I mean pooped is an understatement. It literally felt like someone had thrown an orange at my head! I ducked down, that is how hard the shudder of this poop hit my head. Splat… all over my washed hair, dripping down my long hair onto my back, straight onto my backside – not only was this Haddamn breakfast all over my rear it was also all over my hands. I got such a fright that my hands automatically lifted to protect my head from another blow. Hearing the distinctive “haa –haa”, I remembered I had been told by my grandmother that if a bird poops on you, you are lucky, some form of good fortune is coming your way, so my automatic words were, “Granny, I had better win the lottery for this one!”
I went about cleaning myself up, letting work know I was going to be running late. I washed my hair again and off I went, late, but on my way, nevertheless. Making my way to work was just like any other day but all at the wrong time. About halfway there, I got stuck in traffic. I mean some real traffic. Waiting, waiting, on and on the waiting went. Until I eventually turned the radio on (everyone who knows me knows that I do not watch or listen to any form of news…ever). There had been an accident a little while earlier. The traffic report went something like this: “If you can avoid the N14 southbound coming from Pretoria central leading up to Jean Avenue in Centurion, please do, as there has been an accident involving a taxi and other vehicles.”
‘From poop to traffic jams, what a start to my day”, I thought to myself, yet for some reason this announcement was unsettling to me. Brushing off the thought that this had nothing to do with my timing, I continued to make my way through the traffic. It was when I was nearing the accident scene that the reality hit me. Being one of those curious people, I opened my window just to be sure of what I was looking at- bodies lying covered with foil on the tarmac and next to the side of the road, people crying. I could smell blood; it made my stomach turn, sirens echoing everywhere, and a voice that shouted “So twee ure terug” (about two hours ago). I turned to the clock, it was 12:22 pm. I felt the hairs on my head stand up as I started to calculate in my mind: I would have left home at 10:00 am, but in fact, I left home around 10:40am, and then I would have been here around 10:15am, but I got stuck in traffic, and the sums were moving back and forth in my brain, coming to the realisation and knowing very well I would have been passing that place at roughly that time, I felt the shock, and a shudder came over my body.
Would I have been one of those people? Was I saved by a hadeda?
I will never know the real answer, but I do believe I was saved that day, I was blessed, and I felt it, I said “Thank you”, had a little internal chat with my grandmother and moved forward to work.
Would I take another blow to the head? Yes! I am grateful and I believe absolutely that everything happens for a reason, and when you slow down to see what the reason is, it may just be a miracle.