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Since the beginning of the year eight San team members have obtained their driver's licence, amongst them two young women. Although only a few passed their driving test immediately their colleagues were not discouraged and continued taking lessons until they were also granted their licence.
To have additional people at !Khwa ttu who are able to drive has lifted a burden from the small group of colleagues who fulfilled the manifold driving tasks in former years. Now many names can be entered in the weekly driving plans and thus it takes a while before the same driver has to commute the children to school, purchase goods for the restaurant and shuttle tourist to and from the airport.
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Baba Rosie Vilander obtained her driver's licence recently. She still radiates her delight about this achievement. However, she has not forgotten the hurdles she had to overcome before she finally was allowed to drive a vehicle on her own. She recalls, "Whenever we [she and her colleagues] took lessons we were away for the whole day because the driving instructor was in Malmesbury. The first time when I did the test I was very nervous because of the traffic in the town. I also failed the second test because I was still nervous. But the third time I passed because I knew I could do it." Altogether Baba Rosie took 13 driving lessons before she felt confident enough to take her final test.
Not only the driving lessons provided by a professional instructor contributed to her gaining confidence but also the opportunities to drive to neighbouring farms and to the nearby small town of Darling after she had passed her learner's licence test in May 2007. "There was always someone with a licence sitting next to me," Baba Rosie explains, "and I had to have a big 'L' on the car. To practise driving helped a lot." Now, that she has overcome her biggest stumbling block and is able to manage the clutch she is adamant "to drive the children to school and buy things for the restaurant. I will also drive to Cape Town, but then I will ask someone [an experienced driver] to sit next to me." Baba Rosie's determination to pursue her plan of acquiring a driver's licence is certainly an example to the rest of the !Khwa ttu team.
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