At King Shaka International Airport, Bonnie Ronnie was like
a kid in the back seat on a long journey, “…has it landed yet?” Waiting for the
plane carrying her brother Ed. We had arrived two hours early …just in case! “I
don’t know if I’ll recognise him!” she said in a panic, craning her neck to see
as passengers flowed through the gate into the arrivals lounge. “His plane
hasn’t even taken off from Johannesburg yet!” I reminded her. I managed to drag
her away from the gate for a few minutes in order to have some lunch but we were
straight back to the gate the instant we were finished.
Ed’s flight was about 15 minutes early and I was ready with
camera in hand when Ronnie started screeching “there he is…there he is!!” Her
excitement was wonderful to see.
In my last blog I said I would explain a little about Bonnie
Ronnie’s family. It is quite a long and incredibly sad story but I shall try to
keep it short and bright; Ronnie’s birth was registered by a sister at the ‘Lady
Chancellor Maternity Home’ in Salisbury, Rhodesia (Now Harare, Zimbabwe Ruins) after
being abandoned. Ronnie was transferred from orphanage to orphanage till of
school age. She was then sent to ‘King George VI’ a school for the handicapped
in Bulawayo. Little Ronnie would invariably be the only child in the school
over the holidays until one holiday a Rotary member (Rose) was visiting when
she saw Ronnie and arranged to take her out for an ice cream, (Rose’s friend)
Sally would sometimes take Ronnie out for an ice cream if Rose was unavailable.
(Sally’s friend) Ilona would join them for ice cream at Eskimo Hut. Ilona
introduced Ronnie to her family who then became foster parents and siblings to
Ronnie. There were to be other so called foster families (a story best left
untold) but Mom and Pop as Ronnie called them, were the most loving, caring
people Ronnie ever knew. They have sadly passed over but this is how their
children Ilona and Ed became Ronnie’s immediate family. The borders, students
and staff of KGVI became Ronnie’s extended family with whom she had lost touch
until one of the ex KGVI staff members found Ronnie on facebook, now she has
contact with quite a number of the old students (her extended family).
As can be seen, this once in a lifetime adventure of ours
has been far more successful than we ever dreamed possible. We are truly
blessed!
We still had the hire car from Budget as Guy’s little bakkie
had broken down (he really is having a bad run at the moment) so we loaded up
Ed’s baggage and headed off for the family farm ‘Bushwillow’ via Dad’s home in
Pietermaritzburg.
The drive was uneventful apart from some roadworks and the
sign ‘Please don’t kill us’ which is becoming more prevalent due to the high
number of deaths on South Africa’s rather run down roads. Illegal Taxi’s that
we used to call ‘Chova-chova’ (literal translation is ‘push-push’, a nickname
given due to the poor state of these vehicles) rule the road and the government
too it seems since they are recognised as a legitimate (albeit illegal)
entities and exempt from all road taxes and tolls. The government even pays
them a rebate on fuel which of course has no procedures in place to keep it
honest and fair. Reminds me of the Aussie Insurance ad regarding a guy’s claim
for a collision with a charter boat, where the wife teases the husband by
placing washing over her head thus blinding herself and she starts wandering
about the back yard erratically with arms outstretched (words substituted), “…corruption?….what corruption!”. A few days
earlier a ‘Taxi’ and truck had collided head on killing 32 people in the taxi
which was carrying 38 (this was a minibus with a set maximum of 25 passengers).
We arrived at the farm at about 21:00hrs (9.0pm) to a house
full of expectant people. Both Ronnie and Ed were pleased to see and greet
their sister Ilona, her husband Rob, son Shane and his wife Meg, her sister
Bron, Shane and Meg’s daughter Lexi, Rob and Ilona’s son Lee, his wife Chantel
and their son Robert. All had remained awake to welcome us and Ronnie was
beside herself with joy.
After a few hours of emotional reunion including a feed,
everyone retired as all were working the next day. The Christmas break up was
to be Thursday but some late urgent orders would see everyone hard at it till
the following Monday (that is everyone except a couple of workers who had
already been paid their bonus early and although they promised to turn up on
time for work, never did.)
Ronnie and I went into town a few times over the following
days whilst waiting for the break up and managed to find our way around with
the help of Ed and others. This time gave me the opportunity to start resolving
some business issues which I was going to say had crept up but that is not
strictly true. We had recently sold a portion of our business to people that we
already had good reason not to trust but we had decided to leave the past where
it was and show good faith. Well! as was rather disappointingly expected our
good faith had once again proven to be misplaced. Not to worry though as always
a contingency plan had been devised for just such a scenario and will be
implemented in due course.
A little queuing at the local Ladysmith branch of the
Standard Bank managed to sort most of our cash flow issues brought about by the
failure of our buyer to live up to either the deal or the time frame and things
were back on track.
Ronnie’s family have been just wonderful, showing us around
the farm and the local area. We had a great time looking for dried aloe stalks
which we then tied together as a sort of African Bush Christmas Tree. Clint and
wife Nicky arrived for Christmas on their way to a Namibian Holiday, which was
just wonderful. The whole family is just so close, caring, sharing and loving
that I feel absolutely so blessed to be included as a part of the family.
Chantel, Meg, Nicky and Megs sister Bron along with Ronnie, Ilona and little 3
year old Robert decorated the bush Christmas tree. Clint, Rob and Lee put up the Christmas lights while Ed
carried out some minor repairs to things electric around the farm. Shane took
off to do some road repairs and general farm duties – What a team!!
The farm has separate dwellings for the family members thus
ensuring that each family has their own space, gardens and grounds but close
enough to render assistance if needed. The ladies take turns cooking the
evening meals 4 nights a week, Rob cooks 1 night, biltong night is Friday night
(Aussies and others would call this take away night) and Wednesday is each
family looks after themselves night. A fantastic system where the weeks meals
are planned together to cater to everyone’s tastes and nothing is too much
trouble. Bonnie Ronnie says she could live here forever… and since this is her
time to do as she pleases, she has decided (one of her most heart wrenching
decisions) to stay until after New Year and leave when Ed leaves (less
heartbreaking). This does mean that we may almost certainly not visit her best
friend Lyn in Harare as time and budgets have been exceeded.
Last Wednesday we all went to ‘Tugela Game Reserve’ just
outside Ladysmith Kwa-Zulu Natal, a local private game park for a 2 hour safari
drive and breakfast. It was great with all of us in a covered Land-Rover,
looking for game to shoot with our cameras.
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| Poaching survivor, the horn was removed with a chainsaw too close to the face. |
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