Chapter 21.
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1997.
Precious was behind the bar counter.“Hello Precious can I have my normal; please?” He asked.
“Hello sir. Did you have a good trip?” She asked while pouring me a double Johnny Walker Black which she put in front of me.
A few Americans arrived in the afternoon. They had chartered a DC 10 owned by United and had flown in from Lansaria and a few were relaxing in the bar.
“Americans annoy me. They’re so loud.” Simon said earlier.
Dave reminded him that, that’s where they get their money to pay the staff.
There were a couple of tables with guests sitting around them. David lifted his glass and said “Cheers.” They replied by lifting their glass too. Then I turned to Precious and gave my apologies for not answering her question earlier.
“Oh, I’m sorry Precious.” He said a bit embarrassed. “Yes, I had a very good trip.” He realized he had never really taken too much notice of her. She was a short black lady with a good figure. Her hair was shoulder length and had been straightened which seemed to be the fashion among the black females. She had a small round face and although she had thick lips they were well shaped and I thought her boyfriend must have enjoyed kissing her. She was always polite and often people remarked on her manners. She was from this area but had gone to work in a hotel in Lusaka. When we opened here she came for an interview and Simon didn’t hesitate to employ her. David thought she was one of our gems as far as employees were concerned. We had a file with all the employee’s details but he never bothered to look at them.
“Are you married; Precious?”
She nodded. “No sir.” She answered a little embarrassed.
“Do you have a boyfriend?”
She smiled showing her beautiful white teeth. “No sir. I want to finish my studies before I think of boyfriends.
“You are studying? How do you manage to study when you work all these hours?” David asked, showing his amazement.
“I find the time sir.” She replied with that beautiful smile.
“What are you studying; Precious?”
“I’m doing my A levels this year sir. If I can I want to study something to do with medicine.”
“That is fantastic. Do you know that we are going to build a hospital here? I will expect you to work there then.” David said enthusiast
“Oh, sir that’s wonderful. When are you going to build it?” She asked all excited.
“Precious that won’t be for a while. There’s a lot of planning that goes into doing something like that. I have my accountants and lawyers are doing a feasibility study at the moment. I promise if I hear anything you will be one of the first to know. But don’t get too excited it’s still going to be a while. It’s also going to be a while before you have your degree.”
“Yes sir, I understand sir.”
“You will have to give up your job, if you want to become a doctor.”
“Why sir I don’t understand?” She said as her smile faded from her face. “Excuse me sir.” She went to help a waiter with his drinks order.
“You can’t study medicine on a part time basis.” He said when she returned.
“Oh, that will be terrible.”
“Why?”
“I like my work.”
“Can you get me another one of these, please Precious?” He asked holding up his glass. She poured him his drink. “Cheers sir.” She said when she handed it to me.
“Thank you precious. I better go and talk to the guests.” I said and then walked over to the table where four of our guests were sitting and having a chat. There were an old couple sitting at a table and I went to greet them.
“Good evening.”
“Good evening young man.” The elderly gentleman said.
“Oh George, don’t be so rude. You can’t call the gentleman a young man.”
“Doris, don’t be silly. I’m sure he likes to be called a young man.”
“May I ask where you folks are from?”
The elderly lady answered. “We are both from New York.”
“Are you enjoying yourselves?”
“Yes very much.” She said. “But tell us why there was so much noise this afternoon? She asked.
“A crocodile killed a young native land.” He said.
Then a group sitting at a table heard what I had said and came across. “Is that what the noise was about?” One of them asked.
“I’m afraid so.” He said. They wanted to know what had happened.
He said. “You know there are certain laws of the jungle. Although he knew what they were he didn’t obey them.” I took a sip of my drink and looked at these people that were around me. They wanted to know more. “If you loiter too close to the water a crocodile will sneak up and drag you in and give you a tumble of your life…like you are in a washing machine, then eventually will kill and eat you. That’s what happened today.”
“We’ve had a lot of those things happen. People don’t listen. We’ve put signs up in the compounds but it doesn’t help.”
He went to the bar and asked Precious for another drink. He looked back and the group were talking amongst themselves. One of them called him over.
“What were you saying? Have others also been killed?” The elderly gentleman asked.
“Yes.” He said.
“Can you tell us how mister….”He asked.
“My name is Dave.” He said. “Animals are dangerous things and if you don’t respect them they will kill you. If you get between a hippo and the water you’re likely to be bitten in two and dragged into the river bottom and never surface again. Hippos kill more humans than any other animals but people still don’t get out their way when they are around and elephants look tame but if you get too close to them they can get nervous and then they might charge and flatten you. Those are only two examples of hundreds. Remember what I’ve told you tonight.”
The following day one of the staff ran to Simon and told him that a young boy has been mauled by a lion. He got into one of the jeeps and drove to where the boy was was taken. His mother was crying and in a panic. Simon looked at the child and knew right away that he needed a doctor. He contacted the lodge with his CB radio and told them they must arrange for a doctor to come from Ghomo. Then he got the people to help him lift the child into the jeep and took him to the lodge where they put him on a bed in the sick bay. By now the child had lost consciousness and the mother who thought the child had died was screaming. When the doctor arrived he set up a plasma drip, gave him shots of antibiotics and a morphine injection to ease the pain and then strapped up the wound. Somebody was clever enough to contact the hospital in Lusaka who sent a doctor with a helicopter. Later he was air-lifted to the hospital. It took some time for him to recover because he had a few operations mainly to clean the wounds so that he wouldn’t get an infection.
A couple of days later I was coming back from Itezhi Tezhi when I saw the lion that I thought had mauled the young boy. I had spoken to a game ranger who said it was a rogue, a lion that had been kicked out his tribe because he was alone. He was walking at a slow pace in the middle of the road, not a care in the world. Every now and then he would stop and look around taking absolutely no notice of the jeep.
David got on the CB radio and called the rangers and when one of them answered He said. “Hello, this is Dave from HIPPO’S CROSSING Lodge. I’m driving next to the lion that I think mauled the young kid.”
“Where are you?” The ranger asked.
“I’m driving on the Itezhi Tezhi Road; about 10 kilometres from the lodge.” David replied.
“Can you stay with him till we get there?” He asked.
“Okay.” David said.
He stayed with him until eventually the lion walked back into the bush. He waited at the spot until the ranger arrived so I could show him where the lion went into the bush then David carried on to the lodge. A couple of days later he heard that it had been shot. He felt it was a shame but we couldn’t have a man eating lion roaming around freely in the bush.
They decided after that to make it a priority to build a hospital because we couldn’t rely on Lusaka and Ghomo’s hospitals. Because Simon knew some people in high places, we were able to get some funding but it would still be a while before that happened, so David took money from the sale of his business to get it going. We were able to build a clinic with six beds and to equip it with the necessities for emergencies. We employed a nurse and later we sent Precious, the little bar lady to Lusaka to train as a nursing sister. She wanted to become a doctor but David thought she was aiming too high.
It was August the weather was a pleasant 24° and we hadn’t had rain for some time. He got back from Johannesburg a week ago. This time of the year was quite busy for them and today they had just got in a group of fishing enthusiasts from Johannesburg and he was trying to organise what times they could go out on the river.
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