Zambia World Wide

I suppose the worst time we had in the early years was Christmas 1972 which was our first Christmas away from home, nothing seemed right, the weather was too hot, it was impossible to eat a hot meal at lunchtime and of course none of our friends or families were there. Christmas day if I remember correctly, we got up, had breakfast and opened presents. In the afternoon we went for a drive, then had dinner and went to bed. I am sure that Jan came close to leaving and returning to England, but once Christmas was over life started to improve and she once again looked forward.

At this time we had no maps or information about Zambia apart from what we learnt by speaking to other people. Most weekends we would drive out to a small town or village or explore some of the bush roads we came across, often not knowing where we were going. What we had seen as miles of scrub and bush from the plane was not so when seen from the ground. Around Kitwe there were a number of small townships such as Kalalushi and Mindola, these were mining communities. We had some nice times visiting the townships which all had nice swimming pools, golf clubs and area’s where Gary could play. Most of the towns and townships had tree lined avenues which had to be driven through to reach the centres. In the spring the colours and smells were unforgettable particularly when the Jacaranda and Flamboyant tree’s were in flower. We also enjoyed walking through the Zambia villages and talking to the local people who we found to be happy and friendly and seemed to love children. One incident I remember is the time Gary was playing with a ball in the front garden, a youth jumped over the fence and grabbed the ball, then ran off. He was seen by a house servant further down the road and within minutes every Zambian within shouting distance was in hot pursuit. It did not take them long to catch him and when they did he was given a good beating they then let him go. Jan asked Lamek why they had given him such a hiding, he replied that although adults might fight and argue it was against their custom to interfere or steal from children. This is why they became so angry.

Arriving home from work one evening Jan was waiting at the door, which was unusual so I immediately thought something had happened. Jan had been driving into town when she saw a Zambian standing at the roadside, he was selling a small animal for meat. We had always been interested in wildlife, even in England and to see this small animal being treated in such a way was just too much. Jan bought the animal and brought it home, it was her intention to return it to the bush. Where wildlife was concerned Jan had a simple approach, save it then return it to the wild. Unfortunately life is not that simple, what species is the animal what is its natural habitat, I don’t know Jan said, can’t you find out. This meant we would have to keep the animal until we knew, we didn’t believe in caging animals and so it had the run of the house until we could find out. We didn’t even know what to feed it on, now the fun starts. We kept hearing noises in the middle of the night, but as soon as we switched on the light and checked to see where the noise was coming from there would be silence. After a few sleepless nights we found out that the animal Jan had rescued was a night ape, these are nocturnal which explained everything. It would run around all night but the moment we turned on the light it would hide. Now we knew what it was we only needed to know its habitat and we could then turn it loose. We did find out its natural habitat and so were able to return it to the bush, it seemed strange at first going to sleep without worrying about sudden noises in the night.