A Week in the Life of one of our Vehicles

Monday

She's not very pretty, has many dents and scratches, is an unattractive colour and more often than not is covered with red mud and dust;
however our "Orphan Bakkie" is worth her wieght in gold. Donated 6 years ago by the DG Murray Trust, she's still going strong.

Today she took a paralegal officer on a visit to a homestead to make an assessment on the situation of a family of
orphans. It flew along a red dirt road for an hour, then along a track and path for 5km until evenatually the paralegal had to walk through bush to reach the family.
Often families are 30 minutes away from each other even by vehicle.

Tuesday

Today food parcels were taken out to one of the tribal areas that IOC serves. Early in the morning it was taken to fetch the food parcels. Food parcels are paid
for by a Johnnic Communications grant. The local Spar gets us a good deal and even throw in some extra.

However difficult the terrain, the orphan bakkie will have a go and it's up and down mountains in the mud today.

Sometimes as she pulls into a homestead, children shout when they see the Bakkie and run up excitedly.
Other times, there is silence and a young, dusty child imerges hesitantly from a run down thatched hut.

When the tracks turn into mudslides and rivers and it is too dangerous to even try to get through, as well as the risk of getting stuck in the mud in a remote area.
Then, unfortunately, the children have to wait a few days more for their food.

Wednesday

Today the orphan bakkie is swapped with a community-based care vehicle because the bakkie is large enough to fit an
adult coffin.

If the client is very remote and very poor, then they often cannot afford to bring the body of a loved one lost to AIDS back home for burial. This can cause enormous
grief and when not committed to other work, the orphan bakkie sometimes takes patients to and from the hospital.

Thursday

It's Christmas, and the "Orphan Bakkie" is playing Santa Claus and delivering all the things for an orphan Christmas party.
Loaded with cooking equipment, food, baloons, presents and two inflatable Santas; not to mention as many Orphan Care staff as you can squeeze on, she takes to the hills again to
be greeted by hundreds of excited children.

Friday

Wherever she goes, the Orphan Bakkie is primarily a people carrier. Whether taking staff to various places, families to court with our Social Worker to apply for grants, collecting children to go to work shops or support groups or stopping to give lifts to staff members we meet along the roads.

Sometimes people sing, sometimes they chatter away and laugh as she flies along the dusty roads, but the "Orphan Bakkie" is happiest when she is fulfilling
her potential, whatever she is doing it is always worthwhile no matter how hard;
but to see her loaded down with a back full of children laughing and singing is the most rewarding part of the whole thing.
Taking them to various events, going to schools to take unforms and having a child climbing on her while she is unloaded.