Flash Flood at Zamimpilo

On Friday Derek and I went to stay with Kim at Zamimpilo where she is the volunteer and where the projects from Philakahle often hold workshops. This particular weekend one such Life Skills workshop was taking place and some of our funding partners from Australia were going to be stopping by. This is how we came to decide upon this visit and then ended up staying until late Sunday afternoon as opposed to leaving just after lunch on Saturday, teaching two sessions and surviving a flash flood in the middle of the night with 34 teenagers. The project manager, Vusi, had to leave the workshop early on Saturday and ending the whole affair would have been a huge waste of time and money so we agreed to take over. If we had known that at around 11:00 pm a river would be diverted through the property we might have still agreed to do so (it was very exciting and none of our stuff was in risk of being damaged), but we might not have!

Kim and I were watching a movie as Derek slept when we were awakenend by the sound of rushing water pouring in from under the door. The rounduvalls at Zamimpilo are set one foot into the ground for some reason I do not understand and so there was within a matter of an hour about a foot of water in Kim's room and the two rounduvall's where the teenage girls were sleeping. It was hard to rouse Derek, but when we did he offered us real nuggets of wisdom like "put a towel under the door" and quickly advised me to stop running around like a teenager myself!

Kim Morgan