I picked up a guy on crutches today just outside Piggs Peak.
A very similar feeling overtook me as did the day I picked up my first lone
male hitchhiker in France. I followed my heart. That time my mind quickly took
things over and wondered if I should possibly hide my purse from this
well-built Italian with dreads. I never feared that he might do anything nasty
to me.
I was even more confident today. And sure enough, rather
than getting raped and my body dumped by the side of the road, I was given one
of the strongest lessons of my life. This man has had an ulcer on his leg since
1999 which won’t heal after lengthy stays in hospital, antibiotics and anti-retroviral
drugs: He was ashamed when the doctor recommended getting tested for HIV but
finally agreed when he was promised
that, were he positive, he would be healed by the drugs he’d be given. He is
HIV positive and has been taking the anti-retrovirals since 2004. The ulcer
still hasn’t healed. He’s been told he will eventually die as a result of it.
I asked this man, who’s name I may never know, if he
believed in God. He told me passionately of his great love for God. How God has
helped him to lead a good life, free from alcohol and anything else I could
think of. How, despite his predicament, he believes that God will one day cure
his ulcer. Until then, he trusts that whatever he does is blessed by the Lord.
I shared with him my favourite saying of recent times:
“In God I breathe, move and have my being.’
And he told me that he prays everyday when he wakes up, when
he eats, when he goes to sleep, when he does many things. He told me how much
gratitude he has for the life he’s been given. He has a family, a home…
And although he doesn’t have a job, he has taught himself to
make floor polish and other cleaning products, which he sells. He does his
best.
His journey to Piggs Peak, which takes 2-3 buses and at
least a couple of hours from Manzini where he lives, came about because he
wanted to help out with hospital bills for his nephew who was hurt in an
accident on the road to Matsamo.
When he got out of the car he told me that he hoped God would bless me.
