Petrus van Dyk and I were supposed to go to Sector 10 together. Sector 10 HQ was at Oshakati in Namibia, not far from the Namibia/Angola border. My balsak was packed, everything was ready, and we went to see the Adjudant for our travel instructions. He handed them out one by one, till my turn came.
“Luitenant, ek hoor jy speel tennis” says the doos with a grin, and tore up my papers. He’d heard that I played tennis in a previous lifetime, and the Defence Force was having its annual sport week in Bloemfontein. Typical of the army, sport was much more important than fighting a war. “You can go to the border after the championships”. Yeah right. So (temporarily) I swapped my R4 for a tennis racket. We came second in the championships, which made it worse. I wasn’t going to get out of Bethlehem (not the one with 3 wise men and a virgin) very easily.
In fact, I stopped playing tennis after that. I did combat pistol shooting instead. And I still couldn’t get out of Bethlehem (not the one with 3 wise men and a virgin). 2Field Engineer Regiment, the home of the super sapper, was going to be my home for a while. Fucked by the five fickle fingers of fate…..
At least the surrounding area was prettier than Oshakati..
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