Kris Massie's memories of Kitwe.
Part 9
Having a reliable car I was able to regularly play hockey again and having made enquiries I met a hockey player from the Nkana Wanderers Club with the club’s field in the vicinity of the Rhokana Copper Mine. Due to the output from the chimneys in the smelters, the grass on the field didn’t grow too well and eventually it was to become a smooth gravel pitch. We had practise days during the week and our inter-town matches were at weekends with clubs in Ndola, Luanshya, Mufulira, Chingola and when they could field a team, Chililabombwe (formally Bancroft). I was able to take Eugene with me where he played with the other children in the facilities provided.
From my position in goal I was to face the opposition of a formidable inner and wing pair playing for the Kitwe Playing Fields Club. Yvonne and Marianne had been in these positions for some 20 odd years and either one of them could slam in a goal not seen with the naked eye! Not in the slightest disheartened I resolved to stop these goals the following year by sheer concentration, never taking my eyes off the ball from start to finish. And stop them I did! As time after time Copperbelt League winners, they were becoming a little disgruntled … to the point that I was invited to play for them the following year!
I then acquired a smooth haired black and tan miniature Dachshund whom I named Snoopy of course – she was the loveliest little dog and settled in perfectly with us and our other dogs.
One Sunday afternoon the ever energetic son was playing outside while I did a bit of cup cake baking. I went out to call him to come for cool drink and cake but he was nowhere to be seen. I called again and heard this little voice shouting from … oh my goodness … don’t panic … he was at the very top of the swaying branches of the Monkey Puzzle tree. ‘Look at meeeee, I’m King of the Castle’ … I repeated my offer and not wishing to cause alarm with the words ‘be careful’ I forced myself to walk indoors. One didn’t dare say much else for this could have an adverse effect. My astonishment was great when seconds later he appeared - how he had so quickly climbed down I will never know nor did I wish to know!
This episode got me thinking what would I have done had he fallen out and how would I cope with any injury? I posed this question to my friend at the first opportunity and she told me the Red Cross gave frequent first aid classes and perhaps we had better go along! And go along we did ...
I loved practising first aid, bearing in mind that I have always wanted to take up nursing which I had put on the back burner so long ago. We had use of a hall from Rhokana Mines and we had a good crowd attending. From the lectured theory we got down to the practical side using each other as guinea pigs. We were lucky to have a ‘resuscitation Annie’ on whom to practise mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR.
We were fortunate too in having a male nurse who had come out from England on contract for the Mine and John was a great asset and was able to relate instances he’d experienced during his career. One he related was nursing a rabies infected man giving us detailed description of this awful condition for which at the time, there was no cure and death was certain. It was relevant to do so for rabies was prevalent in the country and domestic animals could become infected if they hadn’t been vaccinated, as many weren’t. We in turn had to teach our children what to do if they spotted a dog foaming or salivating from the mouth and acting in a strange manner – climb the nearest tree and stay there! What would happen if there was no tree … we hoped that if the unlikely occasion arose there would be one as Zambia was then endowed with trees.
We created ‘accident scenes’ using our members and the required make-up and would test their response. In time some of us gained our instructors accreditation and, I was one of them!
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