Accident on the Great North Road

 

This morning as I pulled onto our road that runs parallel to the Great North Road I saw that there had been an accident almost directly in front of the market.  A very large truck carrying a 40 ft container was off to the side and obviously in a serious accident. 

 

We decided that since that would be a huge interest for the children and it was an immediate teaching point that we would do some things with it.  So after our morning meeting, we all went up to the site of the accident.  We had talked about the kinds of questions we wanted to know the answers to. 

 

The driver of the big truck was there with a big gash on his shin, with obvious stitches.  (When you look at the truck it looked like people might have died in it.)  So the children asked questions and the driver was very gracious to answer.  You can just picture it: a lady cooking on a brazier, him sitting on some rocks, people sitting around the planter under the big tree.  Turns out there were 5-6 adults and 2 young children in the cab.  There was a bed behind the seats, so they were really packed in.  No one else was hurt.

 

Of course the children were interested in the stitches, so he explained how they did that.  They couldn't quite understand how the accident happened, so I had him take 3 small sticks to show what had happened, 3 trucks involved. 

 

While we were there an airplane flew low overhead, so some of the kids went to look at that.  Then an ambulance pulled up with 4 people in it.  One of our children asked about who was dead, and the teacher was able to explain that ambulances weren't just for dead people, but when people got sick.  I think the people in the ambulance were just  checking the scene of the accident. 

 

We then walked over and looked more closely at the truck.  The driver limped over and ended up giving us the triangles (red ones used to alert other drivers of an accident), a music tape, a very used clipboard from the inside of the cab.  Selita and I went to the market and got 3 cabbages and some tomatoes to give to them. 

 

We are now waiting for word that the tow truck or whatever they are going to use has arrived.  We will all go down and watch that.  We are also going to have the children draw what they have seen and write about the answers to the questions.

 

While we were standing and looking at the truck, Roman came up and put his hand in mine.  He said to me, "I'm feeling bad."   I asked him why.  He said, "because of the man."  What a loving heart. 

 

Erna said several times that the Lord protected that man and the others.  God must have more work for them to do here on earth.  Actually at one point the man said, "I'm going to church."