Chapter 24 - Christmas

Christmas was fast approaching and I felt we should make of it a celebration in spite of the heat and the rains....

We did not expect anyone for Christmas with the roads and distances so bad and there were just the four of us and the Africans (Stanley having had to return to Umtali). I wanted to decorate the house and the menfolk were tolerant but amused till I insisted and so they got in greenery and a tree as like a Christmas one as they could find, and we fixed it up on the veranda with coloured paper bits of tinsel and some crackers. I decided to give the women and children a party and made plenty of jelly and custard and cakes and found some balloons and small gifts and invited them all at 2 oclock..

It was drizzling when they came so they sat on my verandah floor and we dished out the food which they put in tins or cloths or leaves, we pulled the crackers, some of the boys came and sang carols very self-conciously and we joined in, while the women who can do nothing just stared. I think they enjoyed it though they didn't know it was a party and some did not care for jelly and custard, but they thanked me for letting them sit in a nice place !. Somehow they knew about Christmas 'bokis' as every African does everywhere, and Christmas can be a miserable time with boys pestering you resentfully for his present. Even strangers try it on. We gave a little gift to personal boys who have worked well, but no more. Of course they have never thought of giving anything.

We awoke on Boxing Day to find the house completely cleared of every speck of greenery and decoration. Vincent, who was our first houseboy, thrust upon us when we first arrived in Kasama, had no imagination and no sense of humour and hadn't approved of Christmas anyway and had hastily cleared away all the 'rubbish'.

We had been invited to the District Comissioner's house at Isoka for Boxing Day and as it was a fairly dry day we did the 45 miles quite well and got there for lunch. It was very pleasant. Three young couples, D. O.'s from various districts were invited to dinner and each of these we were to meet again and follow some of their fortunes. We had a very pleasant time and a Quiz at which we won a prize, and so, home to bed.

Epilogue

This was near the end of our first year in the wilds and at Kalungu. We went on to build many other bridges in similar situations. Luanya, Lufune, etc and larger bridges nearer to civilisation such as Mansa in Fort Rosebery and Kalomo near Livingstone.

I went on to work for Sir Stuart Gore-Browne at Shiwa N'Gandu before taking up formal Civil Engineering training and eventually becoming a bridge builder in my own right... but it all started from those wonderful days when my father was able to demonstrate the rare ability to overcome enormous difficulties and create a civilised 'product' against all the odds. He could not have done that without the tolerance and support of a real pioneering person like my mother

Roy Williams - December 2000