My friend Jo is 7 months pregnant; she lives with her husband of 5 years, Andrew, in Ladybrand where they’ve been since January 2006. It is with some embarrassment Heather and I noticed this weekend was the first time we’d been to see them since they’d moved. Andrew is a Methodist pastor and due to their policy of itinerancy they have not spent longer than a year in any place since they’ve been married. Ladybrand is the longest so far.

Technorati Tags: Claerhout, Excelsior, Ladybrand, Methodist, South Africa

Ladybrand is a 3-and-a-half hour drive from Joburg and sits on the border with Lesotho. On a drive they took us on yesterday we could see Maseru just across the Caledon River - only 18 km’s away from Ladybrand. Many people live in one city but work in the other, although not all use the border post since for some it’s simpler to cross the Caledon. That’s probably illegal but this is a pragmatic country.

An accident on the way in, about 15 km’s from Clocolan, prevented us from arriving on time. A white Toyota Corolla had collided with a mini-truck carrying tractor tyres and both vehicles came to a rest perpendicular to the road so that it was impossible to tell in which direction they were originally heading and quite effectively blocking traffic. The heavy rain surely was a contributing factor and it had happened probably about 5 minutes before we got there. All 4 passengers from the Toyota were sitting down and being attended to by other motorists. 3 were bleeding quite badly and the side of the car was marked with their wounds. The only seemingly uninjured passengar was deeply dazed. Although the driver of the truck was nowhere to be found it’s possible that the truck’s passenger, who was in shock, was actually the driver (even though I overheard him telling someone on his cellphone he wasn’t). A minibus had gone off the road to avoid the collision and later was pushed up onto the bank so it could resume its journey.

The emergency response time was really good, considering it was after 8 on a Friday night and in the middle of small-town Free State. The police arrived 15 minutes after we got there and shortly thereafter an ambulance and another policeman. The paramedics efficiently loaded up all the injured into the ambulance and were on their way back into Clocolan. Even though the road was still blocked by the two vehicles we could make our way around them now the passengers weren’t sitting on the side of the road. The entire incident was a sobering sight which caused me to drive much slower for the rest of the trip.

Once we arrived in Ladybrand we were directed to Ziona and Andre’s, where we met their 5 gorgoeous children and joined in a delicious braai. Including the best wors I’ve had since…? memorable sosaties and pork chops. I’m going to be thinking about that wors for months to come! I happen to share a liking for red wine with Andre and he wasn’t shy in indulging me at his bar. Our visit got off to a great start! Later we heard how Zee talked her way out of speeding fines using her knowledge of seSotho and Andre pretending to be an arrogant visitor from overseas who was lost (that one worked in Joburg, I don’t know how! The officer even escorted him to the road he was heading to!).

On Saturday Andrew and Jo took us to the Angora Rabbit farm in Clocolan. These rabbits are rather fluffy creatures who happen to give off enough fur to make blankets, jerseys (approximate creating time per jersey: 50 hours), gloves, booties and anything else grannies with knitting needles can think up.

Lunch at The Cabin is to be highly recommended, as is the shop which stocks some rather eclectic wares: cherry liquer, mustard from Calitzdorp, clothes from Nigeria and dresses from the Himalayas! They also make really good open sandwiches and ginger beer.

The circuit Andrew is in charge of includes 4 Methodist churches; Ladybrand, Exclesior, Thaba Patswa and Tweespruit. He was taking the services at Tweespruit and Excelsior on Sunday morning and since Methodists don’t have any problem with women preaching Jo took the morning service in Ladybrand - and that doesn’t mean just preaching! It means choosing the hymn and song numbers (and getting them to the pianist), doing the welcome and notices, praying for the service, leading the singing from the front, praying for the collection, preaching the sermon and doing the benediction. Quite a responsibility! She spoke on Jesus’ temptation in the desert - 40 days without food (which is medically possible and people occasionally still do that) before facing the 3 great temptations: turn stones into bread (violating his trust of God and mirroring the lack of trust of the post-Egypt Israelites in the desert), jump off a temple and let angels catch him (did he jump or was he pushed?! I guess we can be grateful Jesus didn’t start any Gen X temple-jumping crazes) and worshipping Satan, who would then give him all the Kingdoms of the world (I want to know where Satan took Jesus so he could see all the kingdoms of the earth - the moon?).

After church we headed out to have lunch in Excelsior, which is a farming community of less than 300 people, and about 70kms from Ladybrand. The farm we drove to was a good 10km’s down a dirt road (mental note: wash my car!) but beautiful. Some oriental influence in the garden, which was interesting. I met Rina who runs Pallecan Arts - an art centre in Excelsior - the primary place to find Claerhout pieces. She trains rural people to express themselves through artwork and Father Claerhout was a Catholic priest and accomplished artist who died in June last year. He was responsible for building many churches, one of which is in Thaba Nchu. Since his congregation did not have enough money for a building he simply asked them to bring a rock with them to church. That way they soon had enough building material to build the church!

The Free State is beautiful. I’ve spent some significant time in the Drakensberg but all on the Natal side. I haven’t journeyed into the gap between Harrismith and Bloemfontein before despite much encouragement to visit Clarens. There is so much tourism potential in the area but it will be a long time before the commercialism of the Natal Midlands arrives here. Until that happens it gives travellers a different experience of South Africa.

I hope to be back sometime soon!