Charles and the arrival of Anne-Marie

During his time off, Charles chose to go back to Portuguese East Africa, his original home, but with the promise that he would return to Bulawayo on 1st August to look after “baas”, my husband, until I returned from Denmark a month later in September. Time means nothing to the black people, so we were not unduly surprised upon my husband’s return to find he didn’t turn up on time after all, and we were also a little disappointed that our Charles should turn out to be just like the rest, after all, in this respect. Eventually I returned from Denmark and we were transferred to Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, to live in a place called N’dola. Reluctantly, I engaged a strange black man to help me, and it was very primitive and hot up there in those days in 1954, and I was expecting our first child. This black man was a sullen type and a huge man! His name was Moses and I must admit I never felt quite at ease with him around. We could not get used to this man, especially after someone like our Charles, so when we discovered that he was stealing, he was fired and we muddled along for a few weeks. I had a Danish male guest living with us at the time, who was a great help in many ways, like helping me to keep the house clean and cook. One day a telegram arrived from my mother in Rhodesia saying that Charles had turned up at her house and did we want him again? “Did we?!” You bet we did and on the very next train for the North please, said my urgent telegram in reply! 2 days and 3 nights later we were able to collect Charles on the N’dola station and we were all very happy to see each other again. He explained why he was late getting back – after he had returned to his own country he had been put to work on the roads and this kind of work was compulsory for all returning exiled Africans to P.E.A. and usually lasted 6 months. However, one day Charles had managed to escape from the road gangs, pack his impahla (luggage), jumped on his bicycle and started the many hundreds of miles journey through the lion country back to Rhodesia. He had faithfully carried round with him an old zinc bucket, brush and pan which we had forgotten in our last rented home. This was returned to us with due ceremony on N’dola station! He could only travel at night, he told us, so as to avoid being caught again and he slept with his ‘brothers’ en route. They are always brothers to one another, total strangers included.

Charles was delighted with the news that we were to have a baby and looked forward to the event every bit as much as we did ourselves. Anne-Marie was born in N’dola Hospital at the end of January 1955. Charles did not like to hear her cry and when she was older and placed in her playpen on the veranda, and sometimes left to cry, he would pass through the lounge where we might be sitting, oblivious to her noise, muttering and giving us dark looks! He would then return again with Anne-Marie under his arm or on his hip and his baleful glare would dare us to interfere! He would then continue with his work, with her comfortably seated on his hip.

We lived on the outskirts of town and in those days, there were only dusty bush roads, and no water or electricity laid on. In fact, we were rather isolated out there with only miles of vast bush all around us. We had a pump boy whose sole occupation was to keep the water tank to the house pumped full of water. He was later replaced by a special pump that we had sent out from Denmark. Charles had full charge of all the lighting arrangements and every evening he would gather the Tilley lamps on the back steps and fill, prime and light them in readiness for the evening. It was a very peaceful scene, Charles and his lamps on the back doorstep and from the native compound in the distance came the soft beat of the tom-toms and the muted sounds of many African voices, going about their evening chores around their homes, the cicadas singing and sometimes a brilliant orange moon shining down out of the starry night. The nights are so warm and velvety, and seem so special in Africa. In the beginning, there were so many things I didn’t like about Northern Rhodesia, but eventually I became used to them all – and even became quite sorry when we were transferred once again after 15 months, back to Salisbury. One thing I never became used to and was always terrified of, were the huge furry rain spiders which were most prevalent from September when the rains started and we only saw them at night when they came indoors after the light! I formed the habit of always sitting in chairs with my legs folded under me, to be on the safe side. We were told that they were not dangerous, but a bite could be very painful, however the very sight of one gave me the shivers, much more so than the occasional snakes we came across.

Charles returned with us happily, when we set off by car for Salisbury, thus completing the circle for Charles. We lived in Salisbury for a few months whilst my husband underwent further training in readiness to take over the pork division of the C.S.C. We moved back to Bulawayo in March 1956 and rented an old house to be near my family so they could enjoy their first grand-daughter, because by then they knew that the decision we had kept putting off for returning to Denmark, was to be made and we had to return to at least give it a try for 2 years, which eventually became 11 years. It was a great wrench for us both to leave Rhodesia, my husband was enjoying building up a new section in the C.S.C. and I was sad having to go and live so far from my family after being back in their midst again for a few months. My father-in-law became ill again, and asked for my husband to come back to Denmark. By September 1956 we could no longer put it off and we decided to leave for Denmark to arrive in time for my father-in-laws 70th birthday. But that is another story and another adventure!

