I left Malawi three weeks ago. It has taking me that long to begin to process what I experienced in Malawi. Towards the end of my travels in Malawi, I knew that one of the first things that I would write about would be a tribute to our two drivers, Luzu and Don.
One of the more personally unsettling statistics about Malawi that I ran across prior to my travels is that Malawi is among the leader in the number of traffic accidents per capita. As I thought about this statistic and made decisions not to share this with certain loved ones because I did not want to worry them needlessly, I knew that Don and Mary, others from GAIA, and other Episcopal Church groups had been to Malawi and returned safely from Malawi. So, I knew I was in safe hands
I would like to introduce you to these safe hands. Don Thomas (on the right in the photo) grew up in northern Maine (I think). Like other rural regions in America, northern New England has its share of dirt roads. I know this first hand from the 25 plus years that I have owned seasonal property in northeastern Vermont. Northern Maine is no different and in some regions, even more remote.
Some dirt roads, the road that my property is on in Vermont is an example, are pretty well maintained. This maintenance is also known as grading. As I write this, I am looking at the inventory of town road equipment for this Vermont municipality. They have a 2001 cat grader (with wing). I am pretty sure that this is the piece of equipment that I have seen them use to smooth out or grade dirt roads to minimize ruts and potholes that will degrade the road if left ungraded. Now my dirt road has la very large number of residences on the road, so the road is graded on a regular basis. Roads in more remote regions are not graded on a regular basis and the ruts and potholes can shake the muffler and pipes off a sedan. To say nothing of the possibility of a two-wheel drive vehicle getting stuck on a rutted dirt road, especially after heavy rains or during snow melt in early spring. This time of spring thaw in northern New England is known as mud season and can disable pick-up trucks as well as some four-wheel drive vehicles.
While Malawi has a system of fairly decent tarred thoroughfares between the major towns and settlements, there are a large number of dirt roads serving the rural villages that are as bad and worse than the most remote dirt roads in northeastern Vermont. Don, our trip-leader, learned to drive on such roads in northern Maine, so he was well equipped to deal with driving on these back roads in Malawi. And he was driving a sedan that, to the best of my knowledge suffered no muffler or pipe damage.
Not only did Don know the tricks of negotiating such roads safely, he did so with what I will call a sense of taking care of the people in his group, a sense of compassion and stewardship. I have had enough close calls on rutted dirt roads in Vermont to know that it is not all that difficult to get in trouble on these roads. I have learned when to turn around and I have an all-wheel drive Subaru wagon with slightly higher than your typical sedan or wagon. Don drove on roads that I cannot imagine driving on.
I am very grateful that we had two vehicles, the car that Don drove with such love and care and Luzu in a large van. Both vehicles were rentals, by the way. If it was only our group, no luggage, and no additional passengers we all could of squeezed into the van. And even with the luggage, we could have squeezed into the van and been crowded.
My next entry will be about Luzu (in the picture on the left), so stay tuned.
No comments:
Post a Comment