I DIDN'T EXPECT TO FIND MY WAY SO EASILY

by Theresa Kaseka (Zambia)

I didn't expect to find Zambia

I sat starring through the coach window figuring out how our journey with my elder sister will be to an uncertain destination. I last saw my mum seventeen years ago! Short curled hair, a fairly wrinkled broad face. She looked like my grandma a native of the Netherlands. The last day she left for South Africa she wore a beautiful well-fitting maroon hat slanted to the right and a soft pink outfit she wore on my wedding day with open rubber sandals to suit her sickly thrombotic feet hardened by blood clots that stayed there almost half her life. Our trip was prompted by a misfortune, she suffered a stroke that left her paralyzed one side; she was in dire need of complete care. Fear griped me and anxiety unsettled me, I shuddered at the thought that I should travel a long way from home to a place I had never been since I was four. At exactly twelve noon, the coach pulled out of the business center of Lusaka en-route Cape Town. It will take us exactly two full days by road. I waved back to an old lady standing at the road side she seemed to wish us well. Tall trees and bushes passed my view faster and faster each moment, I realized the coach was already taking the winding turns and bends to the border. We travelled through Zimbabwe most part of the night, and crossed Beitbridge three hours before dawn. The coach sped . . . I heard the buzzing engine. There was silence, I looked back, people’s heads were tossed left to right with their travel blankets pulled up to their chins as they succumbed to the bumps and swerves. I was the only one awake! It was dawn, the seagulls making headway for some refreshing waters. The shallow shrubs and bushes pass like feathers before my view. I wondered whether the address on the old envelope of a letter grandma wrote in 1983 was still dependable? Mum told us a lot of her childhood stories about Cape Town, it was then all a fairytale. In my quest to face less difficulties, I asked a kind young man to assist me get in touch with my friend in Cape Town. He did so willingly and soon I was in touch with her. I was greatly relieved! Cape Town greeted us with a live greenery! As far as the eye could cast its view was a wide field of grapevine plantation. The landscape far much different from that of Johannesburg. The long deep rocky gorges with parts of shiny elements as stone, glittering as the sun’s morning rays gently fell on them. The fields were spotted with white yellow and purple daisies scattered neatly along the lengthy stretch. It was a natural carpet and dress that the Lord in all his wisdom and creativity placed for man to adore! Far and near were farm lands with white and black dotted dairy cows grazing on the green grass fields. At noon we disembarked at Cape Town, I posed for a moment to appreciate what I now saw as reality. I could hardly wait to set my eyes on my aged mum. Geya, my friend met us and we drove off. The car pulled up right in front of the gate of the address of that old envelope. Is this the place? I asked Geya, peeping pass me towards the house as she braked. I recalled the picture of the house on a photo sent to us in 1983 of grandma and some family members posing on the verandah of this little house. Geya knocked on the door, she beckoned us to follow her and we entered the house. Our step brother Nicholas welcomed us and explained that mum was taken to the Home of the Aged after she fell ill. Big drops fell uncontrollably from my chicks, I looked at my frail mother, her right hand coiled inward and no strength in it. There was little she could do for herself. We abode a whole month with Geya and travelled back with mum.