I can assure you that Prime Minister Ian Smith is a sincere man and a good leader, and he is doing all he can, under trying circumstances to conciliate a peaceful settlement and security which will benefit the people of all races in Rhodesia. I found much to my surprise during my visit to Rhodesia last year (1967), contrary to what I had read in overseas newspapers, life there was peaceful and normal, and that the shops were full of all kinds of commodities, necessary and luxury items, despite sanctions and these came from all parts of the world too. I visited the Smith’s in Salisbury during my short stay in Rhodesia last year, and carry with me their good wishes and blessings for the new life we are starting in this, our fourth country, despite the fact that they were sorry that it could not be Rhodesia again, though with the prediction of ‘You’ll be back!’ Well, who knows – when we went to Denmark it was more or less for good. There is a lot more I could and would like to tell you, but my time is up and I thank you for being a patient audience.

Anne-Marie and Glen with PM Ian Smith at Government house, Salisbury, 1967













Glen and Anne-Marie with Janet Smith in the garden at Government House in
1967.




















That completes the story of Mother's early days in Rhodesia, as told to a group of Albany ladies in 1968. I have faithfully told the story, word for word, as mum had typed it in her little notebook, with only an occasional spelling correction. I hope you have enjoyed it and learn a little of Rhodesia, or Zimbabwe as it is today, in its glory days before the devastation by Robert Mugabe's regime.

Victoria Falls aerial view.

The Average Rhodesian way of life and Charles...

The average Rhodesian leads a way of life very similar to the average Australians way of life. Mostly outdoors, they enjoy a great variety of sport including soccer, rugby, baseball, tennis, softball, swimming, riding, fencing, golf, cricket, polo, bowls and so on. Also horse and car racing, barbecues, drive-in cinemas, fishing, boating and sailing and entertaining, especially as they are friendly and hospitable people, and 'drop in for a sun-downer', which means relaxing on someone's veranda with ones favourite drink close by watching the sun go down in a glorious display of colour, whist discussing whatever topic is of mutual interest or the current latest in the sanctions war. Contrary to what you may read in the worlds press, Africans are not suppressed or treated as slaves by the white minority. In most cases they have a friendly relationship with each other, as they realise more and more that the way of life they all enjoy at present can only continue if they work together. There are many thousands of foreign Africans living in Rhodesia who choose to live under sanctions rather than return to their so-called free countries north of the border.

Picture from mum's notebook.

I would like here, to tell you a little bit about our Charles - a little, very black man we found in Salisbury whilst living in a private guest house, where he was employed as a waiter. The relationship and friendship we shared with Charles is very common throughout Rhodesia between Europeans and their servants. His proper name was Kaparza, and someone long before us had christened him Charles. Many of them had European names or silly names like sixpence, porridge, tickey (for the small ones, which is the nickname for a threepenny bit) and sometimes names made up by themselves, sometimes an employer with a juvenile sense of humour! We had no idea what Charles would be like as a houseboy, as our only experience of him was as a waiter, but we liked him and felt sorry for him as he was so very often scolded by the over houseboy for not setting the tables properly, that in the end the landlady of the guest house decided to fire him. We told him we were going back to Bulawayo to live and would he like to come along and be our houseboy and he was very happy to do so. He turned out to be a very good servant in every way and a faithful one, remaining with us through all our various transfers during the time we lived in Rhodesia and Zambia, and he was most unhappy when we left him behind when we travelled to Denmark to live in 1956. Charles was with us for over four years.

Charles and Esther (nanny) carrying Anne-Marie

There are many families in Rhodesia who have servants in their employ who have been with them for 10, 20 years or all their lives, and they stay out of choice, not because they are slaves and have to, and many of these servants are fond of their white employers and take a keen interest in the happenings within the family. One of our old servants appeared out of nowhere after many years absence, to tell my mother how sad he was when my brother was killed in an accident. He also comes at irregular intervals to hear news about the family and to get a shilling from my mother to buy 'kaffir beer' which was his main weakness and in the end, the reason for his dismissal as houseboy! We were just as fond of Charles as he was of us, I think, and every month when we paid him his salary we kept some of it back, as he could not save, (gambling was his weakness!) and he very much wanted to have some money put by, so that one day he could buy a wife. When we left for Denmark in 1956, we had saved over £30.- for him to buy a wife! He could not hope to get a good young wife for that price, but net best, one that had been returned to her family for one reason or the other, like maybe her previous husband had not kept up his payments on her! Charles was not only a very good houseboy, but also a clever cook, and although he could never read a recipe out of a book, he could always remember how to make something once he had been told or shown how. He did not like me messing about in the kitchen which was his undisputed domain, and if I tried making a cake or dessert, he would mutter and say "I make, I make, Madam" - my presence was definitely requested out of the kitchen! Charles had his own funny little ways. For instance, we once had 'sundowner' guests and they had stayed too long, in his estimation, as sundowners usually only last from about 5.30pm to after 7.00pm sometime - he would simply ring the dinner bell at the appropriate time this causing the guests to rise and say 'oh well, dinner-time - we'd better be on our way' which is exactly what Charles had intended them to do!

