Splattered Reputation

I have been driving some of the boys to and from places like the hospital and the bore hole, and in my short time here, I had earned a reputation as an excellent driver; that was, until tonight.

Mr. Nkhata, the Deputy Boarding Master, came over shortly before dinner to ask me if I would be able to drive the school car to retrieve water from the bore hole. Having achieved success at transporting the huge container of water a few times already, I was excited to strut my driving skills once again.

Everything went well on the way there, and the boys filled up the 1000L container relatively quickly. When they finished, we loaded up the car, and I, slowly and carefully, began to drive away. The bore hole is just off the road, past a small football pitch (soccer field), and as you pull onto the road, there is a small ditch before a little incline back up to the road. Well, with the weight of the water, and with a few too many secondary school boys riding in the back, the school truck struggled to get up out of that ditch. I remained persistent and pressed down the accelerator, slowly powering the vehicle to get up onto the road. Finally, the car started moving, and got up onto the flat ground. Unfortunately, I also had to make a sharp right hand turn onto the road, and, with the engine still revving from its struggle up the incline, the car pulled forward, accelerating a bit too quickly. With the force of the turn and the quick accelerating, the entire 1000L container slid about two feet from the middle of the truck bed to the back, pressing up against the tailgate. Even worse, the boys who were previously sitting on the tailgate had jumped from the vehicle in order to avoid being smashed by the container. And, to my utter remorse, one boy had his toe jammed by the sliding container.

After some yelling to stop, I slowed the vehicle, and Mr. Nkhata and I got out. All of the boys were okay, and it was only two boys who had to jump out. Though the acceleration and turn together were enough to cause the container to slide, the vehicle itself didn’t reach more than 10mph, and the athletic boys had no problem landing on their feet. Nonetheless, I felt entirely terrible. All of the boys and Mr. Nkhata reassured me that it was not necessarily my fault. There were about twice as many boys in the back as there had been during the previous times when I have transported the water container. The added weight caused the car to have a lot more trouble getting up the incline, and when it finally leveled out, it jumped forward. Being the not-so-experienced stick shift driver that I am, I was not prepared to press down the clutch in enough time to keep the revving engine from powering forward.

The same situation happened once again as we turned onto our road off of a main road. There was a slight incline, some soft sand, and a turn. The car struggled in the very same way, but this time, I recognized what was about to happen, and pushed down the clutch to keep the car from rushing forward again; you live, and you learn.

Though my reputation as a great driver splattered away with the water that was undoubtedly spilled, none of the boys were seriously hurt, and after a little bit of ice, the one who hurt his toe felt fine.

Next time, I’m going to tell the Boarding Master only a few boys (you need at least four to do the work efficiently). And you can bet I’ll be prepared for those inclines.