Teaching Western Ways
My dear Jeremy,
Sorry I missed last week but as you know it was half-term here and Celia and Cathy came to visit and take me to have a blood test so I never got to writing to you.
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After that very special holiday visiting relations and camping in the caravan back we travelled to the Copperbelt and to Kitwe Teacher Training College. We were warmly welcomed by the Buckmasters and took up residence in the Barkers old house which gave us more space to accommodate the increase in our family.
Michael soon settled down as Vice Principal and Jill joined the school run to Frederick Knapp School. I also took my turn with the children in the back of the landrover running them to school.
There was much political unrest and every weekend big meetings were held in the Nkana township behind us and the chanting and shouting was most disturbing and sometimes frightening. The road to the next township passed behind our houses. I would put out the lights and keep the family quiet while the emotionally charged hordes ran down the road all fired up after the rally.
After one such meeting near Ndola a Mother and her children travelling in their car were set upon, the car overturned and set alight. They were all killed a beautiful blonde family with curly hair.
One night Michael was alerted when a crowd of students, very angry, came down the path to the house. George was in Lusaka at a meeting. I stood behind Michael with a broom determined that whatever happened I would go down fighting. There was no need for my alarm, however, the students had found a stranger in their dormitory so had set upon him. It turned out he was another students brother and was safely rescued from the crowd. But that just showed how volatile feelings were running.
Celia and Timothy were quite a combination and shopping with them was not always easy. There was the time I lost them in a shop only to find them sitting at the top of the stairs one on either side and their legs and feet across the step saying open the gate, close the gate as people passed up and down..
It was a very tense time and another day while shopping in Kitwe with Celia and Timothy who were in a playful mood. They were running up and down between the counters which were set up separately round the shop and over which I could not see . I was sure they were going to bowl someone over. I am afraid I just snapped, gathered them up and put them back into the landrover and I could not get home fast enough. For a few days I just could not drive down that road and Dad had to do the school run. I felt dreadful, it was a nasty feeling.
What got me over that was when Alan Jones, one of the lecturers who was also teaching at a night school in the middle of another township came and asked me to replace the English teacher who was leaving. Gee, was I scared, but I went and did it and that got me right again. I realised I was more fearful for the safety of the children than I was for myself.
The students were men who worked by day as house servants, gardeners, labourers and they were very keen to learn. However teaching from a textbook designed for students in England had its problems. These students had no idea what was meant by the sea or even a ship. I carried round a basket with samples and pictures and photos and different kinds of food. Sometimes I was the only European teacher there and always the only woman.
One evening my heart dropped when a student put up his hand and said "Dona, what do you think of mixed marriages?"
What do I say now? Thinking quickly my reply was:
"Now that is a very interesting question. What do you and the class think of mixed marriages? "
What a relief it was when they were not thinking of black and white marriages but marriage into another tribe They all aired their opinions and it was an education for me.
I must have taught there until we were transferred to Mufulira.
Love you, Mum