Charles was always clean and neat, dressed for work in a white khaki drill suit and a white apron over this. When we had guests for dinner, he added a bright red fez on his head. This business of being clean had its drawbacks too, as one day my husband came back home unexpectedly whilst I was at work, and traced a certain unusual smell to our kitchen. In the oven, he found a pair of newly cleaned sand-shoes, drying out in readiness for the evening when we expected guests for dinner and our roast was to follow the shoes in the oven!! Poor Charles, he could not understand why he warranted a telling off for this, as he was only preparing to be a shining white and clean waiter for the evening for the expected guests! Catholics, I believe, pray to St Anthony when they cannot find things... we just asked our Charles as he could always find lost or misplaced items! He had full charge of the house whilst i was away at work all day. Like most humans, Charles had his weaknesses - his were drinking occasionally and gambling whenever he could get away with it! However, these were mainly indulged in on Sunday afternoons when he, like most other African servants were free from after lunch until breakfast on Monday mornings, and we felt it was not right to interfere.He gathered with his friends in their favourite places to drink, talk, gamble and just be together. Sunday evenings were, and still are, I am told, a noisy and busy time for the police, keeping order after these somewhat boisterous gatherings! Monday usually finds them sadder but wiser, though mostly without much trace of their free afternoon and evening showing.

Another picture from the notebook.

Next: More about Charles...

The Wankie Game Park

The Wankie Game Park is high on the list of travellers to Rhodesia. It is 75 miles from the Victoria Falls and is easily accessible by road, rail and air. The Game Reserve is 5000 sq miles and provides one of the attractions which people from all over the world are coming to appreciate more and more, nature unspoiled and teeming with wild animals in their natural habitat. Wankie is well known for its abundance of wild game. There are an estimated 2,000 elephant, great herds of buffalo, wildebeest, zebra and antelopes of many kinds, rhino, lion, tsessebe, warthog, ostrich, giraffe, cheetah, hyena, crocodile, jackal and many others. Vantage points have been constructed where people may watch for game coming to the waterholes.

Tsessebe - fastest antelope on the plains!

Moonlight watching parties are sometimes organised from the main camp to listen to the sounds of the wilds at night is also a thrilling experience! One can also risk being held up on the roadways through the park by hundreds of elephants, some 250 strong and herds of up to 400 buffalo and if one cannot reverse and remove oneself, then there is only one thing to do, hope and pay that the elephants will not burn their sensitive trunks on the warm car radiator of ones car!

Lions in the Wankie Game Park

I was once in a car chased by an elephant and it is not the kind of experience one wants to repeat, at any price, I can assure you! If anything goes wrong with ones car whilst travelling through reserves, then one must stay put until search parties go out in the evening to look for and bring in missing cars and their occupants. One is always told to never leave the car and try to go for assistance. Upon entering a reserve one signs a guest book and signs out again once one leaves the reserve, so the Game Wardens can keep a check on whether there are any stranded cars in the reserve or not.

The Victoria Falls is considered one of the most magnificent falls in the world, so magnificent and awe inspiring that one is quite speechless with wonder and admiration, the first and every time one sees them.

They are said to be the greatest sight in Africa and also the 8th Wonder of the world. The Victoria Falls is about 1 1/2 miles wide and 355 feet high at the highest point approximately. The approximate usual flow of water over the precipice is something like 75 million gallons per minute! The great Zambesi River, at its highest recorded flood, poured over 3,000,000 gallons of water per second into the huge chasm below. Imagine this scene, as 1 1/2 miles of water plunges some 350 feet below, this enormous cascade of water, sends up a smoke like cloud of fine mist, which can be seen many miles away.

