Newsletters from a Salvation Army woman officer in Northern Rhodesia (3): 1960-61
P.O. Box 33, Sinoia.
S. Rhodesia.
June 1960.
I must write to all my friends letting them know how we are
getting on since returning from our very enjoyable Homeland furlough.[1]
Unexpectedly when we reached Bulawayo Keith was asked to inspect the
Matabeleland schools as they had been without a D.C. [Divisional Commander] since July, so he went off into the Bush and
the children and I took up temporary residence at the D.H.Q. [Divisional Headquarters] in Bulawayo.
We were happy to associate with the Bulawayo European Corps and Allan was able
to play his cornet with the small band. One Sunday we went to an African
Location Corps, where they have a Band. Allan played with them but as we had to
march about 2 miles to the Open Air stand in terrific heat, the Band playing
the same tune over and over, each man trying to play the loudest, Allan looked
like a boiled beetroot when we arrived back at the hall![2]
After three weeks in Bulawayo, then Field Councils in Salisbury, at which I
once again acted as Secretary, we arrived back at Sinoia.
The first Sunday we spent at the Sinoia Location where we
received an enthusiastic welcome, the women telling me that they had been
crying for their Mother while I had been away. The next Sunday we had our
welcome in Sipolilo and found that the Sectional Officer had called all the
Corps together to welcome us home. It was a thrill to see hundreds of our
people and hear them express their joy at our return. The same thing happened
in the Magondi Reserve the following week.
We returned at a very busy time – preparation for the new
school year. The problems and frustrations are more than ever. The shortage of
trained teachers is acute. The Dept. of Native Education made Kaith send two
whole Std. 2 children home because we had no trained teachers, and at one place
he nearly had a riot. … One father cycled over 60 miles to D.H.Q. then 60 miles
back to get his daughter into school. It is becoming increasingly difficult to
get trained teachers in the village schools – they prefer town and Government
schools. … Keith has now 29 schools to supervise instead of the 12 we had when
we first came here. We have over 3,500 children in our Division alone, as well
as over 80 teachers.
One Sunday we went to a large mine and found a thriving
concern there. Four teachers who are Salvationists are employed by the Mine
authorities at their school, and they have over 200 children on the Y.P. [Young People (church)] register, with
Singing Company [youth choir] and
Corps Cadets. We had an Open Air meeting, and as Allan was playing his cornet,
within minutes hundreds of Africans came round to see the white boy play, at
which his Father took the opportunity and jumped in the ring with a red-hot
Gospel message. …
The Women’s World Day of Prayer was very worthwhile. I first
did the Children’s Service at the Junior School, then a united African meeting.
I took the English part of the bilingual service in the Dutch Reformed Church,
then the English service in the evening with a large crowd. My final Day of
Prayer Service was in the lovely new High School that has been opened in Sinoia
this year, when I conducted the Teenagers’ Service.
…
…
During the last school holidays as the European schools did
not open until 2 weeks after the African ones, the children and I were able to
go with Keith for 6 days into Magondi. He did school and Corps inspections
while I did a Home League meeting at each place. … We slept in classrooms with
no windows or doors (only holes in the wall) and Carol slept in the back of the
Landrover. One night at a new school the classroom had not even got a roof yet
so we lay in our camp beds and watched the stars. Two nights we slept at one
Corps, hyenas were prowling round making their dreadful noise, and we think one
came right up as Rusty our dog was growling terribly.[3] …
On the Saturday evening Keith and I went with the African Captain and his wife
to a village for a meeting. It was an experience going through the thick Bush
in the dark, guided only by the small lantern the Captain held, but it really
felt like adventuring for the Lord, and what a meeting we had when we arrived at
the village. All the village crowded into a little round hut after we had
entered, and sat on the floor round us while we brought the message of Jesus to
them and some of them sought the Lord. While we went to this village, Allan and
Carol were both fast asleep in the classroom and truck, well guarded by our
faithful dog.
Last Sunday
we conducted two meetings in the Compound [area
of farm workers’ houses] of a European farmer.[4]
An accepted candidate [to be trained as
an Army officer] is the teacher there and is doing a grand work. Her
husband is one of our teachers at another school, but she is teaching for this
year at this Farm, as well as leading the Corps. Keith enrolled 38 new soldiers
[members] many of them already in
uniform, and they think the world of Mistress Dora, even the men meekly do as
she tells them (amazing in African circles for a woman to lead men). A couple
of months ago she had to have a Caesarean operation in Sinoia. She was very ill
but has made a remarkable recovery and has a lovely baby boy, Keith. When she
was discharged from hospital I brought her to our house, turned Carol out of
her room, put her there and nursed her for a few days. The first day and night
I had the old Grandmother here also but was most relieved when she departed,
leaving me to nurse Dora and her baby as I thought best! On Sunday when I saw
the work she was doing, and dedicated her lovely baby along with others, I was
only too thankful that I was able to help her in her hour of need.[5]
… We are so
grateful for the opportunity of coming back to our people, and thank God for
all His blessings.
