The authorities provided us with a small subsidy in cash and basic food. Our mothers, being predominantly country women, soon created vegetable gardens next to the house. Mum grew potatoes, carrots, cabbages and ground nuts. Also corn and pau-pau fruit trees plus a single banana. The corn had to be picked unripe because when ripe it was very hard. In time she also kept chickens. The local native market supplied lots of fruit and staples but our meagre finances didn't allow much buying.
In January of 1943, we had our first news of Dad. He was in the Polish Army stationed and training in Lebanon and had known of our arrival in Tehran since November of the previous year. This was a great boost to our wellbeing and soon we were in touch with him on a regular basis. I began school at the beginning of the year. It was of a high standard, slacking was not allowed and lack of achievement at the end of a school year meant staying in the same class year. It was not a happy existence for the next ten months.
12 R E C O L L E C T I O N S
Family Histories
KWIATKOWSKI Family
8/ Ugandan Land of the Bunyoro People
I woke up late morning without anyone else there and so, I went outside. There were three of these buildings in a line; at the end a fenced off area with animals. Mum stood in one of the groups chatting about our surroundings. Opposite a meadow of sparse brown grass stretched to an equally desiccated wood. A herd of cattle, grazing, came towards us.
About noon, still outside, I smelt smoke. Flames appeared in the wood heading towards us, panic set in as people began beating the approaching flames with sticks, broken branches and buckets of water. I was terrified, the fear of that fire remained with me a long while. We stayed there about two weeks before being moved to our permanent "home" in the fifth of eight small, interlinked, "villages". comprising the Polish settlement of Masindi in the Ugandan land of the Bunyoro people. [Ed. note: Bunyoro, a Bantu kingdom in Western Uganda. It was one of the most powerful kingdoms in Central and East Africa from the 13th century to the 19th century, ruled by the King of Bunyoro-Kitara]. Date of our arrival in the temporary quarters was Christmas Eve 1942. Our new home was grass thatched with a generous roof overhang that formed a sort of verandah around the building, protecting the clay walls from rain. The windows were without glass, only wooden shutters; doors "locked" with only a peg. Beds and tables were the only furniture. A paraffin lamp and anti mosquito nets for the beds plus a metal water bucket completed our possessions with what remained of our clothing. Water supply was from a standing tap in the street. Very much a basic living but free from starvation and fear of illness that threatened us in the Soviet Union. The settlement (almost 4,000 people at its peak) soon organised itself into a thriving community. The vast majority were women and children below eighteen, only a few elderly men and skeleton administrative staff. Yet, by mid 1943 a complete range of buildings began to be constructed; schools, workshops, hospital and, still in existence, a church.
Life for us children was a pleasure though interrupted by malaria too often for comfort. School lessons were six days a week, eight to twelve/one on alternate days. On Saturdays they always ended at twelve. Once home work was completed and the heat of early afternoon faded to bearable warmth, my friends and I roamed the nearby grassland and jungle. The worry this created for our parents or fear of wildlife never entered our heads. A kilometre from home in the jungle there was a stream where we built dams until the pressure of water carried the whole construction downstream. Above there were nests of wild bees, large pieces of decayed wax littered the ground. These African bees had a ferocious sting as I discovered when bees kept by a man in our street swarmed as he attempted to harvest honey. We built small huts deep in the four meter high elephant grass. There also, four of us had the first and last attempt at smoking. The tops of this grass housed hundreds of nesting birds. All sadly, destroyed at the annual burning of the bush.This took place between November and February of the following year. During these fires on a front of about a kilometre, the numerous termite towers would gush with black smoke and crimson flame without being completely destroyed. This was a nuisance for clothes hanging out to dry, but fun for us in chasing and knocking down the drifting flakes of burnt grass.
We were given a cat, the first of our pets in Africa, but it soon left us preferring a life in the bush. The next one, a she, was an affectionate companion of mine for the rest of our life in Africa. The years that followed our arrival in our eyes were a normal mixture of school, fun and the occasional illness. We didn't notice the lack of material goods.
War was an event far away, never did I think that Dad might get killed. Mum kept her worries bottled up. Life carried on in a settled pattern. The settlement was probably at its largest in 1944/45. All was seemingly the same with the ending of the war but by mid 1946 subtle changes began to be noticeable in daily gossip. Discussions about the future were common. All sorts of situations imagined without anything positively confirmed. Dad, still in Italy, hadn't heard anything certain either. How we were to be reunited as a family was unknown, especially to me and my friends of similar age.
Family Photo Gallery of Masindi Click photo to enlarge