Our Gwelo Experience

    I shall not spend much time on this period of our lives as it was not a very happy time for me. However, in order to keep things in sequence there are some things to point out. Foy Short, a good friend of ours, had recently returned from an extended period in the States and had been thoroughly indoctrinated by his brother-in-law to accept wholeheartedly the ultra-conservative teaching of that branch of the Lord's church. He managed to convince most of our members as well, so Queens Park Church became an "anti" congregation. Foy was very impressed with Mel's intelligence and persuaded him and Paddy Kendall-Ball to move to Gwelo for three years to study further. They moved us into an old house which had a large living room, which was to become our church hall. We and Paddy were to live in the rest of the house This actually happened just prior to Tim's entry into school, so he started there. We had let our house to a young couple while we were away.
    After we had been there a while I developed toothache and went to see a dentitst. He determined that I had an impacted wisdom tooth which would make an appearance, then go into hiding again—taking little bits of food with it which, naturally, rotted there. He said it needed to be extracted under a general anaesthetic which could only be done in Bulawayo. When he tried to arrange it he was informed that the dentist who could do it was very ill, and in fact, out of the country. I was in despair and said, "Please do it yourself under local injection!" He conferred with his partner and they agreed but, they said, "This will be extremely gruelling. You must expect that." I gave my consent, they cancelled all their appointments for the next day, and I arrived at the surgery at 11a.m.  They did deaden my jaw completely but the operation took four hours!!! When it was all over they asked,  "How do you feel?"  "I feel like crying." Then they said, "We do not know of a single man who would have been able to take such punishment!" Well, the tooth was gone but later that night as I got out of bed to go to the bathroom I found myself crawling around on the floor—but, when you got to go, you got to go, so I crawled to the bathroom. The next morning my jaw looked as if I had been in a major boxing match and when Foy came in he said, shocked, "What happened to you?"
     Another little thing happened when I was getting food ready one afternoon in the kitchen of the Gwelo house. Tim loved to watch me and was sitting on a chair beside the table. An egg fell out of my hand on to the floor and I said, "Oh! That makes me furious!" to which Tim said, "Yes, and very cross, too." And I burst out laughing. This little saying earned me some cash from Women's Weekly, a British women's magazine which published the story.