Niagara Falls is less than half the height and width of Victoria Falls. The roar of the falls can be heard as far as 10 miles away. The Africans called the mist that rises from the impact, 'Mosi oa Tunya' - 'the smoke that thunders'. There is a road / rail bridge that crosses over one of the gorges connecting Rhodesia with Zambia and this bridge is 310 feet above the water at high water level and often the train is dampened by the mist which drifts from 'the smoke that thunders'. The 1 1/2 mile crest of the falls is divided into 5 separate waterfalls - Devils Cataract, The Main Falls, The Horseshoe Falls, The Rainbow Falls and The Eastern Cataract.

Victoria Falls Bridge

Rhodesia has many other wonders which encourage visitors from the far corners of the world. There is also the Zimbabwe Ruins and these are generally included in a tour of Kariba Dam, Victoria Falls and the Game Parks. The ruins were discovered in 1868 and since that time have been a great source of discussion and have variously been described as the great mystery or age old riddle. Zimbabwe consists of a 350 foot wide walled enclosure called the Temple and a granite hill supporting extensive buildings called The Acropolis and lying between a range of less spectacular ruins in what is called the Valley of Ruins. Zimbabwe's walls are made from hand trimmed granite blocks in parts they stand 32 feet high and are 16 feet wide. There is no trace of cement or mortar of any description between them.

Zimbabwe - Valley of Ruins

Some say they were built by the Phoenicians but modern scientific opinion based on the research of three archaeologists maintain that the buildings are the work not of a foreign civilization, but indigenous peoples whose development flowered with their ability to build on the grand scale of Zimbabwe. The power of these people was broken by the invasion of warlike tribes from the South. Parts of Zimbabwe date back to 300 years after Christ, whilst 1833-1900 saw the last period, the sacking of Zimbabwe by Nguni invaders and its eventual abandonment by the remnants of Rozwi tribes.

As you know, gold, coal and other minerals, emeralds and semi-precious stones, very similar to those found in Western Australia are found in Rhodesia. A new one called Mtorolite (green chalcedony) has recently been discovered.

Rhodesia has many beautiful wild-flowers, but they cannot in any way compare in colour and variety with what we have here in the South West. There are great varieties of orchids, red hot pokers, gladioli, buttercups, lilies, daisies, cornflowers, proteas, statices, and of course the famous Gloriosa Supurba, commonly known as The Flame Lily and which has been adopted as the National Flower of Rhodesia.

The Flame Lily

One of Rhodesia's greatest assets is its climate. There can be few countries in the world with a finer climate. This especially applies to the highveldt plateau where temperatures are moderate throughout the year. Around 65% of Rhodesia lies 3,000 feet above sea level, and has an average temperature between 66°F and 71°C, though it can be much colder and much hotter in freak seasons. Sometimes in winter, as here, frosts occur and ice is seen occasionally. Whilst Albany has a long wet winter, Rhodesia has a long dry one! Well, not so long, really,as the coldest months are usually June, July and August. There are two seasons, the wet and the dry - the wet season starts in November and ends about April/May and from then on it is dry, sometimes too dry for everyone's comfort! The hottest period precedes the rain, usually in October, called by many 'the suicide month' as it gets so unbearably hot at times. Fortunately, many people have their own swimming pools, and all the main cities have one or more large municipal swimming pools where the population can cool down. It is a 2 days and 3 nights car journey to South Africa and its glorious beaches for holidays. apart from mining and industry, farming is also a very important part of life in Rhodesia. Maize, cattle, tobacco, cotton, citrus fruit, pigs, tea and sugar are the main aspects of farming in which many Africans are employed or rather, were employed, as many of them have been severely hit by the sanctions imposed by England for their good, as for instance the sale of tobacco is restricted by sanctions, wholesale retrenchment has been necessary as farmers cut down on costs, tobacco acreage and labour and convert to other crops.

Next: The Average Rhodesian way of life and Charles...

Construction of Kariba Dam continued...

Patient persuasion was needed, and troublemakers intent on firing discontent amongst the primitive tribesmen did not make matters easier for the authorities. A small battle ensued and eventually the primitive Batonka tribes were moved to higher and better areas that had been prepared for them. Then there was the problem of their ancestral spirits - what would happen to them, for whom the little huts were built in the old homelands. However, even this problem was surmounted when large branches were attached to the trucks moving the tribes and their belongings, and allowed to drag behind from the old tribal dwelling place to the new, and the spirits could then follow the living, without any trouble at all!

