Zambia World Wide

I had been hiding about five minutes when I saw three men coming towards our house from the direction of the Engelbrechts house and as they approached the front door I saw that each of them was armed with a Panga. They went inside the house and I was certain then that they had gone to finish the children and Mrs. Engelbrecht – I still didn’t know they had done with Jack. I could hear talking going on inside the house, but couldn’t make out what was being said. I heard Allan calling “Mummy, Mummy, but I thought the men were using Allan as a ruse to get me out of hiding, so I just lay still and didn’t answer him.

Then I heard my husband’s voice, and I thought Thank God and when I saw him come into the stoep with Allan and Marianne, I climbed up the bank and stumbled towards them, and as I saw two of the men come towards me I realized it was old Fink and Chanda John. They caught me as I fell and supported me onto the step where the children and Jack were standing. Then Lynda and Mrs. Engelbrecht came out of the house too and I saw that all of them had been untied. Jack kept insisting that Lynda must run a hot bath for me, while I kept saying that I must turn off the oven and make a cup of tea.

I realize now that all of us were in a shocked condition. I was told that our Toyota stationwagon had been taken and that the wires had been ripped out of the Engelbrichts car and also their lorry, but that Chanda had replaced the wires in the car – the tyres had also been slashed on the lorry. Mr. Engelbrecht kept saying that we must hurry and go at once to Kitwe as the bandits had said they were coming back so Lynda, Jack and Allan went over first while I collected some clothing for the family and Marianne stayed with me. Just then we saw headlights coming down the road, and Lynda grabbed Allan’s hand and took off past the Engelbrechts house and into the tall elephant grass, while Marianne and I who were still coming across the lawn ran into the trees and I pushed her down under a low growing tree and lay on top of her. Then Jack, who was standing out in the open called out that it was alright, and we all came back to the Engelbrechts house. Mr. Engelbrecht had also been released but his leg was in a bad state where they had hit him.

Although Jack was ill, he was in a better state to drive the car than Mt. Engelbrecht was, but he insisted on doing the driving so we all piled into the car and set off. This was a real nightmare journey , as the bush was burning in various places, and we never knew whether the bandits had deliberately set it alight so that they could ambush anyone trying to follow them. We eventually got to Charti where the forestry ranger telephoned the police in Kitwe, and Mr. Engelbrecht and I were given first aid by the Nursing sister there, then the police came and escorted us into Kitwe and to Nkane Hospital where we were all examined and all but Jack and Allan were hospitalized for the night. Lynda, Marianne and I were put in the same room, Marianne sleeping in the same bed with me as she wouldn’t sleep alone. All night long she kept waking up whenever she heard a noise in the hospital, and Lynda woke up twice screaming and I had to go over to quieten her down. I was x-rayed the next morning as it was thought my jaw had been broken, but it only had a slight crack and my eye didn’t need stitching so Lynda, Marianne, Mrs. Engelbrecht and I were allowed to leave the hospital after lunch on Thursday, after I had been given an Anti Tetanus injection, followed by two more later on.

Allan stayed on in Kitwe for a week with a friend of his, while Jack, and I and the girls returned to Funda, although the Manager wanted us to stay in town for a while until we got over our experience, but as Jack had to go back Marianne and I wouldn’t let him go back alone as he was still a very sick man. Lynda was in such a nervous state we sent her back to South Africa on the Saturday morning and she stayed with a friend of mine in Kitwe until she left.

I am proud of my children, especially Allan. The way he looked after his sister and comforted her all through that terrible ordeal would have done credit to a far older boy than a ten year old, and as for Marianne she was far more concerned about her Daddy being hurt than about herself, and Lynda although she was in a terrible state having been fired on as she ran, didn’t go into hysterics or panic and also tried to shield the two younger ones.

Despite all this I loved the bush and my home at Funda, and my only regret is that this one incident marred our quiet peaceful life out there.

Leonora Victoria Gammon