The Ford Cortina was traded in with a Renault 4 in 1972. Being a front wheel drive vehicle, the Renault 4 was better suited than the Cortina for the rugged terrain on which Rev Chienda trod as he criss-crossed the Nkhoma Synod territory on official business.
I remember once travelling with him to Ntakataka on the lakeshore side of Dedza district. The route taken was the one branching off the M1 at Masasa Trading Centre, going down the meandering escarpment road via Mganja to Ntakataka below. It was an earth road at that time, and therefore quite a challege to drive on. On this particular rainy Sunday morning, our major challenge was not so much the condition of the road as the rainwater itself. The rain had been so heavy that, although the poor Renault never got stuck in the mud, yet some water spilled over into the bonet. Just before we reached Ntakataka, the vehicle stalled.
An officer in a police Land Rover that pulled over discovered that water had gone into the carburetter. After some fiddling by the officer, the vehicle roared back into life and the journey continued.
In 1973, Rev and Mrs Chienda decided to take my brother and I to Blantyre to attend Republic celebrations. He used to get invitation cards and special windscreen stickers every year to attend these celebration at the Kwacha International Conference Centre and at the Kamuzu Stadium. This time round, he thought it was necessary to expose us to this important state function.
We started off in the morning by the Renault. Initially it appeared that the trip would be uneventful. However, as we pased through the Chilobwe area in Ntcheu, we had a flat tyre. To add insult to injury, we did not have a spare wheel. My brother and I helped my father take off the wheel, and he stopped a bus to go to Ntcheu boma to get the tyre mended. When he was gone, a lady passed by and noticed that we were stranded. She quickly went back home and came back carrying a meal for us. My father reappeared about an hour and half later. We fixed the wheel and hit the road again.
The Zalewa road was not developed then, so we had to go via Zomba. Just after Namadzi - and after sunset - the same tyre got flat again. There was not much hope of any relief this time round. In his usual sacrificial spirit, my father disappeared into the darkness to look for a place where he could phone from. In his search, he landed on another good Samaritan, for not only was he able to phone his cousin, Mr Kafumbi Njewa, but the family from whose home he phoned were so kind as to prepare some food for us, just like the Ntcheu lady had done earlier in the day. An hour or so later, Mr Njewa arrived, equipped with everything needed for tyre mending.
In 1974, the Reverend undertook a trip by road to Livingstonia to attend the centenary celebrations of the Synod. He carried with him a fellow minister and two family members. The relationship between the two Synods was very cordial then, a far cry from today's situation. A year earlier, the Nkhoma Synod had, in collaboration with Bible Society, organised and conducted the 50th anniversary commemoration of God's word in Chichewa at Kaso Hill in Mvera. It was from Kaso Hill that William Murray had spearheaded the translation work 50 years earlier. In his capacity as General Secretary, Rev Chienda played an important role in the Kaso celebrations.
He also travelled extensively, internationally, to attend the so many ecclesiastical meetings abroad. In July, 1974, as he was attending a meeting in Lausane, Switzerland, Mrs Chienda back home gave birth to a baby girl. Rev Mgawi, then in charge of Nkhoma CCAP, relayed the news by telegram to his "brother" in Switzerland. A response came back, by telegram too, stating that the name of the girl would be Tertia, Lausane. The name Tertia given to her was somethig of misnomer, as it actually means third born daughter, which our Tertia was not. She was in fact fourth born daughter.
No comments:
Post a Comment