Chapter 23 - Stanley's Visit

Our girls had gone, but we had still another son to visit us. Stanley in Umtali learning to be an architect. He had had a long period of illness with Osteomyelitis in his left leg, which had left him with a shortening of it. One day a man from the office in Kasama arrived with a telegram which had been sent there, asking for our permission to operate three days previously. We were very worried, assuming it was again his leg, but not knowing for sure. The Kasama office had immediately wired to say we were in the bush and word could not be got to us for two or three days. We wrote out a reply wire at once and Sandford from Kasama promised to send it off as soon as he reached a post office. I considered trying to get to Salisbury where the wire had come from but without further information it was wiser to wait and see what was happening.

A letter came from Stan which told us he had gone onto hospital to have his leg lengthened and straightened as had been suggested some six months previously, and that he wanted it over so that he could spend Christmas with us. Before we could make plans to get there another telegram came saying 'keep Mom there. Awaiting passport, leaving Hospital 18th. on crutches. Love Stan..'.

It was a tremendous feat to travel into the unknown wilds on crutches, but he had developed great reserves of courage during his long and painful illness and would not be daunted by the difficulties. We knew he could get as far as Broken Hill by train, so all we could do was to try and get Roy down there in time to help him back. As it worked out, Stanley had just signed himself into the one and only Hotel there, when Roy arrived and signed his name below his brother's. The two boys talked all night and had a joyous reunion. There was less than a year between them. Stanley being now eighteen, and they had missed each other during this separation and had a lot to talk about.

Alex and I were most relieved when they arrived and Stanley leapt out of the vanette on his crutches, looking well and happy, with Roy beaming his pleasure at having 'brought home' his brother. The Africans were delighted and went through their welcoming routines, laughing and chattering and getting very excited to see the two brothers and especially Stanley's crutches. There were many questions asked and Roy who was learning the language very quickly was delighted to answer them in their tongue and Stanley was suitably impressed.

We decided to visit some people who were farming and having great difficulty with a bridge over their river. We set off in the vanette and 30 miles off the road over a narrow track between two deep ditches, down into a wallow of mud where hippos had been disporting and through rough fields towards a long low bungalow of the usual red unburnt brick. In the fields were two young men working. They had chins shadowed with beards and their blue eyes looked curiously and shyly at us as we passed.

As we approached the house four or five dogs of different sizes and breeds ran out to welcome us with barks and much tail wagging and the farmer Mr Jeffries welcomed us into the house where his wife who had been attending the pigs joined us. Mr Jeffries did not look at all like a farmer, but more like an absent-minded professor, but his wife, in her felt hat and rubber boots and a constant farm job in hand was obviously the one who ran the farm. We chatted about our mutual friends and what we were doing in the bush at Kalungu, when in came two very smart young men to be introduced. They were the sons, John and Raymond, the same two who had been working in the fields, but a hurried shave had transformed them.

They soon took our sons off to see over the farm, while I went with Mrs Jeffries on one of her many jobs with her stock. She was very proud of her piggery which was a block of new buildings and seemed to be thriving. It was the only piggery in hundreds of miles, but the farm was so isolated and so far from transporting roads oftail that it was not a profitable venture and took much hard work to make anything of it at all. They seemed very happy-go-lucky and the dogs joined in every activity and comfort to the extent of jumping on any available bed or chair. One large animal uncoiled himself from a bed on the veranda when we arrived and after inspecting us, returned with a bored sigh. On the veranda was hanging strips of biltong to dry which the boys loved to put in their pockets to chew when they were out working the 'lands'.

We were invited for a meal which arrived on the table in a very haphazard way, no one person seemingly doing the job, but there it was, and very enjoyable to share with our new friends. Living so far from other white people and seldom having any to converse with made the conversation very simple and we found a charm in the complete lack of pretention. A light bulb went out, and to fit another a huge box of books was pulled from a wall and on it was placed a chair, to reach and renew it. The box and chair were still there when we left!.

We drove back from Chunga in a terrific downpour of rain with the ditches filled with water and level with the swimming road so that we had to hope for the best that we would be able to stay on the road.

John and Raymond had arranged a duck shoot with Stanley and Roy for the following week and although Stanley on crutches and in plaster should certainly not have gone, it was impossible to dissuade him and they had a wonderful day although Stanley got his plaster wet in the swamp and we had to take him to Dr Martin to have it seen to.