P.O. Box 17,
MAZABUKA,
Northern RHODESIA [Zambia].
November
1960.
Since my
last letter, we have moved from Sinoia to Northern Rhodesia, and we took up
residence in Mazabuka at the end of August. This is a very small town, only one
main street with one European shop, as well as a butcher and baker. We have a
very nice new house. Allan and Carol are able to go to school in Mazabuka, at a
very good school where they are very happy. We have a Sunday School each Sunday
morning at the school, many more boys than girls as they have only boys as
boarders, the girls are all local. We also have to conduct a service in the
School Hostel with all the boarders each Sunday evening, so we have a grand
opportunity of influencing these boys for the Lord. Three Officers’ sons from
Chikankata (which is 40 miles from us) are boarders here… so we usually take
them out with us on Sundays to African Corps, so that they can have some
Salvation Army activity on Sundays.
We had a
good finish up in Lomagundi Division, and all seemed genuinely sorry to see us
go. …
Rhodes and
Founders weekend, Keith and I took a party of Officers and Locals for a
Campaign in the Dande Reserve in the Zambezi Valley, and this was an experience
I shall never forget. These people are isolated, no schools, stores, clinics or
anything, just in their natural raw state, wearing no clothes, just a cloth
wound round them. When we first arrived they were terrified of us and it took some
time to show them that we were harmless. When I linked arms with two of our
Home League Secretaries, and the heathen women saw that no harm came to them
when I touched them, they came nearer to listen. We had our first meeting
sitting under a big tree and had the joy of seeing a number of men and women
seeking the Lord. We moved on across the Valley on a dreadful road and came
across another lot of villages where we stayed for Saturday and Sunday. We
camped under a big tree and I did all my cooking on a wood fire on the ground.
… The heartbreaking cry of these people when we left was – “Who will look after
us and teach us more about Jesus?” Keith saw the headmen and they have asked
for schools to be opened, so he has applied to the Government.
Our Officers
and Soldiers are remaining firm in spite of intimidation from potential trouble
makers. …
We are
slowly adjusting ourselves to very different circumstances in the North where
the work is much more difficult. We have had 3 Congresses up here so we were
able to meet all our people. The first one in the Zambezi Valley was so
different from our Lomagundi ones, very few adults and hardly any in uniform.
We had only about 40 in the Home League Rally and I could not help thinking of
the hundreds and hundreds of women I had left. Still this presents a challenge
which by God’s help we will try to meet. That weekend I had my first experience
with a scorpion, as I picked up the dishcloth to wash the dishes where unknown
to me a scorpion was lurking which stung my right hand. Fortunately we have a
clinic there and one of the Chikankata sisters gave me an injection. Now I look
carefully before picking up any cloth when we are on trek! Our second Congress
on the Plateau was much bigger and there were many more Salvationists. The
African Band from Ndola came down, whose instruments were brought from America
by Captain Don Seiler, and they are doing very well. Within a few minutes of
their arrival Allan had joined them with his cornet, and in the March Past he
proudly marched past with the Ndola Band. We had a wonderful response after
most enthusiastic meetings.
In Northern Rhodesia I have to inspect the Girls’ Work in our
schools or we do not get the Government Grant for our work. At the moment I am
sitting in one of the schools miles from anywhere. This is our third tour up
here and it has been a wonderful chance of getting to know our people. … Last
weekend Keith and I were down in the Zambezi Valley for 6 days – the heat was
dreadful – I have never been so hot in my life, and everything we touched in
our hut was hot. We had a grand weekend though. … Going down the escarpment to
the Valley with 27 bags (200 lbs.) of mealie meal [white corn meal, the staple diet] on the lorry as well as all our
camping kit, and many other things, calls for very careful driving as the road
is terrible. … In the evening we all marched again through the darkness of the
Bush to a heathen village. On the way our Headmaster told us that we were going
to a village where they did not want Christianity – they always ran away when
they went to their village and tried to hinder the work of the school. As we
marched into the village the full-throated singing of our boys could be heard
for miles through the Bush. We discovered they had been having a beer-drink,
and the women were wearing nothing above the waist, and all under the influence
of native beer. As we approached they made the most blood curdling yells, and
eventually we all say down on the floor. The women gradually came nearer to me
(I was the only woman Salvationist there) and pressed nearer and nearer to me
out of curiosity, until the naked body of the nearest woman was touching me.