Building of the Kariba Dam

Giant bulldozers pulsating in the valley, ripped into the ground and tore up great trees, moved mountains of earth and created a roaring bedlam of dust and turmoil. Houses were built and roads quickly cut through the dense bush and then a constant stream of people, trucks, cement, steel, fuel, timber, machinery, food, drink etc were carried along the roads converging on Kariba. The natives called the spirit of the river Nyaminyami and they were convinced that he could neither be beaten nor tamed, and they were nearly right. Nyaminyami was not to be beaten so easily. While the construction was at a crucial stage, a great flood, such as had never been seen before or recorded, swept down the river and threatened to destroy the millions of pounds worth of work which had already been done. This occurred in March 1958, the great flood, which was to be expected once in a 10,000 years! At the height of the flood, nearly 600,000 cubic feet of water per second roared through this narrow gorge, 3,000 tonnes of water per second, 180,000 tonnes per minute of raging, surging, swirling angry waters. They swept over the coffer dam, tore away great chunk of the river banks and teetered the suspension bridge strung across, below the site. In agony the workers watched and wondered - would it stand? The waters rose and eventually the bridge gave way like a writhing, twisting giant serpent, leaving the spectators with a feeling of chastened defeat. For a while Nyaminyami ruled again. The wall was finally closed in December 1958 and the great man-made lake started to fill. The scene today is placid, the roads beautiful, and the modern hotels, rest houses, boating and fishing facilities on this great stretch of blue water which disappears over the horizon. Yet over a decade previously, there was nothing but an untamed wilderness.

Nyaminyami - spirit of Kariba

The story of Kariba is not complete, if I do not mention a little about the fantastic rescue operation which was responsible for saving the lives of so many wild animals trapped on the islands, formed by the rising waters of the lake. This was called 'Operation Noah' at the time and it caught the worlds imagination. Elephant, rhino, antelope, lion, porcupines, snakes and many others were compassionately moved to the mainland. Some were encouraged to swim, some were caught and tied, whilst others were first anaesthetised by darts. To avoid injuring the smaller animals, thousands of nylon stockings were made into ropes. Ordinary rope cut into the skin. This quite often dangerous occupation was carried out by a dedicated team of Game Department Officials under the leadership of Rupert Fothergill, who survived many an exciting encounter with the wild animals and snakes!

Note: More information about Operation Noah and Rupert Fothergill. A very interesting blog.

Next: The Wankie Game Park...

Marriage and moving to Salisbury

Left: Wedding Day 1952, Margret & Bent Ladegaard

I lived in Bulawayo, until my marriage to a Dane, who was then working on the farm of the present Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith. Since meeting the Smiths in 1952, much has happened in their lives and ours, though of course in two quite different ways. After our marriage, we went to live in Salisbury which is the capital of Rhodesia and has a population of some 314,000 people altogether. It is a very busy commercial, industrial, farming and government centre, and a very beautiful city, with wide streets, lined with flowering trees, numerous parks, ultra moderns buildings alongside the old colonial ones and several skyscrapers which have modern contemporary architecture, but it is the many old buildings from the early days, which lend colour and history to the streets. I would like to add that many of the older type dwelling houses in the towns and on the farms, remind of the lovely old houses, colonial style, one sees here and there in Albany today.

From Salisbury it is a pleasant, few hours car drive to another mighty tourist attraction, the Kariba dam. Kariba is many things to many people. To the sightseeing tourist, the giant masonry that holds back the world largest man-made dam, makes it probably the second most important item on their list of things to see, The Victoria Falls and Game reserves hold an unequalled first place.

Victoria Falls

To Engineers, Kariba and its power station is one of the worlds greatest achievements. To fishermen, the waters of Kariba is a fabulous fishing ground, especially for the much sought after fighting tiger fish, and for the ordinary holiday maker, Kariba is the place for carefree camping holidays, by the lake or up at the super modern hotel, overlooking the lake. The construction of Kariba Dam was an act of vision and of faith. The 420 foot high Kariba Dam wall has tamed the strength of the mighty Zambesi River and has created one of the worlds largest man-made lakes, which is some 2,000 square miles in size. The construction of the enormous 420 foot high dam wall commenced in 1950, but the primitive African tribes living upstream could not be made to believe that anyone could tame these turbulent waters. It was quite unthinkable that mere men should be able to stop the mighty Zambesi from flowing and therefore, this being so, there must be some ulterior motive for the request for them to move out of the area which was eventually to be flooded and inundated with water. How could anyone really say how far the water would reach, even supposing the impossible dam were ever built?

