The first week of school, everyone is unconsciously on a go slow. Classes bounce, it’s like a tradition. This was the case for most of my classes last week, apart from the ones we did introduction and just told stories and later called it a day.
So last week Friday I woke up or rather I was woken up and I was feeling groggy; I stayed up late the previous night forgetting I had a class in the morning. “Umesahau tukona class” (You have forgotten that we have a class). That is just what I needed to hear to get me off my bed. My mind was not ready, but I went to class content that we won’t learn, if it was to go too far it would be introductions, going through the course outline and that would be it.
You should have seen the look on my face when the lecturer started dictating notes. Four pages later of note – writing and I felt like the world should just open and swallow me. I kept on telling myself ‘we are almost done’ hahaha. Fast forward, the class was over, finally!!
I had to do some shopping for foodstuff and groceries for our doulos training camp that was coming up over the weekend and I was really excited. I had kept my friends waiting; remember I thought class would bounce so I told them to come early. So we are on our way, everything is fine on the road, no cause for any alarm. The moment I took my eyes of the road to forward a text message, boom!!
I look up and all I was seeing was the white bonnet up on the windscreen, the car was not on the road. I start screaming. The car was spinning now and I was still screaming. The car finally came to a stop and we all get out. I was coughing a lot as a result of inhaling too much dust while screaming. I asked, “What happened?” One of my friends says the two tyres busted, the bonnet opened and hit the wind screen and we veered of the road, all the spinning that was happening was the driver trying to get the car to stop. Luckily for us, no one was injured just a state of shock.
So some onlookers (mawitinesi) came, funny thing is they did not come to help us get out of the car but tell my friend how a good driver he was and how the car could have overturned were it not for his good driving skills. At this moment my mind was thinking of so many things that could have happened. Suddenly my mind went blank and once that first tear broke free, the rest followed in an unbroken stream.
My knees became wobbly, so I decided to sit down by the road. Irony is, I had thought of an accident happening but my thoughts at that time had been farfetched. Nonetheless, this experience for us (we were 5 of us) was not one of those incidences that now make us want to now change our lives and make that 360 turn, no. This was a reassurance of the unending love we so much not desire or are entitled to but get anyway.
It is a coincidence that it happened some days just before Valentines. I thought to myself, that this is the best version of love I could ever receive this Valentines. Unconditional love. But you would ask, why do bad things happen to good people? (Yes, we are good people.) All I know and believe are in His words; God tells us that, All things work together for good for those that love Him.
Coincidentally my grandmother called me for a totally different reason but the sound of her saying to me ‘nakupenda’ (I love you) kindled a spark in me.
To me this whole experience, was a reminder of God’s own selfless love and what a better period for it to be showcased than during the season of Valentine’s. The second, third, fourth or even the hundredth chance don’t just come easily.