Day 64/46 – “SAPD - Sadly A Protracted Department"

Friday, 26 January 2007 – Day 64/46 – “SAPD - Sadly A Protracted Department”

My intention was to start today’s blog by telling you how impressed I was with the SAPD in Polokwane. Within 5-7 minutes we had them, the medics, tons of spectators and of course the tow trucks there. Everything went very smoothly. The policeman filled out the paperwork, took both our details and report on the incident. He told us to phone after two the following day to get the case number.

So… forward to two o’clock yesterday afternoon. I phoned the local police office and after 12 minutes of paging through the book (which seemed to start at 1985) he still didn’t find anything. I decided to phone back this morning and again exactly the same story. Either he is paging through a Harry Potter book or… my accident report got lost somewhere.

Now, I wasn’t on drugs and I wasn’t drinking, but I was in shock. I didn’t get the other guy’s details or the policeman’s details. It was the first time I was in an accident like this and I couldn’t even remember my dad’s phone number to phone him – so I guess I wasn’t thinking clearly. So at this point, it seems… the police department has not failed again in their reputation of being incompetent and useless. Now... I will have to go into the police station anyway and fill in an accident report AGAIN having no details of the other party.

Anyway, I wanted to talk about yesterday’s post. I wrote the blog entry about an hour after the accident. I was still very upset. I look at how bad the door is where the car hit me and I know that having minor injuries is a miracle and blessing. And even in that situation taking heroin didn’t cross my mind once. Heroin, as a nervous system depressant, helps for pain – so it would have been so easy to just take heroin instead of dealing with it.

But, I am alive. I am not badly hurt and I didn’t take heroin. These are all things I should be happy and proud of – and I am! Thank you to the tons of e-mails I received yesterday. The support system I have not only for my troubled heroin times but for troubled times in general is amazing. I thank you all very much and have a great weekend!