We were putting great strain on old springs so he wanted to be careful. But there was one particularly rough spot. We rubbed the bottom of the car and bumped harder than we had before. Then we heard a thudding sound. I looked at Mr. Kabalula as he stopped the car. He said he thought it was a tire. We all got out to check. Sure enough, the left back tire was flat. The bump had jarred the tire enough to pop it from the rim. Mr. Kabalula never batted and eye. He just began to unload the trunk to get to the spare tire and the jack. That is when we discovered that we had no jack. The spare was new; there was a tire wrench, but no jack and we were nowhere near any one or any place that would have a jack. Mr. Kabalula began to look for alternatives to the traditional jack while Mrs. Majamanda looked for alternative transportation to get her to the next church ahead of the rest of us, to meet the ladies who were waiting for us. She decided she would take a bicycle taxi and we could meet her there. When I suggested I take a taxi, too, and go with her, she just laughed and rejected my idea. It was inappropriate for me to ride on the back of a bike, but she could. I know better than to argue, even though I was certain I could handle the ride as well as she could. Rev. Jailos and I stayed with Mr. Kabalula.
After several failed attempts to drive up on large rocks placed under the car, Mr. Kabalula agreed that I could pay a few of the strong young men who had gathered to watch us, to lift the car as he placed the rocks appropriately, to serve as a jack. The young men were more than willing to earn some easy money. They lifted while he shimmied the rocks into place and then he set about quickly changing the tire. In less than 15 minutes the tire was changed, the car lowered and the trunk repacked. We paid the young men and slowly moved on to join Mrs. Majamada at the church.
The ladies who had been waiting at the church had gone ahead with lunch preparations, so when we joined them, everyone was joyfully eating, unconcerned about our delay, but grateful for our safe arrival. The meeting proceeded as the first one had, including the generous gifts at the end of the program. I was caught in an emotional struggle: I was deeply grateful for their generosity but deeply concerned for the weight and space of the car. Once again Mr. Kabalula did the packing. He emptied bags and filled in knocks and crannies in the trunk; he repositioned the spare tire (which he had repaired while we were in our meeting) and only placed a few small bags in the floor of the back seat. The backend of the car was sitting very low. After a pastoral visit to the minister of the congregation who was ill and the appropriate farewells, we headed off more slowly than we had arrived. The blessing was that we were very near the main road, so we did not have much of a distance on rough terrain.
Once on the main road, we still traveled slowly, not over 60 kilometers an hour, because we were overloaded. This made the trip longer, but safer. The only concern I had was the police road block. This is a routine stop where they check for expired safety stickers, but do check the minivans for excessive passengers and baggage. We would have had some explaining to do, weighed down with a trunk full of casaba and sweet potatoes, if they had stopped us. We speculated about our explanation and the policeman’s possible responses. Praise God we were just waved through with no questions. God is good!
The jury is still out on the blessing of a Synod vehicle. The CRV would have been better for the roads and the load, but there is no question of the driver. Mr. Kabalula is capable, resourceful and careful. I would travel with him anywhere again. The real question is if he wants to travel with the Chigodi crew again. We have been prone to adventures, but God has been faithful and has protected us and provided for us. He provided Mr. Kabalula this time. We will see who or how he provides on the next outing.
Mr. Kabalula addressing the jack issue.
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