The Kariba Dam and Dam Wall

I hope that you are finding this blog interesting so far! My apologies for not writing very much today... I have been doing some research for the blog and also looking for old photos of my mother's, still packed away in boxes! Until the next post and more about the construction of Kariba Dam, bye for now!

My former homeland...

LEFT: The Old Notebook

Albany, September, 1968: Good evening ladies, and may I begin by thanking you for inviting me along to tell you something about my former homeland, though this I might add, is a mixed pleasure! Mixed, because whilst I love Rhodesia and telling about it, I am not accustomed to doing so in front of people this way, therefore I hope you will not mind that I read from my notes as this makes it easier for me all round. We have only been in Australia some 9 months, but previous to this have lived in Denmark, Scandinavia for nearly 11 years, so you see it is quite a long time since I lived in Rhodesia, though I have been fortunate enough to be able to return there on two occasions during those 11 years for a visit, the last visit being during October and November last year.

I was born in Bulawayo, formerly called Gu-Bulawayo, the place of slaughter, by Lobengula, a former ruling native King. Bulawayo was a frontier town in the old days and has been founded on the site of King Lobengula's kraal, and in Government House grounds, the "Indaba" tree still stands. Lobengula used to dispense his gory judgments beneath its branches. Not far from Bulawayo is a low hill called Thabazinduna - The Hill Of The Chiefs, and it was here that rebellious chiefs were executed, at the time of Moselikatze, the father of Lobengula.

King Lobengula

Nowadays, Bulawayo has a population of about 214,000 people, black, white, Indian and the coloured and is as such, the second largest city in Rhodesia, Salisbury the capital, being the largest. Bulawayo is also a major industrial centre. Cecil John Rhodes, founder of Rhodesia is buried in the Matopos Hills, high on a granite summit overlooking the magnificent countryside below. Thousands of tourists visit his grave yearly, the view from the summit is aptly called World's View. The Matopos National Park which stretches from near the outskirts of Bulawayo City, is some 108,300 acres in extent. A number of dams exist in the park and provide fishing and boating, with picnic and caravan sites. The building of the Matopos Dam was actually started by Cecil Rhodes and present day planners have enhanced the beauty and attraction of the area by introducing many varieties of wild game, including the White Rhinoceros, which roam freely in the bush.

Pages from my mother's old notebook

Following after Matopos for scenic grandeur, probably comes the Zambesi escarpment, some 200 miles north of Salisbury. Standing on the edge of this enormous valley, one feels a sense of human insignificance. Far down below spread the bushveld in a purple and grey shimmer, and beneath the trees roam big game like elephant, buffalo, leopards, buck, giraffe, wild pigs and so on. Yet, viewed from the escarpment there seems to be a great peace, a stillness that broods over the bushveld. I have experienced a similar sight and feeling here, whilst touring through the Stirlings and stopping right in the middle of the road, to stand in awe of the scenic grandeur there which too, is so vast.

The Stirling Ranges, near Albany, Western Australia

Blog owners Notes:

The Stirling Ranges are a range of mountains and hills in the Great Southern region of Western Australia, 337 km south-east of Perth.

Rhodesia is now known as Zimbabwe and the city Salisbury is known as Harare.

Rhodesia - My Mother's Story

PROLOGUE

During our recent packing and sorting prior to relocating to the Central Coast, NSW I came across a very old notebook. I had no idea what it was, so I opened it to discover it was the typed reference notes of a talk, given by my dear mother to a group of ladies in Albany, Western Australia in 1968! She had typed 15 pages and then glued these to the inside pages of the old notebook... I never knew these notes existed! It's a wonderful, enlightening, colourful and sometimes a little bit sad, account of her old life in Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, before we all came to live in Australia in December 1967.

I thought I would document these old notes in the form of a blog, as it may be of interest to friends and family, near and far. I will attempt to add a little from the notebook every day or so until I have blogged the entire contents of the 15 pages! I will write the blog exactly as I read it from mum's notes and fortunately for me, mum was well versed and had an excellent command of the English language! However, I will still get Andrew to 'proofread' what I have entered into the blog in case I make a mistake in the transferring of the notes! You will note that there are many words highlighted in the blog - these are linked to more information so simply click on the text to be taken to another site with more information about that particular text. :)

I hope you will enjoy this journey with me as mother tells her story...

Photo: Mum - Margaret Kerr (maiden name)