Tuesday 11th May, 2010
My dear Jeremy,
Sorry I missed last Tuesday but as you know Christopher and Susan met Marc at Heathrow airport and Celia and Tom came up to greet and welcome him. As Monday was a public holiday Marc spent it with me. After a very pleasant pub lunch at the Green man, I put him on the train for London. Tuesday, then, was catching up on chores and getting organised again.
Back to Abercorn ...
It must have been school holidays so we were all able to go with Dad on his tour. I will have to look the place up on the map or find his diary to see just where it was. It had been an old Mission Station but not much of it remained except for a small Government Guest House in which we stayed. John, the DCs son, came with us. For some reason the children decided to move the mattress from one room to another by carrying it on their heads. They got stuck in the doorway and midst much giggling and laughter all fell down with the mattress on top of them. This was hilarious!
Father John was in charge of the church there. He had been educated at the Mission and had had many stories to tell of those early days. He recalled that as a small child, he and his Mother were captured by Arab traders and taken to be sold as slaves. They were on the long trek to the coast when the British Army caught up with them and released them. He remembered running with his mother and hiding in the bushes. When the Mission was established he went to school and was then sent to be trained as a priest.
Father John took us down a path to a place called Worlds View from where we could see Lake Tanganyika This was the place where David Livingstone stood and thought he was looking at the source of the Nile. This was a time when many explorers were looking for the source of the Nile. The view was breath-taking and one that remains in my minds eye.
John built a boat and Christopher helped him but it had difficulty floating. No matter what adjustments they made it filled up with water. Christopher named it Calapso. At its final launch they stood in it saluting bravely as it sank beneath them.
It would have been at this time that Christopher joined John and his father on the D.C.s boat the Dam Diselle (Not sure of the spelling) on a trip up the lake. Christopher recalled.that they visited a game reserve where they spent the night.
The postmaster whom Dad had once taken fishing on the lake in the canoe had a caravan and we were all invited to visit for tea. We fell in love with the caravan. When he left Abercorn he sold it to us.
In the meantime our long leave was looming so we bought one of the surplus Landrovers the Red Locust were selling as their funds were running out. The back was canvas covered and the front was separated from the back by a sliding window. Michael designed a wooden back with benches and cupboards and a table. Each child had a place to keep his or her things. This with the caravan was to be our home for the next six months which we were to spent in South Africa.
The carpenter in Kasama had agreed to build this design on the back of the Landrover. Michael had gone to Kasama that morning in the government vanette so I drove the Landrover the 100 miles to Kasama with the gardener who looked after Tim and Celia and Jill. There were three seats in the front and no seat belts of course and we must have just sat together, or I put Celia and Jill in the canvas covered back. It was quite a drive on the dusty corrugated dirt road and I don't think I met many cars along the way. We came back with Michael in the Vanette.
It was during this tour that Michael became concerned over the lack of protein in the school children's diet so he researched the keeping of rabbits as a food supply. He wrote a book about rearing and caring for rabbits and became known as the expert and was consulted by many children who kept rabbits. He, of course, had never kept a rabbit in his life. The book must still be in the files somewhere in the loft.
There were also some spectacular Falls near Abercorn I never visited them but your father did They were called Kalambo Falls.
Next time will be the departure from Abercorn and our trip south.
Love you, Mum