The streets of Blantyre are a little less safe today

Yes, it’s true. I got behind the wheel of our SUV for the first time. It’s really the church’s SUV, but the ownership is in my name. Getting me on the road involved many trips to the licensing bureau. To transfer ownership, all the former owner had to do was show his fingerprint and present the ownership document. I had to press that fingerprint pad about a dozen times in order to pay the various taxes and get little round decals printed for me. On Friday February 21 (A date to conjure with: ekusha February, the Language Martyrs’ Day in Bangladesh), I was legal for the road. I didn’t drive anywhere until today, Sunday, though.

This is the largest vehicle I have ever driven! It is a 1996 Toyota Surf, which is the right hand drive version of the Rav4. I’ve often wondered why these behemoths are legal on the road and now I have confirmed first hand they should not be allowed on the street and especially in parking lots. I am more of a 2-seater person and also enjoy a good bicycle ride.

This week, Arnwar, our mechanic, and his crew spent many hours cleaning the inside and outside. I had the novel experience of visiting a weld shop where they worked loose a bolt that was rusted into place. The three experts stuck their noses into the engine while the brazing rod poked away at the bolt. For grounding, the shop has a 4 m long metal pole that they move around from place to place. Safety first, though: we made sure no one was hit in the head when the pole was swung around onto the frame of the SUV. I was the only one around to have glasses (my prescription pair) and I stayed well back from the sparks. I guess it was too warm for gloves or safety boots.

Tomorrow Nora and I will climb up into the beast and drive to school, unaided for the first time. Nora might need a boost up, but I can do that. It’s big enough, I can get a small step ladder for her and keep it in the “trunk”. Do they call the back storage area a trunk?

Our drive today was to Limbe CCAP church. You can google the town of Limbe, a sister-city or maybe a suburb of Blantyre. Attached is a song from one of the three choirs that sang. I hope you can listen to it – it’s in my cell phone’s format. Churches here have music like this most Sundays. Usually the choirs dance to the music, as they did today.

I am continuing to learn about the language barrier at school. Although I teach in English, the students don’t always understand what I say. I asked the Form 1 chemistry class if they wanted more time to complete their test or if they wanted to go to the next unit. I was assured that we should move on, but when I tried to collect the completed tests at the end of the class, only one student had actually understood that he needed to complete the test and hand it in. Oops. I might get him to translate critical instructions from me to the class in the future.

This week I might try some actual lab experiments. I merely described the fabrication of ammonia and nitric acid. That sounded dangerous (safety glasses? Gloves? Shoes?) and probably impossible with the materials available. My Form 3 student wants me to go back one unit in the curriculum, so maybe we can handle boiling water. Oddly enough, the barometric pressure here is pretty close to a standard atmosphere, so I can’t demonstrate water boiling at other than 100°C. We do have some non-potable water at the prison, though, so we’ll see what it boils at. And we can add salt to some distilled water. I found some copper sulphate, and if I also find some copper wire, maybe I can try some electroplating.

I’ll only be able to teach two days this week, instead of thrice. (“Thrice”? No wonder no one knows what I’m talking about!) I will return to Johannesburg on Thursday for my ophthalmologist to examine my eye on Friday. This should close out everything with him. My right eye is behaving like the left did last year, so I anticipate no remaining issues. The next job is to try extracting money from the travel insurance people. That’s a long story in itself, which I hope to bore you with when it’s all over.

We had three visitors from Canada this week. For the next week or so, they will travel the country looking at Presbyterian World Service and Development projects with an officer from the Canadian Government. Their visit reminds me of my first visit here in 2016. Warning: you’ll want to come back.