08 August 2009 – Saturday
Most of the day was spent attending the funeral of the young sister who was killed on Tuesday. We had discovered that she was killed when a truck lost its brakes and plowed into her taxi and another car. She was the only one killed but 14 others were seriously injured.
I had to get to the car wash very early because our car was coated with mud from our visit to the mud puddle area yesterday. I thought if I got there by 7 when it opened I would be first in line. Wrong! I was the 5th in line. Others had the same idea.
We had told Fufu, a young woman in the Port Durnford branch who had gone to school with Nomfundo, that we would pick her up and take her to Richards Bay for the funeral. So we ran out to PD and got her and then headed back to the chapel to see if we could help in any way to get things ready. When we got there we found everything was under control. However Mary was asked to play the prelude and other music. She ended up playing for about 90 minutes before everyone arrived.
At 11:00 when it was to start there was only a couple of dozen people in the chapel but the family and those who traveled with them started to arrive and in a few minutes the chapel and half of the cultural hall was filled. Family, friends, neighbors, and even a bus from her school arrived.
The funeral was originally planned for 4 hours but president Van Thiel told the family it had to be no longer than 2 hours. This was the first Zulu funeral we have attended and it was interesting to see it unfold. President Nyawo of Esikhawini conducted with President Vezi of the District Presidency presided. The first part was family and friends giving talks and singing. What I found interesting was the principal of her school was one of the speakers. Of course everything except the hymns was done in Zulu and I could not understand a word. But while of the speakers was talking, my spirit was touched and I felt that what was being said was special.
After the family part, we had a short LDS section where sister Khamalo spoke about how Nomfundo joined the church and her desire to go on a mission. Then President VanThiel spoke on the plan of salvation and I thought it was a wonderful and easy to follow talk that was teaching without preaching. Mary was also impressed.
After the service we took a load of young women to the cemetery. The service there was very short. The casket was then lowered into the grave and a layer of short logs were placed over it, then a couple of straw mats were put on top of those. Male members of the family each placed a shovel full of soil in the hole and the women threw in a small handful. Then anyone who wanted to could help in refilling the grave.
I did not participate but a number of the elders and members did. As it was being filled people would start a song in Zulu and others would join in. Fufu started a number of them and most people seemed to know the words so I supposed that they were traditional hymns that all sang in church.
When the grave was filled, the people quickly left. We were going to take the Esikhawini elders to their area but a number of the people from Port Durnford needed rides. So we found rides with members for the elders and took Sister Chirwa, Fufu and President Machaka to their homes.
The only other thing that we did before going to our boarding is to stop to pick up the bread I had ordered for tomorrow. Mary spent the evening making meatloaf and preparing other things for the dinner.