Good Samaritan

It was 07h00 and the loud sound of an ululating voice pulled me violently out of my sleep. I woke up tired, dazed and with a head so heavy that the taste of the whiskey that I had the previous night was still on my tongue. It was the last day of wedding preparations, Alex and I had intelligently decided to turn up three days before the wedding thinking the work would already be done. Judging by the mountain of tables, chairs and tents sitting comfortably on the back of a trailer big enough for five cows, we were mistaken. Brushing my teeth is one of those things that I do not compromise on, I ain’t about that walking around with morning breath type of life. 

If you looked at my face that morning you wouldn’t think I had been up since 04h30, I woke up early to pick up my sister and her friend who had travelled overnight on the Inter-Cape bus. They were enthusiastic about the whole wedding, an enthusiasm that I for one did not share. I snuck back to sleep at 06h30, before being rudely yanked out of what was turning into a good nap.

Sometime after midday, the groom summoned me. He needed a spear carrier to run to town with him, we took a car (we didn’t literally run to town on foot). You see, the groom sends a suitcase to the bride. With her wedding gown and a collection of things that I would forget even if I had the list in my hands. A few items were missing, small things like handkerchiefs, needles and white thread.

 While we were busy with our mission I observed that Oshikuku was busy that Friday, a hive of activity. People moving in all directions, on our way to the service station I could see a man in a wheel chair. The road was uneven, his chair stood on the crest of a steep rise and he risked rolling back and falling out of his chair. Three girls walked right past him as he struggled, his chair rolled back. It fell backwards, with him in it. The chair cushioned his fall, but still watching another human being falling and just walking by is callous. The three girl’s just skipped and walked on like little red riding hood on the way to grandma’s house. I had seen enough, the groom had stopped the car. I got out and pulled him up, both his legs had been amputated above the knee. Sackey, whom we picked up on the way to the service station picked up the old man’s chair and steadied it. I lifted him off the ground with one movement, neatly lowering him into his chair. We pushed him along until he was on level ground, he continued on. Yelling and talking in circles, I suspected he was pretty pissed off at the girls that just watched him fall. I was also ticked off, I know the old man had had a few to drink from the whiff of his breath. But the human thing to do was to push his chair along until he was on level ground. Sure, he was yelling and speaking in circles but to watch another human being fall to the ground just does not make sense. More so because in Northern Namibia the people pride themselves on their togetherness, the sense of being one. The sense of looking out for one another, the sense of being because your fellow man is. The sense of Ubuntu in the north is very strong, kids still get sent on errands without back chatting. So to see three girls just walk by and not lend a hand really shocked me, that doesn’t happen in the north. And it really doesn’t earn you any luck as far as the fourth commandment is concerned, Northerners are steeped in faith. I wondered to myself if they were no Good Samaritan’s left in the world.

The next day on our way home from the wedding reception at the brides house, we found five maidens in distress. The driver, a svelte yet curvy young woman was panicked. She was one of the bridesmaids. Her name was Leleti, it looked as if though had car had overheated. As usual every guy at the scene fancied himself a mechanic from those who wanted to pour water straight into the radiator and one guy who wanted to attach a rope to a bar under the engine and tow it. After careful consideration, we all came to the conclusion that the car needed to be towed. Even after consulting several mechanics over the phone, who suggested that we pour water into the radiator. But the fact that the front end of the car had hit a ditch gave us an indication that maybe a pipe from the radiator had been severed and the water from the radiator slowly leaked. The only problem was how to tow the car, my cousin Kauna went back to the bride’s house to get a tow bar. While he left me the resident engineer to find a way to tow the car safely, at this point I realized that maybe I should have gone further than the first year of engineering. Usually these new cars have an attachment under the fog lights where you attached the tow rope. This one didn’t, all it had was a circular opening that looked only big enough for a large screw to be inserted. How were we going to tow a car if we had nowhere to attach the tow rope. One panic mechanic even suggested we tie the rope to the the engine, he was so confident he challenged another guy to a fight over it and it almost turned ugly.

While everyone lost their head, the old Filemon turned up. You guys remember the old Fly, the guy who learnt a new language in three months. The guy who was fearless, the guy who was smart witty and brilliant. You remember him? Yes, no? Whatever then! All I am saying is that guy showed up and boy did he show up. I knew that Volkswagen would never make a car that can’t be towed, so while everyone else was dilly dallying I asked Leleti for her owner’s manual. She looked at me astonished, the look on her face spelled “What the heck is an owner’s manual?”. She told me that the car was brand new, she had it for less than 6 months. She drove mostly around town, yet to have a break down. I cracked a giggle on the inside, so I suggested that she open the boot so that we could find her tool kit. To my surprise spare tyre was still wrapped in plastic as it had been when she bought the car, inside the spare wheel were her tools. Neatly placed in a plastic mould, and there it lay. The attachment that screwed into the bumper so the car could be towed. Eureka! Our problems were solved. All we had to do was screw the attachement into the socket in the bumper and we could tow her car to the nearest police station. I gave the task to Kauna, he was more muscular. As much as he tried, the damned thing just wouldn’t screw in. Murmurings that I was a fake engineer and I should show them my degree started going around. One guy even said “Nie man, you thinking guys are useless as well”. Leleti looked at me for an answer, everyone look at me for an answer. I was under so much pressure, from people who haven’t even watched Star Wars. I went back to the boot to check if there wasn’t a smaller attachement, but there wasn’t. There and then the old me showed up again, I knew the folks at Volkswagen like being unique. I looked at Kauna and I asked him “Hand me the attachement”. I knelt down, took a breath and tried something different. I took the attachement in my left hand and naturally my hand went anticlockwise and voila! The damned thing started fastening and locked in and just like that we were ready to tow Leleti’s car.

 She was delighted, we were elated. Another hour and a half and we were home. She insisted that she and I stay behind and steer her car. “I trust you and no one else” she said to me, either she was coming on to me or the old me was really back. Towing a car is a slow process and with uneven bumpy roads it took us nearly two hours before we could safely get her car parked at the police station. So as Kauna prepared to drive us home I got my just rewards, a huge warm hug and her phone number. So as I sat on the back of the bakkie on the way home, the boys had a go at me “you smoothed talked that girl, didn’t you? You sly devil you, don’t even lie. You two were alone in her car”. As a gentleman, I tell no tales. So I replied “We just talked, like two adults. Nothing really untoward or out of the ordinary”. Why did we do it? Why did we stop for strangers and spend four hours helping them? Besides the fact that I have sisters and I wouldn’t want men to just pass by and leave them with a broken down car. There is that spirit of Ubuntu and care for other people’s well-being. Well, we all went to the bride’s house in a convoy and it should be fitting that all of us came back. The next day she called me while were busy with the second reception at the groom’s house. I was very busy, so I called her back later. She explained that they slept over at a friend’s house and her car was going to be picked up and fixed, she thanked me for being a Good Samaritan. Her appreciation made it all worth it.