Weekend in KwaZulu Natal

Well it was a wild and wonderful weekend February 20-22 as we made the long drive to the middle of nowhere in the midlands of KwaZulu-Natal outside of Durban SA. We went primarily to take another couple to be trained as coordinators in the Ancient Paths process, and completed one hopefully significant errand along the way just outside of Durban.

We left Friday morning at 8 and headed for Swaziland (a shortcut to Durban).It took us four hours just to get through Swazi and then we hit the expressway and tried to get to Durban before 4:30 when the head office for Spar, a large food chain in the region, closed. I had spoken to them and wanted to drop some virgin coconut oil samples for them to see. It was only supposed to take 6-7 hours to get there, but it took us 8.5, with me running into the lobby at 4:35, just hoping there would be someone there to give the samples to. Yikes!

We then took off for the hill country to attend the seminar. Supper was to start at 6, but we were still in Pietermaritzburg and at 60+ kilometers from our destination. To make it worse, we drove into rain and fog and missed our first exit. We found the road to the hills and then things got interesting. We did have a map with km marked on it, so marked our starting position and off we went. The fog was so thick we had to drive about 25 mph and the road was twisty, wet and basically unmarked. The couple that were with us were good for us as they sat in the back and sang and laughed like they didn’t have a care in the world. Why worry when you can praise instead? And wonder of wonders, right at around 33km a side road appeared. We turned off and sure enough, there was a y in the road at the designated distance. We arrived at a farm gate several km later and drove through a pasture, found a house and the place we were supposed to be by about 7.

The weekend seminar was very good and a great encouragement to us personally. The view was beautiful once the fog wore off and it was great getting to know our hosts Leon and Marietjie better. Imagine rolling hills, virgin forests, lakes, many flowers and birds, cool weather. It was like a different world!


We had taken a liter of oil as a hostess gift and everyone got excited about it. I think we could have sold alot of it. One woman said she could forgive me for not bringing some, but as the weekend went on and she liked it more and more, it was harder to keep that attitude.

By Sunday afternoon the fog had come back so we couldn’t take a shorter way home, not knowing the roads or conditions. We did make good time back to the Swazi border, but then things went awry. We needed to get to the border exiting Swazi before 8 pm when it closed. To make a long story short, we missed a turn off as it was getting dark and drove much farther and longer than we would have needed to, arriving 6 minutes late, thus needing to spend the night in a hotel.

As I woke up during the night some thoughts came to me that might be worth sharing.
1. It doesn’t matter how fast you drive, if you are going the wrong direction, you won’t get there.
2. We had been given a road map to the farm that we followed carefully and arrived. We did not do the same going home and did not arrive without much more effort, frustration and cost.
3. Teamwork would have helped to prevent these mistakes as each of us does the things we are gifted in doing.
4. Most Swazi’s don't read maps and the country doesn't have enough road signs (ok, maybe not worth sharing)

So all is well that ends well. We do have a choice. We got lost, so we can be grouchy and lost or keep a good attitude even if we are still lost!