She had a little one of just over 1 year old, with not a stitch of clothing on,
and when I held out my arms she came straight to me, and immediately there were
beams of delight from all the villagers, and their confidence was won when they
saw that the baby was not afraid of me. I nursed that naked baby all through
the meeting even when I was speaking and was able to use the little one as an
illustration of lack of fear of the unknown. While our meeting was in progress
the African drums started nearby trying to take our listeners away from us…
P.O. Box 17,
Mazabuka, N. Rhodesia.
November, 1961.
I am sorry that I did not get my half yearly newsletter off,
but this year has been more busy than ever before. This year has been
particularly trying, probably due to the political unrest in this country, and
very often we have been most discouraged. We have had a lot of trouble with
some of our teachers, and the problems have been tremendous, so we have had to
cry to God for patience and wisdom, and the Lord has been with us in a
wonderful way.
The educational work in this Division is almost a fulltime
job, with our 19 schools, three of which are Boarding Schools. In addition to
supplying all equipment, also food for the boarding schools, Keith has also got
large building schemes at 3 of our schools, for which large Government grants
are given, so they must be completed in a certain time. Days and days he has
spent loading up the lorry with building materials, taking them to schools,
carting sand from nearby rivers, even shovelling sand himself with the
schoolboys in a temperature well over 100, then carting bricks from a brick kiln.
This seems far removed from preaching the Gospel to the heathen, but it is a
part of the “all things” in a missionary’s life and has to be done.
…
Twice this year we have been out on long treks. One tour we
had to drive through mud and raging torrents, got lost in the Bush several
times, as we could not find the track because of mud and water. On the way home
the lorry got stuck in a bog and 10 oxen could not pull her out, so we had to
fling the tarpaulin over a branch, put our camp beds on the only dry spot, and
get under our nets as quickly as possible as there were hundreds of mosquitoes
who were after our blood! Early next morning the Chief sent 20 men who worked
like Trojans, and eventually lifted the lorry out at 12.30 noon – 21 hours
marooned!
When we go on trek, we do the school inspection in the
morning, I inspect the needlework, then do a Home League, visit the Officers’
wives and teachers’ wives in their homes, then we go on to the next place,
arriving after dark, cook our main meal on a wood fire on the ground outside,
then conduct a meeting before turning in to our camp beds. Often our sleep is
disturbed by hyenas howling which set off all the dogs in the district barking.
Our own dog, Rusty, growls at the doorway if one comes near, then backs into
our hut to lie down between our beds!
Down in the Valley the people are very backward. On one trip
to an isolated school, we found a 5 year old girl with a sore leg. When I removed
the dirty rag, I was nearly bowled over with the stench as her leg was eaten
away to the bone from ankle to knee, and I could only put on a clean dressing
and take her back to Chikankata Hospital. Dr. Gauntlett informed us she had
hardly any red cells left in her body, and would have been dead within a few days
if we had [not] brought her to the hospital.
That sort of thing makes the terribly bumpy journey worthwhile.
…
In June I held a Refresher Course for 2 weeks for all my Women
Helpers. Women Helpers do part time teaching of needlework and handcraft in schools.
We held it at Chikankata and I was most grateful for all the help the Chikankata
staff gave me. Allan and Carol were left behind at home with their Father for
the two weeks, although I had an African girl who cooked, washed etc. for them.
Since then I have not had an African servant in the house, as we cannot afford
one, so I do my own housework, as well as spend as much time as possible in the
office helping Keith, as he is away so much. Also I have to supervise all the
Domestic Science work in our schools in which connection I had to cut out 180
small dresses, 220 bags, 220 mats. I have still to cut out 180 pillowcases, 220
knickers, and 220 hankies for next term.
…
…
…
We are hoping to go down to the Cape Coast for our furlough,
so will be spending Christmas at the sea. We have been saving up for a long
time, and it will take us a very long time to get over it financially, but we
feel we must make the effort for the children’s sake. They are fast growing up.
Allan was 12 in September, and will be going to Lusaka as a boarder in January.
We have just received his outfit list and what a formidable list – it will cost
a fortune to rig him out! He will be far away from the Army but will go to the
Baptist Church on Sundays. He has done quite well at school this year, coming
top of his class. Carol is also doing quite well on the whole.
…
[1]
Salvation Army officers on “missionary service” were given six months leave to
return to their sending country every five years. I was with them for the first
one in 1959, when I also attended a primary school in Northolt, London; and
their second one at the end of 1964, but when I had to return to my boarding
school for my ‘O’ Level year (Form 4) after only a few weeks over Christmas at
my Grandma’s house in Northolt.
[2] An
Army church building is called a hall.
[3] We
had Rusty, a German Shepherd cross, with us for much of our childhood.
[4]
Most of the farms in this area were large tobacco farms, requiring many
labourers.
[5] To
appreciate this incident, it must be remembered that there was strict
residential and educational segregation in Rhodesia at this time. My mother was
ignoring the “rules”.
Comments
Post a Comment