Reconciliation Day of the Vow

Today used to be called the Day of the Vow after a group of Voortrekkers form a group of 470 mostly men to go and revenge the murder of one of their leaders at the hand of Shaka’s half brother Dingane in the year of our Lord 1838. They were besieged along the Ncome River by a force of what was believed to number over 10,000 Zulu warriors. They made a vow before God that if he was to deliver them victory, that they would keep this day holy. God must have heard as the Afrikaners still hold this day holy.

But that was then, and today South Africans are in a new dispensation where not the victories of one group over the other is important any more but that all groups have made reconciliation by putting their past behind them and building a new better nation.

So on this Day of Reconciliation, while most of our country marches in #ZumaMustFall gatherings to protest that our President Zuma must step down after making a mess of things, we decided to have a traditional braai. My brother Anthony and his wife Helene, who by the way is of Voortrekker descent, joined us on the small holding next to the Jukskei River. It was relaxing reconciling while the meat slowing barbecued on the grill even though Zuma will never listen to the people but laugh at them "he he he".

Towards the end of this hot day, we took a walk down to the river with our dogs and took along the neighbours two Labrador puppies as they looked like they needed some relief from the heat of the day. I believe it might be their first walk and they found the water irresistible as Labradors tend to do. By the time we returned the pair, they were finished from all the fun, running and splashing.

Waodani

Wow, here I sit trying to write my blog after watching the movie "End of the Spear". I think it is nigh impossible after a movie that tore into my heart. Well let me start from the beginning as it is a good place as any. Warning plot spoiler below.

Well I had an early start; I arrived way before my colleagues because I had to leave an hour early this afternoon for Puppy Training. So when the clock struck 4pm, it was a mad dash home on my Vespa. Then Skye, my Whippet puppy, and I had to dash in the car to the puppy classes. On the way the phone rings, it was a friend wanting Network, LAN and server setup for Saturday's office move, so I put her in touch with another friend all on the way to puppy classes. And here at puppy classes, I managed to catch my breath as Skye had to contend with fluffy Ewoks, no teddy bears, no Labrador puppies, sigh well Ewoks to me and Skye, as he had to become a Empire Storm Trooper and battle the diminutive creatures from the moon of Endor.

I'm getting carried away, then on the way back to drop Skye at home, my phone rang again, it was Sandy checking if I was coming round for dinner. No need to ask twice, so off I rushed to the Sim's home for dinner and later the other cell members joined us for a movie night.

And the movie was the "End of the Spear", the true story of Mincayani, a Waodani tribesman from the jungles of Ecuador. We all know the story of how 5 missionaries were killed by the Waodani. This movie is in the perspective of Mincayani, one of the men who speared those missionaries way back in 1956 and of Steve Saint, the son of one of those missionaries. It is the story that starts at the beginning of how Mincayani narrowly escapes death as his family is butchered by another tribe and how Steve watches his dad fly off to find the Waodani, never to return. Of how the wives and children of those missionaries went into the very tribe the killed their husbands and fathers to bring them the carvings of Waengongi, and that Waengongi too had Son, and that Son was speared, but Waengongi did not retaliate. For the Waodani people, who live and die by the spear, this was the turning point. Steve's dad and the other 4 missionaries crossed over the Great Boa not in vain but they gave there lives so that the Waodani might live. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.