Look out for superheroes everywhere in Gqeberha
I once read that Gqeberha had more restaurants per square kilometre than other local cities. This could be a fast fact, or stretched fiction, but foodwise, I’ve always enjoyed my meals there.
Primarily, though, it’s the people of PE/GQ who get my vote.
I’ve lived in the bay for years, on and off, and my first favourite “in-person” hero was Sister Ethel Normoyle, founder of the Missionvale Care Centre.
Reporters meet a mixed bag of humans, and some make an impact.
Others leave a lifelong impression, and she was one of them.
I have more respect for people like Sister Ethel than for royalty, or politicians.
What makes a good person a superhero?
The late Sister Ethel is an obvious answer — caring, compassionate, resilient and a font of unconditional love.
Appropriately, she was based in this city, far from her Irish home, because here, I suspect, we have more superheroes per square kilometre than other local cities — in my experience, anyway.
Just last week, another popped up unexpectedly, in the guise of a friendly phone voice from the Boston City Campus.
A family member was writing Very Important Exams at the Cape Road venue, and amid load-shedding, apart from all the usual potential concerns (traffic, roadblocks, forgotten ID cards, gastritis and flat tyres).
I needed to double-check that Eskom wasn’t going to scuttle the expensive online exam booking, as we had received a few sombre warnings via email from the international examiner, given our current rolling blackouts.
When I worked in reception, or as the “face” of organisations during my twenties and temping days, I was naturally friendly, even if I had no clue what the right answer to a query was.
Kudos to Boston for hiring people who not only know what’s going on and are friendly, but who make it their business to make your business their only business, until the job gets done and you ’ re no longer panicking, and swearing at power sockets.
Wandile assured us there were backup systems in place — Eskom held no sway here!
However, as superheroes do, he then decided to go the extra mile for the faceless stranger on the line, doing a courtesy check that the exam was, in fact, registered on the system, confirming names and other bureaucratic paraphernalia.
He didn’t need to do this — it wasn’t part of the deal, or the service offered.
And then, on the day of the exam, he made a follow-up call to reassure me that not only was load-shedding not scheduled during the exam, but that if the worst happened, the backup system was safe, secure and ready to load at a moment ’ s notice.
“Wandile, you offer six-star service — and you’re a superhero,” I told the young man.
He laughed, self-effacingly, and replied: “You know, ma’am, we deal with students every day here, and I always remind myself that we are not just dealing with students — we are dealing with future presidents.”
Superheroes everywhere — may you meet one sooner than you expect.