Story Page

Do you have a story to tell about your life in Ndola...about your childhood, your family and friends your schooling days or any thing else.....

Send me yours and I will post it here!!!!

......by Ashok Merai

Going through the pictures it brought a flood of memories. I remember most of our teachers at Primary. We had JV Bhakta, then Mr O’Leary…then Vijay Patel, then Dipak Patel…..also Mrs Sangera. I was close friends with Mahesh Parmar, who was our neighbour on Luangwa Close (near the Hospital). I still keep in touch with him. He visited me in Barbados a few years ago + last year when he was involved with the Cricket World Cup.

When we were kids I used to spend a lot of time by the railway station area….because we had a shop opposite. We used to go cycling around that area…and sometimes as far as the “Lime Lake”. Boy those were the days. In Kansenshi, it was great. We had a good time. There was Manoj Amin, Paresh Bhakta, Kirit Patel, Sabir Kathoria, Gilbert Stephenson, Harry Mwamba….and others in my class. As for the teachers, we had Mrs Jones in Form 1, the Sister Charlotte in Grade 2, Form 3 ??? , Mr Bedi in Form 4 + 5. Not to forget….Mrs Durai….Mr Owen….Mrs Gregory…Mr D’Mello (Deputy) and Chokani. In 1975, Govt introduced National Service for all Zambian school leavers. Many of our classmates left for London. In the end, only four of us Indian boys ended up in the Ndola Camp – Paresh Bhakta, Farouk Shaik, Rajendra Patel + myself. That all turned out well in the end. I also graduated with the Joint “Dux of School” honors with Paresh for the best result at O levels. Our names are still on the Kansenshi board. I loved my cycle rides to school four times a day….with our group comprising of Mahesh Parmar, Bharat Patel (Bhaji), Shabir Kathoria, Gilbert Stephenson……Kansenshi was a great school. I have many good memories of the place and some bad ones too.

........ by Wendy Vaubell - nee Mackenzie, lived in Dorset Road, Kensenji -

I lived in Ndola few several years back in 1960 to 1964 as a young child of 7 in 1960.

My parents were originally from Pretoria in South Africa, when they got married they decided to go to Zimbabwe - then Northern Rhodesia - hope I got that one right, so many changes to remember.

My father was a builder in South Africa, but went up to join the Railways as a telegraphist. He was posted to Salisbury but was a "floating" telegraphist. That meant which ever permanent telegraphist went on annual leave, my father would deputise for them. Then he got a post with the Zambian railways as a floating telegraphist so we moved from Salisbury to Ndola when I was 7. The very best years of my childhood were spent in Ndola. We lived in Kensenji and I went to the primary school with my 3 brothers. We had the most excellent time our our lives in Ndola as I said previously. The things that stand out in my mind were the public swimming pool, and a shop where my parents used to buy these most gorgeous crumpets the size of a dinner plate, for our lunch when they went home for lunch. We would then do our homework and after that we would go down to the river and swim there. We only went to the swimming baths over the weekends with our parents, but nearly every day you would find us children swimming in the river with a lot of the pikkinins, we had an absolute ball in those days. 2 of my brothers were sent to SA to boarding school and once they left, we couldn't go back to the river until the school holidays and I really missed that.

We left Ndola in 1964 to come back to South Africa, as my parents were worried during the troubling times there.

We had many friends there, as many South Africans seconded to Zambia, and virtually our whole group of friends came down to South Africa at the same time in a convoy. It was a very exciting trip as we left Ndola on Christmas eve and arrived in SA on Christmas day.

It was very sad for us as children to leave our home and the friends who stayed behind. At the time we couldn't understand why our parents decided to return to SA, but in time we did.

I have never returned to Zambia, although I did go to Harare as my twin brother, living in Shabani, married a lady from Bulawayo, so my daughter and I attended the wedding together with my parents.

I have a cousin who runs a game lodge near the Vic Falls, who has invited me to visit, so one day, before it gets too late, I shall be visiting him and will want to travel around whilst I'm there. I suppose many things have changed and I more than likely won't recognise the place, but hope springs eternal.

Thank you for your website, I really felt very nostalgic when I saw all the buildings.

Regards

Wendy Vaubell - nee Mackenzie - 23 January 2008