Off to Africa!

Harare was the township where my sister was living. She now had a baby and the family were living in a small flat in the hospital compound. Surprisingly she had a maid. She never has cleaners, my sister, because they are never good enough so even though nowadays she has quite a big house , she does it all herself. However when she arrived in Harare there was a queue of African woman wanting to be her maid. They loved working for people who were not used to servants and the one who got my sister must have thought Christmas had come. Those the woman really hated working for were successful black people apparently, and next would be the white colonial types.

My brother-in-law was busy with his cutting experience and I once went with him to the wards. There was a long line of people queueing to be seen at the hospital but I got the impression that the locals were really glad to have these maybe ‘wet behind the ears’ medics from the UK . Following the white oppression in Rhodesia when the country became Zimbabwe and Mugabe took over, the country was almost destroyed and many people were worse off than before.

One of the doctor’s wives was horrified when she discovered that her maid had left her children behind in the bush with Granny and insisted that she bring them to live in a hut at the bottom of the garden. This was not allowed but this lady was feisty and insisted.

I had never been particularly interested in babies but my nephew was very cute with huge blue eyes and long lashes. I felt quite protective when on our tour of the country and travelling through a game reserve we rounded a corner and saw a huge lion munching away on a dead buffalo. I was in the back with the baby and it was both very exciting and terrifying to witnessing this so close. There did not seem to be any restrictions to travelling on our own in our hired VW……I did think what would happen if we broke down as these were the days before mobile phones.

We stayed in lodges with nets over the beds to keep out the mosquitos. I lay sunbathing in the garden of one of them, overlooking the Zambezi river when I sensed the presence of something close, opened my eyes to see a large warthog right above me — I have never moved so fast. We could see hippos wallowing in the river so definitely no swimming there. We went to a crocodile farm and were told that they sometimes eat each other…… yuk. The doctor and I took a plane ride over the Victoria falls and that was a stunning experience.

I almost ended his career when, in a garage looking under the bonnet, he said ‘whatever you do don’t start the engine’…..I misheard and thought he said ]start the engine]. That was almost forty years of surgery up the spout. It was an amazing experience topped off with a quick visit to Bulawayo where my Irish friend was holidaying.

On my way home via Malawi I was stopped in customs when a security guard looked very alarmed while feeling around in my bag. A major security alert went off and I had visions of spending the night in a Malawi jail. It turned out the avocado pear I stupidly tried to bring back as I had developed a passion for them was mistaken for a hand grenade. They really did grow on trees everywhere. They ticked me off for bringing food into the country but after a rather lengthy hiatus when I nearly missed my connection I was allowed on my way.

Once home there was nothing for it but to start my slightly unwilling career as a social worker.

P.S. Just seen in the paper a huge lion got into one of these safari holiday tents and chewed a man’s arm off.