“Back in Botswana
October 31, 2007
Greetings one and all from a wet and rainy Gaborone , Botswana Botswana
For those who have been reading my
bulletins on a regular basis this letter may come as a bit of a surprise. I usually don’t write twice in one month but
I thought that after today’s events I should fill you all in on what’s
happened. Some of you are aware that I
recently purchased a new car. Well, I
shouldn’t say “new” it’s a 96 model Nissan called a Sunny. Yah I know, I never heard of one either before
coming to Botswana
I was so happy that God had provided me
with this great car! It drove like it
was brand new! It was in excellent shape
and only had 11,000 kms on it! I ended
up paying about $4300 Canadian dollars (26,000 Pula) for it which I thought was
a great deal. Things couldn’t have
worked out better.
On Tuesday I headed to the insurance
company to get the car insured. Well, I
found out that insurance companies here now require a “valuation” done on all
import vehicles (basically someone has to inspect the car and assess its value). Since my car was imported from Japan
This morning I got in my new car and began
driving it to the claims office. Now,
bear in mind that as I’m driving it there is NO INSURANCE on the car. Well, as luck would have it about 30 FEET
from the Claims Office I needed to make a right hand turn (we drive on the left
here so this requires crossing oncoming traffic). As I went to make the right hand turn a combi
(a public transport van) ran through his stop sign and cut me off which stopped me in the middle of the road. After letting the combi by I proceeded to make my turn then….BANG! An oncoming Toyota
Corolla plowed into my bumper at high speed.
Sigh. It took a good 30 seconds
for me to believe what had just happened.
I got out of the car and immediately began getting an earful from the
driver in the other car. I just leaned
on my car with my head in my arms. I didn’t
know what to say. I wanted to blame the
combi driver for distracting me and possibly the other driver who hit me but
the truth of the matter is by stopping in the middle of the road I was blocking oncoming traffic. I knew I would get the blame for this
one.
After gathering myself, I spoke to the
driver of the other car and had him call the police. I also found out that he was driving a
company vehicle (some company called Afrox) and had insurance. Within a few minutes 2 Afrox employess who I
believe were white South Africans arrived on the scene and started taking
pictures and asking a lot of questions.
They pushed a form in from of me and told me to give them all my details
(phone number, registration number, etc).
Apparently it was company policy to fill out these forms. After dealing with Afrox I got a call from my
boss Richard Wheatley. He spotted me as
he passed by on a nearby road and asked if I was ok. I told him what had happened so he said he
would let the Flying Mission office know and send some help. A few people from the office arrived to
console me and help out where they could.
The police had arrived and started assessing what had happened. They told us we needed to come to the police
station to give our statements. Once the
accident had occurred I was immediately bombarded by tow truck drivers and body
shop workers who all wanted to either fix my car or tow it somewhere to be
fixed. I ended up taking one of the tow
truck drivers offer to haul my vehicle to the police station. He charged me a whopping $75 Canadian (450
Pula)! Disgusted, I accepted his offer
and we headed to the police station to give our statements.
The police station was, as I suspected it
would be, a gong show. After waiting in
line we finally had our chance to give our statements. One of my local friends here, Bella, came to
the police station with me in case I needed a translator. After I started writing my statement Bella
had realized that the police officer was writing the statement for the man
driving the other car. When she asked
why the police officer was doing this the officer replied that the driver of
the other car couldn’t write! The
interesting part about this was the man was saying nothing to the police
officer. The cop seemed to know just
what to write. I began wondering if the
cop had been bribed by this man. Who
knows. Anyway, I filled out my statement
and handed it to the police officer. He
in turn handed me a traffic offense stating that I had been driving without due
care and attention. He asked me to sign it and I refused. I tried to explain that
the reason the accident happened wasn’t simply because I turned in front of a
moving car, it happened because a combi blew through a stop sign which distracted
me, and because the driver of the other car was speeding and was unable to avoid me. I felt that some fault should lie on the
other driver. Apparently this requires
proof, such as a speedometer reading at the time of the crash proving that the guy was speeding. The driver of the other car refused to admit
he was speeding and claimed that I cut him off.
The police officer told me if you block oncoming traffic in Botswana Canada
Signing that admission of guilt form had
made me a little uneasy. It is bad
enough that I had an accident in a car with no insurance, what if the insurance
company for the other vehicle decides that the accident was my fault and I have
to pay to fix the other car. Then I’d
have 2 cars to pay for! I felt my
already bad day get just a little bit worse.
So with that my time at the police station
was over. It was time to get back to
normal life. But what now? Well, a fellow Flying Mission co-worker,
Larry Murley, had come to the police station to pick me up and had an excellent
idea on how to proceed. Larry suggested,
“Can I pray for you?” Absolutely! So right there in front of the police station
Larry prayed that even though this was a terrible thing that God would be
glorified in and through it. So what
should we do in times like these? Look
at the big picture. God is still on the
throne. Who knows what he can make out
of this mess?
So after praying and getting some
perspective it was time to make a few phone calls. I called a trusted mechanic to see if he
could assess the cost of repairing the vehicle.
My guess is it will probably cost about $2000 Canadian to repair (about
12,000 Pula). I’m hoping to hear back
from the mechanic tomorrow to hear his assessment. I also called the insurance company in hopes
that MAYBE they would be able to do something to help. I didn’t even think of doing this at first
but a Flying Mission colleague thought it may be worth a try. I’ll tell yah, I was pleasantly surprised. I explained to the insurance company that I
had every intention to take out a policy but required a valuation be done on
the car. Since I needed to get the car
to the claim office to get the insurance I needed to drive it without
insurance. I explained that had they not
required the valuation I would have bought insurance on the spot and would have
never needed to drive the car without insurance. Did that make sense? Basically none of this would have happened if
I didn’t need to take the car to another place to have the value assessed. The man from the insurance company explained
that I should write a letter explaining what has happened and that he would see
if anything could be done to help me.
That was more than I expected. I
also found out that the man I phoned is a Christian. I also found out that a friend of mine knows
another employee at the same company who is a Christian. I’m hoping that maybe these Christian guys
will take pity on me and help a brother out!
I’d be willing to pay a deductible if they would pay for my
repairs! J
Anyway, that’s pretty much the whole story
up to this point. All that awaits now is
a conclusion. I’m asking that you pray
that this would be resolved in a manner that shows God’s glory. A car is just a car. Money is just money. The fact is I don’t have much of either at
this point so I’m trusting that God will provide, as he always has. I’ll keep you updated on how things progress
as information becomes available.
OK, to keep with tradition I’ll do a
breakdown of the items I’m asking you to pray over:
1)
A good resolution to the
problem of replacing/fixing my smashed car – Pray specifically that God would
be glorified in and through this
2)
That the other drivers
insurance company would be merciful and not ask that I pay for the repairs on
the other vehicle
3)
For continued safety on the
road. The roads here are extremely
dangerous and accidents are common. Pray
that God would keep me safe.
4)
Pray for rain. Pray that rain would continue to fall here in
Botswana
A verse was given to me by a fellow Flying
Mission co-worker to encourage me. It
was Phillipians 4:6,7.
“Don’t be anxious about anything, but in
everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to
God. And the peace of God, which
transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus.”
Praise God for the peace he gives to us in
times of strife! Blessed be His name!
Peace and prayers,
Graham Crawford <><
PS> I’ve attached some pictures of the
car so you can see what happened.
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