Zambia World Wide

It is now time to move on, it was about this time that Jan had a confrontation with a stall-holder at the market. The market is the only place in town where fresh vegetables and fruit can be bought. This particular day Jan was looking for tomatoes she stopped at a stall to look at the tomatoes. The stall-holder made a couple of remarks which she found annoying, Jan then asked what the price was. As soon as he gave her the price she knew he was overcharging, she asked why his prices were so high compared to the other stalls. He replied “if you don’t like my price go elsewhere”, he then told her to put the tomato down and leave his stall. She looked at him and said if you want your tomato you can have it, by this time she was quite angry. She then threw the tomato at him, the tomato hit him in the face and burst open. He was not a happy man! He ran from behind the stall after her, Jan took one look at his face and knew it was time to move. When she reached the car-park she looked back and saw about twenty market traders in pursuit. She jumped in the car, started the engine and told Val her friend to get in quick. Val had no idea what had taken place, she did see the people running towards them as she got in the car. They roared out of the car-park with the trader’s only yards behind the car.

Was that the end of the affair, No! Jan knew she would have to go back, it was the only market in town. The following weak she dressed differently, wore a head scarf and sun glasses, sure she would not be recognised. She then drove to the market and did her shopping at the far end, sure she had not been recognised. As she was leaving the market, really pleased that she had not been recognised, the stallholder who she had thrown the tomato at walked up to her with a smile on his face. It appears the market traders had been having quite a laugh as she walked round, some who had served her struggled to keep a straight face. He told her she was welcome at his stall providing she stopped throwing tomatoes. They both laughed and later became quite good friends although for some time after she had to put up with a lot of leg-pulling from many of the stall-holders.

There were too many incidents that happened over the years to mention all, both humorous and sad. Zambians have a code of conduct which should not be broken, breaking of the rules generally means expulsion from the family and tribe. Late one night in the middle of the rainy season we were called out to a line fault. We found a section of line down near Itimpi (Garneton), the line had been hit by lightning. The damage was quite severe and could not be left till daylight, we used potable lights and generators. As we were installing the lighting one of the crew saw a bundle lying at the foot of a tower. The men called me over to see what they had found, I went over and unwrapped the bundle. I found that the bundle was a new born baby wrapped in a blanket. I had never been in a position like this before so called the control centre and explained what we had found. Silly question! They asked me what they should do. I explained that because we were on the radio, we had no means of communication with anyone but them. I then suggested they should phone the police, explain the situation and tell them where we were. They came back to us and said the police were on their way and we should stay until they arrived. I asked the police why any woman would leave her child to die in the bush in this way. They said that if she was a single woman, she would have been sent away by the family until after the child was born, as to stay would bring disgrace upon the family.

Let’s return to a lighter subject. Jan’s birthday was coming up and I had no idea what to get for her birthday present. Some months earlier I had become friendly with a pig farmer who also had a herd of goats. While I was at the farm one afternoon he was saying he had too many Billy-goats and would have to get rid of some. I had met a Billy-goat at the farm earlier, who followed me everywhere and I had become rather attached to. Knowing that Jan liked animals, I decided to take him home as a birthday present for Jan. He was a lovely little guy and full of fun, Jan asked the lads to think of a name for him. The name they chose was very original “Billy the Kid”, what could we say, it was their choice. Over the next few months Billy would really live up to his name, there can’t have been anyone around who did not know “Billy the Kid” or at least had heard of him. Once again he had total freedom to come and go, through the house and garden. He took over the sofa in the lounge as his own and would allow no-one on there while he was in the house “it was his” and he made that quite clear. We mistakenly though he would eat the grass, No! He had a preference for flowers, plants and vegetables, within a few days he destroyed the vegetable garden and decimated the flowers and plants. We then decided to erect chicken wire around them all, to keep him out which seemed to work.