Lost in translation is what i found myself in, sometimes you see things that makes you wonder and it would take forever to be understood.
I met a young engineer in August 2014 beginning, we would work together on a project at the Moses Kotane Hospital, He was the resident engineer at the Hospital and i was contracted to conduct a service there.
Naturally resident hospital engineers are known to be out of touch, less enthusiastic , less passionate about their work not Hez, He would warmly welcome me and a female colleague Rose and got dirty with us immediately.
It took us two days to complete what would have taken us four days to accomplish, we were the customer and he the client, he had no obligations to help and we didn’t ask for help.
His interaction with his colleagues in the wards we went in to revealed that he enjoyed helping and his job immensely, he engaged with the Drs and Nurses about what we had come to do and on their other related projects with excitement.
Then curiosity would get the better of me i asked him about himself, he came out smart. knowledgeable , curious and hyper.
He would tell me that he is a village boy who got an opportunity through the late deputy minister of health Dr Molefi Sefularo to study clinical engineering in Cuba.
He went on to say how challenging it was to be away for three and a half years without seeing his family, he said he even lost a brother and could not come home to pay his last respect, he said this with pain in his eyes.
I then said “oh yes i know the departed Dr Molefi Sefularo who died in a car accident” he then said “ it was no accident it was assassination” i chose not to ask further.
He went on to say how he completed his B-Tech at TUT this after he asked me where do i get the knowledge of the work we we doing and i answered TUT, he said out of the twenty students he had gone to Cuba with only four completed their B-Tech’s.
I watched and listened with interest as he narrated the Cuba experience, how he was teaching himself portuguese and how spanish was closely related to the latter. He learned spanish as a prerequisite to study in Cuba.
I would then later ask “ so you speak Spanish?” his response “ speak, read and write”.
he went on to say how he wanted to complete his M-tech, how prepared he was about completing it.
Oh, his motivation to learning portuguese was that his late father was originally from Mozambique, i would later reveal that i also am shangaaan, he smiled and said he is in general a lover of languages and would go on to sprinkle a bit of Venda, Tsonga and Xhosa in his narrations.
I asked if he would not be interested to come work with us in Gauteng with the promise of a good offer, he totally turned it down for the proximity he is enjoying with his family when at Moses Kotane hospital. his words “ i have been away for far too long and missed my family, i ben missed my late brother’s funeral i am not leaving them anytime soon”
An avid smoker he would now and then disappear for a smoke break, and then come back rejuvenated, i suspected that he smoked marijuana as well.
Hez was super smart, super humble, super human being, the two days i spent with him were memorable.
He then as an after thought would tell me how the cuban culture was closely similar to the coloured race in South Africa.
What troubled me was that i met him on Tuesday and would work with him again on Thursday, i found him in the same clothing, and i could smell marijuana on his clothes or something that smelled like that.
As we completed our assignment we would promise to keep contact and he promised me cuban music and said it was lekker!
I then said see you soon as i had some paper work outstanding, i got back to Gauteng and naturally got swallowed by my work and kept postponing going back. i raved to my colleagues and my wife back in Gauteng about a young man i had met and that he would be a valuable member to our organisation
Two weeks later i would receive a call from the hospital querying the outstanding paper work, i then said i had partly submitted to Hez, the lady who called took a very long sigh and said Hez has left, i though to myself he was way good to stay there, thought he was probably with a multinational company.
She then said we buried him last saturday, i could not believe it. she went on to say he hung himself.
His is a tribute to Hez, the guy i knew for two days who after two weeks departed.
You showed so much promise, i hope heaven has welcomed you warmly as you welcomed me into your hospital and life in an instance. I salute you fallen soldier!!!
