Zambia World Wide

It was about this time that Fred started to drink heavily, we tried to find out why but he wouldn’t say. He began arriving at the house late and drunk, usually in the evening when we needed him to look after the children. We couldn’t allow him to stay not in the state he was in, so we would have to tell him to leave. He then started coming in to work in the mornings drunk, we made another attempt to find out why he was drinking so much but he still wouldn’t say, we knew then that he would have to go. Fred had been with us for some time, and was very much part of the family, although we were reluctant, we had the children to think of and it was now quite evident he couldn’t stay. Many of Jan’s friends employed girls as house-servants which they spoke very highly of. Jan thought about it and decided her friends were probably right. A house-girl would probably be more trustworthy with the children and most probably not drink. Once again Jan interviewed a number of house-servants, and finally decided she had found the right one and so she employed her. The house-girl’s name was Anna, she seemed to fit in well, and both the children liked her. She was efficient around the house and pleasant to talk to, however things are not always how they seem. Sometime after Anna had started working for us, we got a call from the local Police Station. They wanted us to drive to the police station and collect our house-servant, who they had arrested that afternoon for being drunk and disorderly in one of the local bars. Jan told them that the person they had arrested could not be Anna our house-servant as she was a non-drinker. The person they had arrested must be someone else, although they were quite insistent Jan refused to go to the police station as she was so sure they had made a mistake. Next morning Anna came into work as usual and when Jan mentioned the phone call we had received the previous afternoon from the police, Anna laughed and agreed with Jan that the police were mistaken.

For a time all went well and we had no cause to complain about Anna’s work or behaviour, she did seem to be all that we had looked for in a house-servant. Having a girl as a house-servant meant we would now have to hire a garden-boy. Once again Jan asked around and interviewed some of the likely candidates, she chose a young man whose name was Arman. He seemed a likable person and certainly kept the garden and swimming pool in shape, although unlike Fred and Lamek he only had the garden to look after so had plenty of time. A few weeks later we received another phone call from the police to say they had once again arrested our house-girl for being drunk and disorderly and would we collect her from the Police Station. This time they insisted that it was Anna they had arrested, they also insisted that Jan or I should drive to the Police Station to identify her and then drive her home. The police were right it was Anna they had arrested on both occasions. Until now Anna had made a point of not coming to work or to look after the children in an intoxicated state. Having been found out she seemed no longer to care and would come in drunk or not bother coming in at all. Once again we were left to look for a reliable house-servant. This time we were lucky, Jan employed a man whose name was Richard. Richard was by far the best house-servant we had employed and was to stay with us for many years.

Some weeks after Anna had left, Arman came to the house and told us that he had to leave. Jan asked him why he was leaving, he said he had a personal problem to sort out and would have to leave town. Jan asked him if it was something we could help him with, Arman said no only he could sort things out and then left. I will jump forward here 12\18 months to make sense of the reason Arman had left and why only he could sort out his problem for doing so. Jan was near the fence in the front garden when a Zambian crossed the road and said hello to her. She answered his greeting but must have looked puzzled, because he then said “don’t you remember me” Jan replied that he did look slightly familiar, she just could not remember where she had seen him. He said that he was Arman who had been our garden-boy months earlier. Jan asked him what the problem had been and was it now sorted out. Without a word he dropped his trousers, and before Jan could turn away started waving his tackle in front of her, saying look!  Nothing wrong now, completely cured. Jan was caught completely unawares, she was so embarrassed and didn’t know where to look. I would have given almost anything to have been there and seen how she reacted. It appears that the angelic Anna was not only a heavy drinker but also a part time prostitute, if you have not already guessed Arman had been one of her customers. It also explained how she had the money to drink as she had. I have gone into some detail about our house-servants as at various times they all played a part in our lives. I will now continue with my tale as the pages are rolling by but time seems to be standing still.